This is the first episode of 'Maverick' I've seen with Roger Moore as Beau, and it's pretty good if not what I'd call a typical (as of the first two seasons) 'Maverick' There's a little bit of poker playing, but it's mostly Beau looking bemused for the first half, and turning the tables on a trio of people trying to make it seem like the title-named Kiz is a nutter.
Which seems a little unnecessary, as even Beau notes. He says that the people of Virginia would testify that Kiz is eccentric. And... she is. I suppose that wouldn't be enough to get Kiz committed, so the cousin and the doctor cooked up the scheme to make her look more... nuts. With the supposed murder attempts, and the mirror writing, and the dummy-on-the-balcony-gag.
So the first third of the episode is setting up that Kiz (a well-acted Kathleen Crowley, in her fifth appearance on the show, in her fourth of sixth different roles) is eccentric, and how Beau falls in with her. The second third is showing the attempts to make it look like she's insane. And the last third is Beau turning the tables on Kiz's tormentors and rescuing her from the inevitable fallout.
The "Have Kiz Commited" plot unfolds pretty much off-camera, although I suppose there's not much they could do with a court cancellation. Beau doesn't do much to rescue Kiz, which might be the point. She sets the barn hay on fire, and escapes on her own. I do like the last bit, where Beau offers Kiz a ride to follow a passing fire wagon, which is one of Kiz's eccentricities. Both Moore and Crowley give good "insanity" with the demented look in their eyes as they ride off.
Although he doesn't contribute much, the presence of "Clemen Samuels" is amusing. It's one of the show's nod at historical reality that doesn't involve a famous gunfighter (I'm looking at you, Gerald Mohr's Doc Holliday). Whit Bissell has never been the greatest actor in my book, but he's above-average here as basically a younger Samuel Clements aka Mark Twain.
It's a fictionalized account of Twain, since as far as I can the writer was never a sketch artist and he never worked as a high-society reporter in Virginia City. But Samuels' presence does liven up the show a bit, and Beau even calls him "Brother Samuels". I don't recall the sobriquet ever being applied to anyone other than Bart and Bret (and Bart also gets a nod when Beau passes a fancy suit in a store window), but it seems appropriate when applies to Clemens.
Speaking of the window shop, it's a highly suspect coincidence that Beau just happens to pass the window, that just happens to be displaying the suit, that just happens to be the one that the crooked fiancée puts on the dummy he used to try and fool Kiz. And why does the dummy have to be wearing a fancy suit? But the coincidence is easily overlooked since the script doesn't make a big deal out of it.
Overall, "Kiz" is a decent episode. It's very... British/genteel, thus my review title. Even Bret engaged in a little fisticuffs from time to time, but Roger Moore makes an amiable Bret replacement since Garner had left the show. There's nothing bad about the episode, except for the fact it's rather generic. One could imagine Moore as Simon Templar going through the same paces a few years later. But hey, Moore stuck with what he's good at it.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
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