BEING SORT OF a mildly satisfying episode of this Golden Age of the TV Western, GUATEMALA CITY marks a sort of departure from the series usual fare. As a weekly segment of what was the third season of what would prove to be a 5 season run on ABC Television, perhaps the ideas were getting to be a little stale. The answer was to dust off an unused Detective Story script; remodeling it for the Old West setting of the ".....Living on Jacks and Queens...." world of the Maverick boys.
BECAUSE THE PRINT of the series' episodes that are shown on one of the local Rerun TV Series channels are sans opening and closings, there are no credits; other than "Starring James Garner as Brett Maverick." This did put us to a great disadvantage and tested our skills in recognition of supporting players.
AS A RESULT of this surgically altered print, we were left to guess about the identity of the actor portraying the Sea Captain. Who we thought to be Donald Crisp (albeit a rather shorter version) turned out to be one Welsh born thespian named Tudor Owen (1898-1979). Even worse was our failure to recognize Patric Knowles (1911-1995), leading man of the late 1930's & '40's as protagonist, Sam Bishop!
(WELL, FRIEND SCHULTZ, we sure didn't think him to be Sebastian Cabot!)
THE STORY WAS a mixture of stolen jewels, murder, mistaken identity and Brett's being in love with some mysterious Lady. Added to the mix was the presence of a group of Dickensian street urchins. Of course, instead of London, the setting was in Spanish speaking Central America. Heading up the group, rather than a 'Fagin' character, was a 15 year old girl (Angelita). She proved to have a Heart of Gold and won the sympathy of Brett.
MUCH IN THE same tradition of the MAVERICK Series, there is a mixture of straight story line with action and a most satisfying brand of humour. In this episode, the humor seems to be in rather short supply; but that would appear to have had its compensation with the inclusion of a great comical ending.
ALWAYS LEAVE 'EM laughing is a platitude that would serve any of you Hollywood Big Shots well in remembering. Isn't that right, Schultz!
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