The posse continues its unrelenting pursuit.
The next morning, rifle shots awaken Heyes and Curry. Fearing the posse has found them, they peer out the window but instead spot Beth and Bridget target shooting at cans set up along a fence. Curry ambles out to join them. The girls confess they’re not good rifle shots and Curry admits the same. Bridget challenges him to a contest for ten cents a can. When Curry accepts, she efficiently hits ten cans out of ten. Duped, he digs deep in his pocket for one dollar, but advises them to try finesse if they’re going to con someone.
When Beth asks about his skill with a handgun, Curry shrugs with self-deprecation. Believing his lack of confidence, they up the stakes to twenty cents a can. Curry whips out his revolver and fires off six quick shots. Six cans fly off the fence. Chagrined, the girls return his dollar and he reminds them that they owe him twenty cents. Heyes, watching from the bunkhouse door, simply chuckles.
The boys mend fences until Beth and Bridget bring them a picnic lunch. Both girls are clearly infatuated with the handsome cowboys.
The posse snakes through the hills and finally arrives at the Jordans’ homestead. The next morning, the sheriff hides his men in strategic locations surrounding the cabin.
At breakfast, the Jordans and Heyes and Curry are startled at the sheriff’s call. Belle goes out on the front porch and Sheriff Morrison of Diablo Wells informs her that he knows two outlaws are inside. Belle is confused as to which two outlaws and the sheriff identifies them as Heyes and Curry.
Hearing this, Jesse Jordan and the girls stare incredulously at their guests. Belle asks the sheriff to wait while she talks it over with her husband. Jesse sees no option but to turn them over to the lawmen. Heyes suggests that the Jordans turn them in at Buckton for the reward. After many protests, the Jordans reluctantly agree. When informed of the turn of events, the angry sheriff demands to enter the cabin to reassure himself that the outlaws are not holding the family hostage.
He finds Heyes and Curry bound to chairs. Heyes wants to know, and is gratified to learn, that there was indeed a good Apache tracker in the posse. Morrison insists on starting for Buckton immediately. He and his deputy will accompany them just for the pleasure of seeing Heyes and Curry locked up.
Belle sits on the buckboard alongside the deputy. Heyes and Curry ride in the back of the wagon, with the sheriff following on horseback. Along the road, gunfire startles the sheriff’s horse, knocking him to the ground. Another shot sends the deputy’s hat flying. Heyes and Curry escape while rifle shots pin down the lawmen. After untying each other’s bonds, they run for the deputy’s horse and escape. Sheriff Morrison, expecting to find the Devil’s Hole Gang, circles around the shooters and discovers Beth and Bridget Jordan.
Safely ensconced in an empty railroad car, Heyes and Curry ponder the situation they’ve left behind. Curry wonders if they ought to return and do something about it. Heyes says no, they ought to hide out for a month, get a stake together, and then return. What could happen? They won’t hang the little girls.
At a distant town, the partners play poker and rake in a sizable amount, then return to the Jordans’ place. Though they arrive in the middle of the night, the family welcomes them back. Belle and the girls were arrested for aiding and abetting the fugitives, hindering the sheriff from doing his duty, and attempted murder. Despite the severity of the charges, Belle hopes to get only a few months jail time and believes the girls will be freed. She’s willing to risk it to save the boys twenty years in prison.
At their trial, the prosecutor entreats the jury to convict Belle and her daughters of conspiracy against the lawmen. He walks along the prisoner’s docket, pointing his finger at each in turn and proclaims them guilty — guilty — guilty. Then, relenting, he admits the impressionable young girls need not be dealt with as harshly as their mother.
While the jury deliberates, half the town awaits the decision in the saloon. In short order, the deputy announces that a verdict has been reached. At this, one drunken man shoots off his pistol in celebration and the deputy hauls him off to jail.
The jury foreman announces that Beth and Bridget are innocent because of their age but Mrs. Jordan is guilty. The judge sentences her to three years in prison. At this Kid Curry stands and Sheriff Morrison immediately identifies him. Having heard the sentence, Curry would like to testify and, though it’s a bit unusual, the judge re-opens the case. Curry swears that Belle was unaware of what her daughters were planning. Given that Curry has turned in himself in, the judge believes him. Belle is set free and the Kid is led to jail to await extradition to Wyoming.
