Alias Smith & Jones

by Sandra K. Sagala

  At the villa, Curry already acts the part of a newlywed husband, berating his “bride” for the way she acted around the alcalde. She must pretend to be a married woman or they can’t hide out there.

  That evening at dinner, the alcalde wonders that Mr. Smith is so young to be retired from banking and railroads. Smith explains they’re really speculators who are taking a year off. Curry chimes in with how much they love the town and Clem, watching the alcalde, agrees that the town is so handsome, er, beautiful.

  Back at the villa, Curry once again scolds Clem for her behavior toward the alcalde. He doesn’t like the way it makes him feel, like a…lost for words, he looks to Heyes. “Husband,” Heyes supplies. Clem apologizes again; she can’t help herself. The alcalde is just so charming.

  One day while Clementine is on her way to town in a buggy, a sudden gust of wind spooks her horse. She is unable to control him as he bolts. The alcalde, on the way out to the villa, spots the runaway and manages to stop the horse. Grateful, she allows him to drive her back home.

  While Clem is gone, Heyes and Curry search her room for the photograph of them. She returns to find them hard at it. They emphasize how important it is that the photo not get into the hands of a lawman, but seeing her disappointment in them, Heyes promises they won’t ever think of it again. Clem fibs, it’s where it belongs, in her safe deposit box in Denver.

  A little later, she seals the photograph in an envelope and heads back to town. At the alcalde’s office, she asks him to put the envelope in his safe. Before she leaves, Clem admits she’s never met anyone like him before. He echoes her feelings and they kiss. Breaking away from her, the alcalde is remorseful but Clem insists it’s her fault for acting “unwifely.” When he calls her warm and womanly and honest, Clem refutes that she’s honest and leaves, teary-eyed. She returns to the villa and admits to Heyes and Curry what she’s done. The alcalde kissed her and she kissed him back. Curry is flummoxed. What does he do now — challenge him to a duel? Clementine insists they have to leave Santa Marta; she can’t stay there feeling as she does about Ramon, the alcalde.

  Meanwhile, Ted Thompson has been on their trail and finally arrives in Santa Marta. A friendly Mexican points him in the direction of the Carruthers’s hacienda where the gringos are staying. He arrives in the middle of the argument and catches the boys without their guns handy, then takes the three of them to jail. When the alcalde arrives, Ted shows him arrest warrants on Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry for bank and train robbery. Clementine Hale is wanted for aiding and abetting. Clem admits to Ted’s claim that she’s not married but agreed to pose as Mrs. Jones in public. Despite Ted’s protests the alcalde orders her released.

  Over dinner, the alcalde admits his confusion. Clementine didn’t act like a wife, though she clearly liked Mr. Jones. She loves both of them, she says, they are like family. Clem argues for their release. Prisons are supposed to reform people but Heyes and Curry have already reformed. Governor Warren even promised them an amnesty.

  The alcalde is torn. He cannot let them go and break his solemn vow to uphold the laws of Santa Marta.

  Early the next morning, Ted Thompson demands to see his prisoners. When he’s let into the jail, he discovers an empty cell and accuses the acalde of letting them escape.

  Outside of Santa Marta, Heyes and Curry hail a passing stagecoach whose lone passenger is Clementine. She tells them the alcalde showed up at the villa and told her he had to pay a penance. Though he didn’t say it in so many words, it was that he had to give her up. Heyes and Curry exchange glances, then divulged that the alcalde made each of them contribute $2,000 for a new school before he let them go.

  About the photograph they promised not to bring up…As they board the train with Clementine, they vow to forget about it for good, but Curry entreats Clem not to lose it.

  Clem has gone back to Denver and the boys are finally alone again. Heyes suggests he and Curry pull one more robbery — stealing the photo from Clem’s safe deposit box. Curry wants no part of it, saying he’ll be in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Besides, he still thinks the missing ingredient is Heyes’s brains.

