"Maverick" Royal Four Flush (TV Episode 1959) Poster

(TV Series)

(1959)

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7/10
Blarney spouting rogue
bkoganbing10 September 2018
It's Virginia City that Bart Maverick hits, center of the Comstock Lode and home to a lot of rich gentleman who like to gamble. One of those is David Frankham a blarney spouting rogue who ran out on a $4000.00 IOU to Jack Kelly. Of course Kelly wants his money, but he's also intrigued with what he sees as an obvious con game that Frankham is pushing in regard to Comstock millionaire Arch Johnson with Roxanne Berard whom he's passing off as a countess.

The object is to get Berard hitched to Johnson. But Johnson also has a pair of kids Jimmy Baird and Roberta Shore who object to their stepmother to be.

Bart's problem is one of priorities. He hates seeing Frankham and Berard pulling what they're pulling, but he wants what's owed him first. Should he keep quiet or speak out?

Best scenes in the story is Bart being held prisoner by a pair of rustics played by veteran character actors Tom Fadden and Raymond Hatton. Frankham told these two yokels a tall tale to get their cooperation. Jack Kelly tells them an even taller tale to get them to set him free. Has to be seen.

I'd watch the episode for that alone.
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8/10
A Good Bart Episode
Gislef20 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
"Royal Four Flush" isn't a Western, unlike the last two Bart episodes I've seen. Which is good, as Westerns don't really play to the strengths of either Jack Kelly or the Maverick line. Here Bart is more of a conman, and Kelly gets to do some humor. I like his suckering the two hapless miners, Harry and Silvan. Arch Johnson is fairly amusing as the hayseed farmer Jack, who gets kinda suckered in by Bart, and David Frankham as Rory makes a decent nemesis.

Roxane Berard as the fake countess isn't bad either. She manages to make Liz's hell turn fairly convincing, and hay, who wouldn't like Jack, and the actors playing Jack's two kids are tolerable. I remember her as mostly as Rivka Shotness, the daughter of Nathan, on two episodes of 'Have Gun - Will Travel".

The bits where Bart runs rings around the two miners is actually funny. While he's pretending to be a U.S. Marshal, or the obvious bit of business where Harry tries to give Bart some coffee, but then Harry keeps backing away at the last minute, is obvious but humorous nonetheless.

It's season 3, so Jack Garner gets an opening credit but he had left the show at this time. One imagines ""Royal Flush Four" (I have no idea what the title is supposed to mean) was a remake of a Garner script. With Bart filling in for Bret, and Rory standing in for one of Bret's many recurring nemeses. Rory is a little more violent than, say, Dandy Jim, but I could see Big Mike in the part.

Overall, "Royal Flush Four" is the first "good" Bart episode that I've seen. It's more of a 'Maverick' episode than "Another Western", which is what the last couple of Bart episodes have been.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
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8/10
Royal Four Flush
jcolyer12298 February 2016
Swindlers and con artists! Virginia City is booming! No, it is not in Virginia. It is in Nevada. I was there in 1980. Bart recognizes the "countess" as a New Orleans card dealer, then convinces a couple of old coots that he is a Untied States marshal. "I arrest you in the name of the United States government!" LOL! Roberta Shore is Judy, trying to protect her father from people who want his money. I remember Shore from my movie magazines in those days. She was a cutie! A four-flush is a poker hand one card short of being a full flush. A four-flusher is a liar. If human nature is the way it is portrayed in nature, there is little hope for us. Pappyism: "Stay clear of weddings because one of them is liable to be your own." It was writer Marion Hargrove who came up with the idea of Pappy. Roy Huggins loved it. It provided a Maverick philosophy.
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