When the Jordans arrive home, they find a note signed by Joshua and Thaddeus. They’ve left nearly $1,000 hidden in the cookie jar, which they’d come by “fairly honestly,” enough to get the family to Denver.
At the jail, Curry occupies the cell opposite that of the sleeping drunk. Deputies sit up with Curry and play checkers just outside his cell. They’re aware that he’d like to pull a trick on them, but Curry says his partner does all the tricks. At that, the drunk rises, pointing a pistol at the lawmen. He peels off his mustache and smiles. Curry identifies him for them — “my partner, Hannibal Heyes, who does the tricks.” They surrender the keys and Curry locks the deputies in the jail. As he mounts his horse, he wonders why Heyes looks so disgruntled. “I got rid of my mustache,” Heyes tells him, “Why don’t you get rid of yours?” Curry fingers his upper lip and promises to think about it.
GUEST CAST
VERA MILES — BELLE JORDAN
CHARLES H. GRAY — JESSE JORDAN
LISA EILBACHER — BRIDGET JORDAN
CINDY EILBACHER — BETH JORDAN
RICHARD X. SLATTERY — SHERIFF MORRISON
SIDNEY CLUTE — PROSECUTOR CLARK
BERT HOLLAND — D.A. LYONS
PETER BROCCO — JUDGE
RUSSELL GARLAND WIGGENS — HANK SMITHERS
When Belle Jordan introduces the girls and observes they’re growing up like wild animals and not ladies, teleplay writer Pat Fielder, in her first draft of July 6, has Kid Curry saying he understands, he’s got a kid sister who is also a tomboy. Roy Huggins wanted no misunderstanding on this point. Curry does not have a kid sister. “We are being very obscure about our boys’ family background.” [17] However, four episodes later, Huggins expounded on their background in “The Reformation of Harry Briscoe” with the revelation that they’re orphans. Much later, he allows them to talk even more about growing up and about how their parents died.
In Huggins’s original story, a condition which carries through all the rewrites is that the Jordan girls are very much taken with Heyes and Curry. Female viewers of the program were very much taken with Peter Duel and Ben Murphy as well. Photos and interviews with them were staples in teen magazines. Such photos showed a clean-shaven Ben; the mustache to which the amusing tag refers was a fake. Ben remembers his own “tended to be long and wispy and it took awhile to grow.” [18] The show, however, was not targeted for any specific demographics and this episode was not written to take advantage of teenage girls’ fondness for the show. Roy Huggins believed in creating a program he would enjoy watching and he “never gave any thought to the audience,” hoping instead that what he produced would appeal to a large number of people. He knew it was fruitless to speculate on what an audience would like because “most of the time you’ll be wrong.” [19]
When the girls “persuade Curry — or shame him” into demonstrating how good he is with his revolver, Huggins notes that neither of the boys “have really used rifles much in their lives” so they are not as good with a rifle as they are with a revolver. But they recognize in Beth and Bridget a little bit of the con men that they are themselves. In the first draft, Heyes, awakened by gunfire, goes out to shoot with the girls. Huggins corrected that — it’s Curry who has the talent of quick draw, not Heyes. It’s also an unwritten tenet that Curry is most in tune with children in the episodes. When the girls have helped them escape from Sheriff Morrison,
Curry considers that they ought to go back and see what kind of trouble the girls are in. Heyes doesn’t think they ought to do anything about it. “That’s a hell of an attitude to take,” Curry replies in Huggins’s story. [20]
When the posse arrives, the boys attempt to talk the Jordans into turning them in because they don’t want the posse to split the reward money. The Jordans refuse so they consider making a run for freedom. Belle is horrified; they might be shot down. Fielder has Curry reply, “Well, I guess I’d rather not live if it means seeing them split up the money.” Huggins took umbrage with this line. “Curry has suddenly become terribly noble — and he shouldn’t be. Heyes is not noble either.” [21] Huggins also wanted Fielder to add more “smart aleck” dialogue. Even when it’s in ordinary conversation, he wanted it “oblique and witty” in keeping with their view of life. This view of life also would include their not feeling guilty over how their intrusion into the family’s hospitality turned the Jordans’ lives upside down. If the story had kept to true frontier justice, the girls would have been sent to reform school at the least.