  GUEST CAST

  SALLY FIELD — CLEMENTINE HALE

  ALEJANDRO REY — ALCALDE RAMON CORDOBA

  RAMON BIERI — TED THOMPSON

  MILLS WATSON — CHESTER

  JOE HAWORTH — TAD

  CODY BEAR — PAW INDIAN

  WALT DAVIS — CLERK

  DAVE MORICK — CLERK

  JESS FRANCO — GUARD

  REF SANCHEZ — STABLE KEEPER

  JERRY BROWN — STAGECOACH DRIVER

  If Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry are loosely based on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, then Clementine Hale can claim Etta Place as her fore-mother. Even more directly, “Clementine Hale” was originally a character in Huggins’s The Young Country. As Huggins admitted, “I was stealing from myself.” [19] Both women are single and live alone. Butch and Sundance come by to invite Etta along to Bolivia; Heyes and Curry hope Clem will accompany them to Mexico. Clem does not have the discouraging “bottom of the pit” outlook of being twenty-six, single, and a schoolteacher as Etta; she seems perfectly happy in her chosen life. However, both women jump at the chance for a new adventure and agree to accompany their two handsome companions. In the end, both women go off leaving their menfolk to carry on and have continuing adventures. In 1959 novelist Frederick Woods observed that in westerns “Time after time, one can detach the females without endangering the structure of the main plot,” [20] an unfortunate truism.

  Even William Goldman, who gave Etta Place life in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, observed that “Girls are a drag in Westerns.” Seeing as how Etta was a necessary part of the story, though, he solved the dilemma of how to deal with her by making her a surprising character. [21] Huggins did the same for Clementine. She never shows up unless she has a scheme in which to embroil Heyes and Curry and Huggins felt that Sally Field “was so good that you knew here was a real star. She had whatever it is that makes a star — which is something indefinable. It’s just there…[I] realized how good she was, so then I brought her back.” [22]

  Both Etta and Clementine represent a new breed of western women. On their own in the West, they are neither prostitutes nor dance hall girls, nor prim married ladies. If the men’s attraction to them is self-serving, perhaps turn-about is fair play.

  Gloryette Clark, the teleplay writer, managed to mix and match that connection to real history with references to Alias Smith and Jones’s history. Since all turned out well in “Miracle at Santa Marta” when Curry was accused of murdering Mr. Hanley, the race horse owner, they have no qualms about returning. They have the money to take a year off in the beautiful Mexican town because they’ve been paid by Big Mac McCreedy for resolving his and Armendariz’s land dispute. Clementine suspects the boys have only come to retrieve the photograph of the three of them. They learned that she has it in “Dreadful Sorry, Clementine,” when she used it to blackmail them into helping her scam Winford Fletcher. When Ted Thompson and his club turn up at Clem’s, Heyes reminds him that, according to the newspapers, in Red Gap they got away with the biggest robbery west of the Mississippi.

  The only confusing continuity point is the new actor playing the alcalde. Jo Swerling remembers that they first cast Nico Mindardos as the Mexican mayor in “Miracle at Santa Marta.” Because they felt the episode was “one of the best last season,” they devised a sequel. [23] The script for “The Clementine Ingredient” sent the boys back to the Mexican town, and Swerling and Huggins cast Minardos again. But in the intervening year, two organizations had been formed as a sort of watchdog for Latino actors — Nosotros and Justicia O Muerte. When the head of Justicia learned that Minardos would reprise the role, he protested a Greek actor playing a Mexican mayor. He thought Universal was disrespecting the Latino community and promised that, if the part were not recast, he would lead a demonstration to disrupt the Universal Studios tour center. Roy Huggins took offense a
nd phoned the man to refute his charges. Huggins clarified that he wanted to be conscientious about the Latino community because his wife was Latina and mentioned a dozen other Latinos he had hired. The director of Justicia would not be pacified, discarding each name for trivial reasons — “She’s a lousy actress,” “We don’t like him anymore,” “She’s a Jew.”

  ABC’s hiring practices were also criticized by the Screen Actors Guild as “reverse discrimination.” SAG, holding that the Minardos affair “is part of a sensitive, overall picture,” demanded the network “clarify its policy and comply with genuine ‘fair employment.’ ” The bottom line of the whole harangue was that Universal caved in to political pressure, paid Minardos off and hired Alejandro Rey to play the part. [24]

  Bushwhack!

  “The day I can’t outshoot anyone and everybody on that list, especially Hannibal Heyes, I’ll go east and become a preacher.”

