Kathleen Crowley is Modesty Blaine in Maverick's final episode, aired April 22, 1962. Modesty tells Bart there has never been anyone else but him. She is engaged to railroad man Amos Skinner and wants Bart to help her out of it. When Bart is thrown out of town, he rides the train with Modesty, Diamond Jim Brady and Doc Holiday. There is also a safecracker on board, but Modesty manages to take the $100,000 from the safe. There is a bet on whether the train crosses the state line before midnight. Ed Robertson calls Kathleen Crowley a chameleon because of her number of roles. Jack Kelly said he found out Maverick had been canceled by reading it in the paper.
3 Reviews
It Was a Memorable Ride for the TV Western
dougdoepke27 December 2008
Final entry in the ground-breaking Maverick series is a worthy one, involving usual series types like high-powered businessmen, low-down connivers, and a Maverick in the middle. Bart is in the middle of a railroad wager that he'd better win or it's jail time big time. Of no help are those usual scheming associates that pass for friends, this time Modesty Blaine and Doc Holliday. Between them, they keep the money in question revolving around faster than a hooker in a hot-tub, and Bart's chances are looking dimmer and dimmer. The final shot of the three tricksters side-by-side, ambling warily down the tracks makes for an appropriate final frame.
Final season scripts were generally pretty good, sticking with the series strength of rival con- artists in place of rival gunplay and casual wisecracks in place of tiresome bravado. As I see it, the problem lay with the less subtle forms of comedic effect the directors (producers?) were now encouraging . There was simply no replacement for Garner's easy charm and casual humor that had come to define the show, and while the modestly talented Kelly tried gamely, he was simply overused by default during this last period. An even bigger problem was the featured players. In ongoing roles, Peter Breck and Mike Road, for example, do a lot of mugging to show that they're doing comedy, but are much too obvious and a far-cry from earlier adepts like Efrem Zimbalist and Richard Long. In fact, the momentum that carried the series at its peak from humorous asides into clever satire begins to cross the line from satire into plain silliness in too many of the final episodes. Unfortunately, coarse mugging has come to replace the trademark sly effects, even with the drolly amusing Kathleen Crowley. Likely, the series had come to a good stopping point.
Nonetheless, Maverick remains a milestone in the evolution of American TV, showing that even that most somber of genres, the adult Western, could be played cleverly for laughs and that an audience would respond. Just as importantly, the series gave us characters who succeeded through daring enterprise and quick wits instead of being the toughest or fastest guy in town which most of us are not. In fact, it showed there was another side to a 1950's frontier even more familiar than the Old West, the frontier of the lively imagination.
Final season scripts were generally pretty good, sticking with the series strength of rival con- artists in place of rival gunplay and casual wisecracks in place of tiresome bravado. As I see it, the problem lay with the less subtle forms of comedic effect the directors (producers?) were now encouraging . There was simply no replacement for Garner's easy charm and casual humor that had come to define the show, and while the modestly talented Kelly tried gamely, he was simply overused by default during this last period. An even bigger problem was the featured players. In ongoing roles, Peter Breck and Mike Road, for example, do a lot of mugging to show that they're doing comedy, but are much too obvious and a far-cry from earlier adepts like Efrem Zimbalist and Richard Long. In fact, the momentum that carried the series at its peak from humorous asides into clever satire begins to cross the line from satire into plain silliness in too many of the final episodes. Unfortunately, coarse mugging has come to replace the trademark sly effects, even with the drolly amusing Kathleen Crowley. Likely, the series had come to a good stopping point.
Nonetheless, Maverick remains a milestone in the evolution of American TV, showing that even that most somber of genres, the adult Western, could be played cleverly for laughs and that an audience would respond. Just as importantly, the series gave us characters who succeeded through daring enterprise and quick wits instead of being the toughest or fastest guy in town which most of us are not. In fact, it showed there was another side to a 1950's frontier even more familiar than the Old West, the frontier of the lively imagination.
con game final episode
sandcrab27730 December 2020
All the usual suspects are in this final episode except the main con man himself, james garner ... kathleen crowley plays her usual larcenous self trying to flim flam everyone out of 100,000 in cash at the expense of jack kelly and peter breck ... breck would move on to the role of nick barkley in "the big valley" adios maverick
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