The song “Simple Gifts” that Heyes sings to entertain the Jordans was a work song written by Shaker Elder Joseph Brackett, Jr. in 1848.
’Tis the gift to be simple,
’Tis the gift to be free,
’Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
It will be in the valley of love and delight.
Refrain: When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed.
To turn, turn will be our delight,
’Til by turning, turning we come round right. [22]
The copyright of the song is over one hundred years old and has expired. Therefore it is in the public domain and can be used for free. Otherwise, the network would have had to pay royalties.
Peter Duel’s own dogs, Shoshone and Carroll, have a guest appearance in this episode. They bark and follow the scruffy drunk who celebrates the jury’s return. Apparently they weren’t too happy with the deputy’s rough handling of their master!
Something to Get Hung About
“I thought everyone played according to Hoyle.”
Kid Curry
STORY: JOHN THOMAS JAMES
TELEPLAY: NICHOLAS E. BAEHR AND JOHN THOMAS JAMES
DIRECTOR: JACK ARNOLD
SHOOTING DATES: AUGUST 26, 27, 30, 31, SEPTEMBER 1, 2, 1971
ORIGINAL US AIR DATE: OCTOBER 21, 1971
ORIGINAL UK AIR DATE: JANUARY 3, 1972
Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry relax on a hotel porch, apparently nothing on their minds beyond watching people go by. Jim Stokely ambles past and Curry nudges Heyes. Heyes tells him he’ll need an hour, then the two men leave the porch. Heyes mounts his horse while Curry follows Stokely into the saloon and joins him in a poker game.
Heyes calls on Mrs. Sarah Henderson, who at first denies that’s her name, but lets him in when he shows her a picture of herself.
Curry points out to a fellow player that it appears he’s going for a straight which, according to Hoyle, isn’t played in stud poker. The cowboy angrily accuses him of changing the rules in the middle of the game and pulls a gun. Stokely verifies that Jones is correct and has his own gun pointed at the cowboy’s belly under the table. Curry takes back his bet and, when the dealer deals the final card, the cowboy loses. Curry insists on buying Stokely a drink to thank him for his support.
Heyes has brought a letter to Mrs. Henderson. He and his friend were hired by her husband to find her and bring her back home, but only if she’s willing. Mrs. Henderson needs to think about it, so she asks Heyes to return the next day.
The next day Stokely finds Smith and Jones outside the hotel. He’s heard all about them from Mrs. Henderson and he’s going to stop Smith from keeping his appointment with her. When Heyes insists on letting the lady speak for herself, Stokely threatens them with a gun. Curry suggests they go to the barn and have a fast draw contest. If Curry beats Stokely, Smith goes to see Mrs. Henderson, and if he doesn’t, Smith won’t go. Stokely is amused, but agreeable.
At the barn Heyes sets two bottles on a fence rail, then calls “Ready…go!” Curry shoots the bottle before Stokely even has his gun out. Stokely’s eyes widen in disbelief.
Sarah Henderson is surprised to see Mr. Smith. She has decided not to return, but she’s written her husband a letter. Heyes tries to convince her to change her mind, but she’s adamant.
Back in town, Heyes relates his lack of success to his partner. They are joined by Stokely, gun in hand. He wants to see the letter, but Heyes refuses to hand it over. The sheriff, thinking Heyes and Curry are being held up, shoots the gun out of Stokely’s hand. The surprised trio stammers out excuses for the presence of the gun which the sheriff reluctantly accepts.
Heyes reasons that if Stokely was desperate to see the letter, perhaps there is a difference of opinion between him and Mrs. Henderson. Acknowledging that it isn’t gentlemanly to read the letter, they open it anyway. Sarah Henderson won’t believe her husband until he comes for her himself instead of sending messengers. Heyes mails the letter, but the boys continue following Stokely and Sarah.
In White River, New Mexico, Heyes and Curry receive a telegraph from Hank Henderson confirming they should stay on the couple’s trail. Heyes spends the evening reading Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain.
The next day Curry keeps a lookout for Stokely. When he spots him on the street, he hurries to meet him. Stokely is furious that they’ve followed him and demands to know if Smith is with Sarah. Curry promised Heyes a half hour, so when Stokely gets on his horse, Curry pulls him off. They strip off their gunbelts and vests and settle into a knock-down, drag-out fight.