  Kid Curry

  STORY: JOHN THOMAS JAMES

  TELEPLAY: JOHN THOMAS JAMES AND DAVID MOESSINGER

  DIRECTOR: JACK ARNOLD

  SHOOTING DATES: AUGUST 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 1972

  ORIGINAL US AIR DATE: OCTOBER 21, 1972

  ORIGINAL UK AIR DATE: NOVEMBER 19, 1973

  Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry have been in Rock Springs too long. As Heyes packs their gear, Curry complains. It’s a quiet town, the sheriff doesn’t know them, no one has been unfriendly. Why leave? Heyes, long-suffering, lets him grumble until he runs out of steam, then calmly asks, “You ready, Kid?”

  After disappointing the hotel desk clerk by refusing to stay longer, Heyes and Curry ready their horses. Across the street Jake Horn hangs out, rolling a cigarette and watching the street traffic. The boys wonder if he’s watching them in particular. As they head out of town, Jake hurries over to where his partner Phil Westerly is waiting with their horses. They follow the boys.

  As Heyes and Curry meander toward Sweetwater, Jake and Phil gallop madly across country, eager to get ahead of them.

  From the other direction, Marty Alcott rides along. Seeing two horses tied up by the side of the road, he stops to investigate.

  From their hiding place among the rocks, Jake and Phil watch Heyes and Curry approach. They’re nervous but ready to bushwhack the boys, planning to shoot them in the back to avoid any chance of them returning fire.

  Marty steps up behind them. “Hey, Phil, Jake…” he says and shoots them both when they turn in surprise. He then hurriedly fires each of their guns into the air.

  Heyes and Curry draw their guns, trying to see where the attack is coming from and take cover. Marty hails them from atop the rocks, assuring them it’s safe. He’s taken care of the bushwhackers. Cautiously the boys join him.

  They gaze at the bodies as Marty explains they were Stockgrowers Association detectives who had recently been fired. Marty saw them about to bushwhack the boys and when he told them to freeze, they started shooting. He had to kill them.

  Curry looks skeptical, but doesn’t argue.

  Heyes and Curry thank Marty, who offers to let them buy him a drink in Rock Springs after they report this incident to the sheriff. The boys exchange dismayed glances, then regretfully refuse to return to town. The sheriff will want to know why Jake and Phil were trying to bushwhack them and they don’t have a good answer. Shrugging, Marty accepts their decision and invites them to his ranch for supper.

  Marty’s wife Ellie is on the porch to greet them. As they enter the house, Marty pulls his gun and orders her to disarm their guests. Surprised, Ellie complies as Curry asks, “You do this for all your supper guests?” He needs the boys to back up his story because it’s too well-known that he hated Jake Horn and Phil Westerly. The sheriff might not believe him without witnesses. He saved their skins, now they’ve got to save his.

  Heyes and Curry retreat to the bedroom to talk it over. Only one of them will need to go back to town, so they flip a coin. For once, Curry wins. Heyes will go to the sheriff with Marty.

  Marty’s partner, Cress Truett, bursts into the house and shoves a newspaper at him. The Livestock Commission has empowered inspectors to seize all cattle shipped by men known to be rustlers and impound the money from the sale of the cattle until the shipper can prove ownership. Ellie is indignant, but surely that law doesn’t apply to them, as Marty and Cress aren’t rustlers. Marty points out that to the Wyoming Stockgrowers Association anyone with less than three hundred head of cattle is a rustler. By the time some court decides the Commission’s actions are illegal, Marty and Cress will be ruined. As the ranchers sink into an angry, despairing silence, Heyes speaks up. “If it will make you feel any better, I’m going back into Rock Springs with you.” But Marty has a new plan. If they’ll help him cut his cattle out of the upcoming roundup and drive them to Montana, he’ll let them off the hook and pay them $200 each. The boys agree.

  The roundup begins. After the animals have been herded together, Marty announces to foreman Mike McCloskey that he’ll be cutting his cattle out. McCloskey objects. It’s against the Association’s rules. Marty angrily insists they’re his cattle and no one can force him to sell them this year. McCloskey sizes up Heyes and Curry, deciding they’re hired guns. Again he cites the rules, adding that his men will back him up. The two stock inspectors are ready to follow his orders, but the rest of the cowboys are not so eager. Marty challenges the foreman to settle things with guns right now or else leave them alone. McCloskey orders the stock inspectors to arrest them and they reach for their guns, but Curry’s fast draw stops them. Marty, Cress and the boys ride off. McCloskey sends Pete, one of the inspectors, to inform Teshmacher, a WSGA cattleman.

