User Reviews

"Game Of Chance" is about pearls. Bart meets a Countess while bidding on a horse. Over dinner, her pearls fall in the floor, and he helps her pick them up. He has them restrung. The jeweler offers him $40,000. Bart loans the Countess $10,000 with the pearls as collateral. The Countess and her uncle are con artists and disappear. The pearls she gave Bart are imitations. Bart calls on brother Bret to help him recover his money. They find the Countess, and she tries to pull the same trick on Bret. The women in Maverick are connivers and will do anything for money. Things get complicated, but the brothers manage to get Bart's money back. I am generally not drawn to the episodes involving European aristocrats, but the the ones featuring both brothers are always interesting. James Garner and Jack Kelly worked well together.

This is my second favorite episode of the second season after "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres". It is very similar in style and it also stars both Bret and Bart together. It has a clever yet simple plot of Bart being taken in by two phony aristocratic con-artists. He enlists Bret's help in out-conning them.

The episode features a great performance by Roxanne Berard as La Contesse De Barot. She manages to seduce and con both of the brothers.

The fact that she actually speaks French (with English subtitles) adds a nice touch of authenticity to her role, as opposed to the numerous guess star actresses putting on French or Spanish accents in their roles. She is adorable and it is easy to see why she was called television's answer to Audrey Hepburn. It is too bad there was never an episode with La Contesse de Barot and Samantha Crawford. Together, I think they could have tricked Bart and Bret into doing anything.

Bart Maverick's travels bring him to Denver where he gets involved with a father and daughter pair of impoverished French nobility Marcel Dalio and Roxanna Berard. These two peddle a valuable necklace to Jack Kelly and then promptly pull a fast shuffle with one of paste.

Only one thing to do when a Maverick is taken, call for the brother for assistance. James Garner's willing to help, but his help isn't without price. And there's a third party played by Lou Krugman, a man who has heard of the necklace and will take it from whomever even if he has to kill to do it.

All are happy except Krugman when this is over and the Mavericks might be going into a new line of work.

Nice ensemble performances all around.