Alias Smith & Jones: The Story of Two Pretty Good Bad Men

by Sandra K. Sagala

  At the jail, Sheriff Lundy is amazed and wastes no time locking them up, his delight in stark contrast to Donovan’s gloom. The sheriff digs through his desk to find the forms for claiming the reward, but Donovan doesn’t want the money; instead it should go to the Sisters of Charity. Heyes and Curry look up in surprise. With one last shamed look at them, Donovan leaves.

  Sheriff Lundy regales the boys with his tale of how their capture will help him get re-elected. Eventually, with an admonishment to his deputy not to open the door for anyone but him, he goes home to bed.

  Later, Heyes and Curry are asleep when the sheriff knocks on the door. He says he couldn’t sleep so he’ll take over and the deputy can go home.

  As soon as his deputy is gone, Lundy opens the cell door and informs the boys they’re free to go. “How come?” Heyes asks suspiciously. Lundy refuses to give a reason and just urges them to leave. Heyes and Curry decline his offer, citing stories of outlaws offered an open door and then shot trying to escape.

  Lundy grows desperate. They’ve got to go. Nobody’s going to shoot them. Heyes closes the cell door, locking it and handing Lundy the key. Lundy begs them to go, insisting he doesn’t have to tell them why. “Then we don’t have go!” Curry retorts. Heyes challenges the sheriff to convince them there’s nothing to be scared of. Lundy can’t explain, but he returns their guns and offers to walk out the door with them. Finally, with the sheriff between them, they scope out the street. It’s deserted and quiet. Apologizing for doubting him, the boys hightail it out of town.

  The next morning, Heyes and Curry ponder the mystery as they ride. It makes them nervous.

  They arrive in Tombstone to find a cheering crowd gathered around a speaker’s platform as Bill Meade introduces the new territorial governor of Arizona — C. Meyer Zulick. The boys are astonished. As Zulick begins speaking, Donovan catches their eyes. He nods, flashing a brief smile, and they decide it’s time to quietly get out of Arizona.

  As Heyes and Curry ride out of Tombstone, these words scroll up the screen, “C. Meyer Zulick, who was under arrest in Mexico at the time he was appointed Governor of the Territory of Arizona, served from 1885 to 1889. Under him, ‘Doc’ Donovan became Deputy Marshal of the Territory. During his administration, the strongest criticism made against Governor Zulick was that he had…‘pardoned notorious outlaws….’ ”

  Curry feels it’s a mistake to leave Arizona now that they have a friend there, but Heyes thinks Zulick will be a better friend if they get out and stay out. With Arizona now out of bounds as well as Wyoming, Curry laments he feels like an outcast. Heyes begins to list all the places they can still go. By the time he reaches Outer Mongolia, Curry has had enough. “I know where we should go, Heyes,” Curry interrupts. “In two different directions!”

  GUEST CAST

  DAVID CANARY — M.T. “DOC” DONOVAN

  SORRELL BOOKE — CONRAD MEYER ZULICK

  SLIM PICKENS — SHERIFF LUNDY

  BERT SANTOS — LOPEZ

  JOHN KELLOGG — MEADE

  MIKE MIKLER — FALLON

  DENNIS RUCKER — DEPUTY

  NINETTE BRAVO — GIRL (DANCER)

  RICHARD GARCIA — MINER #1

  LUIS MORENO — MINER #2

  WALT DAVIS — PLAYER #1

  LAURIE FERRONE — SALVATION ARMY GIRL

  In this episode, Roy Huggins once again turned to his history books and pulled out a quirky fact to hang a story on — the incarceration of Conrad Meyer Zulick in Mexico. With this springboard, he created a story that could very well have been the way the rescue of Zulick really happened.

  Conrad Meyer Zulick was born June 3, 1838, in Easton, Pennsylvania. He became a lawyer, was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1860, then took an active part in Stephen Douglas’s presidential campaign against Abraham Lincoln. During the Civil War, Zulick served as adjutant to the 2nd Division of Colored Volunteers. After being discharged from the army, he formed the New Jersey and Sonora Mining Company, whose unpaid debts to the Mexican government led to his arrest in 1885.