  Heyes, Curry, Marty and Cress watch Pete gallop away, wondering if they’ll be able to cut all of Marty’s cattle out of the herd before he gets back.

  They round up the cattle and start moving them north. Ellie joins them on the trail, bringing provisions. Cress is upset that Marty has allowed her to come, feeling she’d be safer at home, but Marty declares it’s a family decision. Heyes and Curry worry about how long it will be until the Association sends more inspectors after them.

  Pete arrives in Rock Springs, relaying the news of Marty’s actions to Sheriff Wiggins and Teshmacher, who is astonished that four men were able to take over the roundup. He’s determined they won’t make it to Montana. Sheriff Wiggins is eager to speak to Marty as well. He’s found the bodies of Horn and Westerly.

  The next day Ellie tries to smooth things over with Cress while Marty tries to get Smith and Jones to reveal their real names. He figures they must be outlaws since they didn’t want to talk to the sheriff.

  In Rock Springs, five stock detectives get their orders from Teshmacher. They hook up with McCloskey, who’s disgusted there are so few of them.

  Young Alonzo, Marty’s neighbor, rides up to warn him he’s in big trouble and the sheriff is looking for him. Cress urges the boy to hurry home before all hell breaks loose.

  The drive continues. That night when Marty wakes Heyes and Curry to take their turn on watch, he insists he has to change the deal. One of them will have to go to the sheriff with him after all. He confides that Ellie is pregnant, so he can’t run or risk being hanged. They’ve got to clear him.

  Heyes and Curry discuss it privately. They had already decided by the legal flip of a coin that Heyes would accompany Marty, but now Heyes wants to flip again. He loses and once again he will be the one visiting the sheriff.

  In the morning Marty announces that if they push the cattle they’ll reach Montana that day. A sudden shot rings out and he pitches out of his saddle. The stock detectives have caught up with them. Cress, Heyes and Curry return fire as Ellie tends to Marty. The battle is fierce.

  Heyes is hit in the temple and he falls to the ground, blood flowing down his face. Fearing his friend is dead, Curry is overcome with cold anger. He grabs Heyes’s gun, then Marty’s. Ordering Cress to keep him covered, Curry races off in a suicidal assault on their attackers. He fires each of the three
guns he carries until they’re empty, wounding two of McCloskey’s men. He dives behind a rock to reload, then continues his barrage until McCloskey’s men retreat. Curry watches them go, firing into the air to hurry them along.

  Heyes pulls himself up, joining Cress in watching Curry. Cress is awed by the sight. “You should see him when he really gets mad,” offers Heyes.

  Curry returns, emotionally drained. He wipes the blood off Heyes’s forehead, noting that the wound is little more than a scratch. Still, Heyes should be more careful, he suggests. A half-inch to the right and the bullet would have gone through his head. Heyes prefers to look on the bright side — a half-inch to the left and it would have missed him completely.

  Ellie cries out for help. Marty has taken a turn for the worse. Cress prepares to dig for the bullet in his friend’s chest, but it’s too late. Marty dies.

  They bury him on the trail and continue the drive to Montana. Cress sells the cattle, then pays the boys. If they are ever in Wyoming again, they promise to look Ellie up, but she demands they return to Wyoming now. Her baby will be raised there and she won’t have folks claiming her child’s father murdered two men in cold blood. Heyes explains he was willing to risk a twenty-year prison sentence when Marty was alive because he owed him, but not anymore. Ellie insists he pay the debt.

  Curry draws Cress and Heyes aside for a private talk. When Curry fired Marty’s gun, he finally figured out what had been bothering him about Marty’s story. On the day of the attempted bushwhack, the boys heard two shots close together, then there was a pause followed by two more shots. The bushwhackers’ guns were Colt .45s, but the first two shots came from a .38, Marty’s gun. Marty didn’t kill Horn and Westerly to save Heyes and Curry, he just killed them. Cress absorbs this news. He’ll talk to Ellie and assures them they won’t have to return to Wyoming.

  Before leaving town the boys talk to Cress again. How did he fix things with Ellie? First, Cress convinced her the two of them could tell Marty’s story to the sheriff themselves. Enough people saw Marty with the boys to make the sheriff believe them. Second, there won’t be any trouble with the baby’s name because it isn’t going to be Alcott, it’s going to be Truett. The boys wish him luck.