Bart comes across a Harvard man working on a paper about cacti. He ends up impersonating him, which naturally leads to trouble. People keep getting thrown off the train. Nonetheless, cactus man arrives in time to save his father's company. He takes control of the train and pilots it to its destination. The conductor turns out not to have the ethics we thought he did. This is a typical Maverick episode, a mix of humor and western drama. It is the pervasive humor that set Maverick apart from other westerns of its era. Jack Kelly had all the charm in the world! He and Nita Talbot make a hot couple. Pappyism: "Love and love alone will send a man soaring into the depths."
4 Reviews
I know it's fiction, but ...
sovereignslave2 March 2016
I always enjoy older television programming .. probably my way of ignoring the realities of change, and Maverick is one of my favorites. However, in this episode I could not help but notice a small prop inaccuracy. The botanist in the opening completely misidentified the cactus on display in the desert; it's not a Pachycereus. Pachycereus, meaning thick torch, is a genus of various cacti all of which have a similar characteristic .. tall singular stem. Some variations could be referred to as a bush, but that is a stretch of the word's meaning, a thick straight growing stem that has what could resemble upward growing arms, such as the Pringlei variety. But none of them look even close to the Prickly Pear identified in this episode as a Pachycereus. Nevertheless, this episode is one of the more inventive story lines. Worth watching.
The Great Transition from the Fifties to the Sixties
jtaulard28 December 2022
The Pachycereus indeed is a tube shape, while the young 'cactitioner's' is closer to peickly pears. And Van Renssalear died close to a hundred years apres this rail merger issue.
That is what makes Maverick so much fun. The writers, directors, screen writers and so on just enjoy a level of literacy that is not (like today) self-referential or ironic) Plus, there is always a kind of humanity in these series, where the Maverick brothers, cousins, and Pappy are not interested in operating outside their range.
The two ladies are precursors to the damn 1960's temperament, the older extras are on their way out. In a few years, Bret would be out-driving gangsters out in Malibu to a wacka-wacka guitar.
If you happen to be an up and coming script/screen writer or even working at it, note how well they keep the action going, always manage to hang by the fingernails just ahead of the cigarette ads, how they make the bad guys unambiguous. Sorry, young philosophers and moralists: stories are stories and those which people endure or pay for are just a play of fun characters always getting out of jams, saving the girl, having excessive and improbably virtues, and of course, a dozen bouquets to the casting experts, the amazing supporting actors and extras, and the cruel accounting office that made these on a strict budget.
Binge watching has made it possible, in my dotage, to re-watch these old series. I am NOT distracted by the stagecoaches always passing the same road, even though one is in Texas, one in Colorado, etc.
And I am not offended by the bigoted scripts with their redskins, loud barely shaved Mexican peasants or arrogant Hidalgos. Or the constant admiration of the era's millionaires, the good-hearted dance hall girl, and all that. The writers always craft these characters in good taste, and set all this honestly in the fictional American West.
One point that bothers me in all Maverick episodes. EVERYONE wears hats indoors, EXCEPT in the super rich salons of the magnates.
That is what makes Maverick so much fun. The writers, directors, screen writers and so on just enjoy a level of literacy that is not (like today) self-referential or ironic) Plus, there is always a kind of humanity in these series, where the Maverick brothers, cousins, and Pappy are not interested in operating outside their range.
The two ladies are precursors to the damn 1960's temperament, the older extras are on their way out. In a few years, Bret would be out-driving gangsters out in Malibu to a wacka-wacka guitar.
If you happen to be an up and coming script/screen writer or even working at it, note how well they keep the action going, always manage to hang by the fingernails just ahead of the cigarette ads, how they make the bad guys unambiguous. Sorry, young philosophers and moralists: stories are stories and those which people endure or pay for are just a play of fun characters always getting out of jams, saving the girl, having excessive and improbably virtues, and of course, a dozen bouquets to the casting experts, the amazing supporting actors and extras, and the cruel accounting office that made these on a strict budget.
Binge watching has made it possible, in my dotage, to re-watch these old series. I am NOT distracted by the stagecoaches always passing the same road, even though one is in Texas, one in Colorado, etc.
And I am not offended by the bigoted scripts with their redskins, loud barely shaved Mexican peasants or arrogant Hidalgos. Or the constant admiration of the era's millionaires, the good-hearted dance hall girl, and all that. The writers always craft these characters in good taste, and set all this honestly in the fictional American West.
One point that bothers me in all Maverick episodes. EVERYONE wears hats indoors, EXCEPT in the super rich salons of the magnates.
Heir and botanist
bkoganbing19 September 2018
This Maverick episode has Jack Kelly running into Wynn Pearce on the desert who
has two goals at the moment. Getting to a railroad board of directors in St.Louis
on time to cast his vote against a hostile takeover against his father and getting
a rare cactus species back to develop and propagate.
For once it's not a woman who tricks a Maverick. Pearce says he wants to travel incognito and wants Bart to be him. Lots of poker money is offered so Jack Kelly agrees.
What he doesn't tell him is that folks are more hostile than usual and might want to kill him. Meanwhile as a baggage boy Pearce finds a bit of romance with Pippa Scott, daughter of tycoon Edgar Buchanan.
So Bart is dodging bullets and all manner of hostility while Pearce enjoys some nookie. As the Good Lord intended.
Do I have to say more?
For once it's not a woman who tricks a Maverick. Pearce says he wants to travel incognito and wants Bart to be him. Lots of poker money is offered so Jack Kelly agrees.
What he doesn't tell him is that folks are more hostile than usual and might want to kill him. Meanwhile as a baggage boy Pearce finds a bit of romance with Pippa Scott, daughter of tycoon Edgar Buchanan.
So Bart is dodging bullets and all manner of hostility while Pearce enjoys some nookie. As the Good Lord intended.
Do I have to say more?
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