  President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, took office on March 4, 1885, and demanded the resignation of the sitting governor of Arizona Territory, Republican Frederick Tritle. Cleveland sent M.T. Donovan to break Zulick out of the Mexican jail and sneak him back across the border, then on May 5, 1885, appointed Zulick as the seventh territorial governor of Arizona, the first Democrat to hold the office. During his administration Zulick was often criticized for his insistence on the humane treatment of American Indians. Although in the minority with this attitude, he was able to keep settlers from attacking the San Carlos Indian Reservation, thus avoiding bloodshed. He remained in office until 1889. [53]

  Huggins was always diligent about avoiding stereotypes in his treatment of Mexicans in Alias Smith and Jones. In telling the story to writer Nick Baehr, Huggins at one point explained, “Now we have a very suspenseful action sequence where our boys have to be terribly smart and where we don’t have to make the Mexicans stupid. We’re not going to see any lazy Mexicans lolling back with a bottle in their hand. If we see a Mexican he’s going to look like he’s got brains and he’s going to look clean and he’s going to look alert.” [54] In addition, the rescue had to be an action sequence, not any sort of con game. Huggins didn’t mind the boys out-fighting their adversaries, but he didn’t want them to outwit the miners.

  The miners are determined to hold Zulick until they’re paid, but are uncomfortable in the role of prison guards and hope the situation will soon end. However, as is usual in Alias Smith and Jones, the Spanish dialogue is not subtitled, so the poker-playing miner’s query about how long they’ll have to keep this up and Lopez’s response that they’ll continue until they get paid can only be guessed at by the English-speaking audience. Several times Donovan reiterates the miners’ rights to hold Zulick under Mexican law, and Zulick himself is reluctant to leave at first, insisting that he’s not being mistreated. Besides increasing the suspense, this has the added effect of letting the audience know the Mexicans are not the bad guys, despite their being the main obstacle our boys must overcome.

  The villain of the piece turns out to be Donovan. Having promised Meade he’d rescue Zulick, Donovan turned to Heyes and Curry for help, knowing that when the job was done he would hand them over to the law. He’s torn by his moral code, which demands that he turn them in despite the debt he owes them. Yet his sense of honor also requires that he abide by the deal he made. So he pays them the $600 he promised, but then marches them to the sheriff. Huggins wanted Donovan to be a complex character that would pull Heyes and Curry, as well as the audience, in different directions, sometimes seeming to be a friend and sometimes seeming to be a danger. Describing the scene where Donovan turns the boys in, Huggins said, “At this point our audience isn’t liking Doc very well for that. Then when he turns down the reward, when we learn he’s a poor man, and he gives the money to the Sisters of Charity — and looks at Heyes as he walks out and says, ‘That’s the price I’m paying’ — then we get character. It’s the best part of the script.” [55]

  Throughout the series, many people have been seduced by the $20,000 reward offered for the capture of Heyes and Curry. Some, such as Charlie Utley in “Stagecoach Seven,” have a change of heart and let the boys go. Others, like Curt Clitterhouse in “Jailbreak at Junction City,” are brought down by their own greed for the reward. Donovan is the only one to turn them in and refuse the reward. His insistence that he must pay a penance for his actions makes it all the more surprising that Heyes and Curry’s release from jail is later orchestrated by Donovan with the help of a grateful Governor Zulick. Donovan’s internal struggles between his moral code and his sense of justice are indeed the best part of the script.

  McGuffin

  “Do you ever get the feeling that nothing right is ever going to happen to us again?”

  Kid Curry

  STORY: JOHN THOMAS JAMES

  TELEPLAY: NICHOLAS E. BAEHR

  DIRECTOR: ALEX
ANDER SINGER

  SHOOTING DATES: OCTOBER 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 1972

  ORIGINAL US AIR DATE: DECEMBER 9, 1972

  ORIGINAL UK AIR DATE: APRIL 21, 1975

  Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry are riding along on their way to Dark Springs when they hear cries for help. On the other side of a hill, they find an older man propped against a tree. He claims to be a treasury agent and he’s been shot. It’s very important that the package in his saddlebags gets to town. He wants one of them to take it there and register in the hotel under his name, Tom McGuffin. The other one needs to go for a doctor. McGuffin will wait there because he can’t outrun the three counterfeiters on his trail.