Heyes visits Sarah, trying once more to convince her to return to her husband. She confides that he is a very loving man, unless he’s been drinking, which he does often. Can a man like that change? Heyes tells her that, from personal experience, he knows a man can want to change. Sarah smiles. Wanting to change is at least a beginning. She’ll go back.
Heyes returns to town and joins the crowd watching the fight. After a punch, Curry lands at his feet, asking with annoyance how long Heyes has been there. Stokely and Curry continue to take turns punching each other until finally Heyes puts an arm around Stokely’s shoulder, telling him he’s got a message to give him once he’s cleaned up.
In the hotel room, Heyes pulls his gun on Stokely. “Tie him up, Thaddeus,” he orders. Uncomprehending, and apologizing all the while, Curry ties Stokely to a chair and gags him. Mrs. Henderson will be leaving with them on the four o’clock train, but Curry will arrange for him to be freed.
Sarah and Hank Henderson have a tender reunion at their ranch. Mr. Henderson thanks the boys for a job well done and asks them to stay on for another week, just in case an enraged Stokely should return for Sarah.
Heyes and Curry enjoy a game of poker in the saloon when they are summoned to the sheriff’s office. Sheriff Lindstrom is a friendly fellow who promised Hank Henderson he’d look out for them. Curry notices their Wanted posters in a prominent position on the bulletin board. He signals Heyes and together they gently ease the sheriff around so his back is to the posters as he continues his effusive welcome to Amity City.
Back in their hotel room, Heyes reads, ignoring Curry rambling on about the soft job they have, being paid to do nothing.
The next night they are once again at the poker table when word comes that Hank Henderson has been murdered and his killer is being brought in. Heyes and Curry watch as Jim Stokely is led into jail.
The boys learn from the sheriff that Henderson was shot in the head with a shotgun. That doesn’t sound like something Stokely would do, so they ask to see him. Stokely denies the murder. He was trying to see Sarah, but never got close to her. Then he heard a shot and was captured by ranch hands. If they’ll get him out of jail, he’ll give them $1,500.
As the bo
ys leave the sheriff ’s office, Sarah enters and asks to see Stokely. She urges him to tell the truth and if he doesn’t, she will.
Heyes and Curry go to see the only lawyer in town, R.M Foster. Foster was Henderson’s lawyer and his friend, so he’s not interested in defending Stokely in court; he’d rather be prosecuting.
Once again Heyes reads while Curry theorizes aloud that Mrs. Henderson killed her husband so she could be a rich widow, free to marry Stokely. Heyes doesn’t think much of this idea, but his book has provided him with a plan to free Stokely. First they’ll go to see the friendly sheriff and steal the evidence…
Sheriff Lindstrom berates his deputy for allowing the murder weapon to be stolen and orders him to spread the word that the gun is missing. If it’s returned, no questions will be asked.
Heyes and Curry visit Foster again. Confirming that, if they retained Foster as their lawyer, anything they tell him will be privileged communication, Heyes and Curry admit they stole the rifle. They want to prove Stokely’s innocence through the new technology of fingerprints. Foster has never heard of fingerprints so Heyes enlightens him with information he’s learned from Life on the Mississippi. Their friend Harry Briscoe of the Bannerman Detective Agency is an expert in fingerprints and they’ve already telegraphed him to come to Amity City. Foster is intrigued, but wants to know why they’re telling him all this. If they can prove that Sarah, or someone else, killed Hank Henderson, then there’d be no reason why Foster couldn’t represent Stokely in court.
Leaving the lawyer’s office, Curry wonders whether anyone at the BDI really knows anything about fingerprints. “Not if they’re all like Harry Briscoe, they don’t,” Heyes laughs.
They aren’t sure their plan will work but they don’t have any other ideas, so they ride out of town until Foster overtakes them and orders them to drop their guns. He’s fascinated by their theories and, as their attorney, advises them to tell him where they hid the shotgun. The boys will take him there. Foster ties them up as Heyes wonders aloud if the fingerprints on the gun belong to Foster. Did Henderson catch him stealing from him?
Alias Smith & Jones: The Story of Two Pretty Good Bad Men Page 22