  While Curry heads off to fetch a doctor, McGuffin tells Heyes an agent named Peterson will contact him. Heyes is to give him the package after verifying his identification.

  At the Dark Springs hotel, Heyes signs in.

  When Curry returns with Doc O’Connell, McGuffin is gone. Instead, three men approach with guns drawn, asking about the wounded man. Curry describes him and says his name was McGuffin. One of the men laughs at this originality because McGuffin usually calls himself “Smith” or “Jones.” When asked his name, Curry stammers “Hotchkiss.” The men warn Curry and Doc that McGuffin is a dangerous counterfeiter and send them on their way.

  Doc questions Jones about his name. Curry thought it wouldn’t be wise to own up to the name Jones after what the man said. The Doc sees his point.

  Back at the hotel, a young woman knocks on Heyes’s door. She claims to be McGuffin’s daughter and has been expecting her father. She wonders where he is, but Heyes can’t tell her anything because McGuffin is a treasury agent. She scoffs at this; McGuffin is not an agent for anybody. Heyes doesn’t know what to think now but fetches a chair for the woman. They’d better sit and talk about this.

  Curry arrives in town and registers at the hotel as Thaddeus Hotchkiss. Stopping in at Heyes’s room, he discovers his partner out cold on the floor. A cascade of water from the pitcher brings Heyes around. He tells Curry that McGuffin is a treasury agent and the girl, who claims to be his daughter, is a crook. Heyes had hidden the package he was to give to Peterson under the mattress and she stole it after she conked him on the head.

  Curry informs Heyes that McGuffin isn’t an agent. The three men following him told Curry that McGuffin is a counterfeiter who sometimes goes by “Smith” or “Jones.” The men said they were treasury agents. But Heyes wants to know who the girl is. “What girl?” Curry yells. They decide they are only innocent bystanders to the whole situation and head out of town riding hell bent for leather to Oak Flat where they send a telegram to Lom Trevors asking about news from the governor. A while later, a return telegram notifies them that the Treasury Department is looking for them in every state west of the Mississippi.

  Lom no longer considers himself their friend. They argue in heated whispers in front of the telegrapher. What should they do now? Go to Cheyenne and tell Lom they’re not involved? How can they prove it? McGuffin is probably dead and the girl a thousand miles away with the plates.

  Entering their hotel room, they find McGuffin propped up on the bed. He’s nervous and sick and pointing a gun at them demanding the plates. When Heyes tells him Peterson didn’t show, McGuffin assumes Heyes still has them. Heyes begins the tale of the girl who knocked on his door and then knocked him over the head. She said she was McGuffin’s daughter. Angry now, McGuffin identifies her as Counterfeit Kate, a big problem for the Treasury Department. Seeing their despondent looks, McGuffin assumes they’re in trouble now too.

  The plates were the finest ever made, done by a printer-publisher in Denver, bitter after being ruined by the mining companies. If they will help him get them back, he’ll see that they are cleared with the government. Peterson is the key. He’s a chemist who figured out how to bleach out $1 bills. Combined with the plates, the paper produces an undetectable forgery. Kate, who uses the alias Katherine Lewis, will also be trying to contact Peterson. If the boys will go to Forrest City, they can nab them both. McGuffin warns them about Kate — she’s an artiste at lying.

  Outside her house, they wait for Kate to return. Curry tries to understand the situation, questioning Heyes about McGuffin, the girl and the three men. They give her a few minutes after she rides up, then burst in on her. She’s waiting for Peterson and is amused to hear herself described as Counterfeit Kate. However, she is glad to hear news of her father, who is not named McGuffin but Gordon Lewis. Heyes says next she’ll say he was a Denver publisher. Startled, Kate wants to know how he knew that. McGuffin told him, Heyes answers. She insists his name isn’t McGuffin. She’s waiting for Peterson so she can turn him and the plates in together and keep her father from being prosecuted. Heyes and Curry demand she take them to the plates. She hid them about fifty miles from there.

  From his hiding place, Peterson watches as the three mount their horses and ride away.

  On the train, Peterson passes their seats and takes one further along in the coach. Kate claims to need the restroom but instead she meets Peterson by the open door at the end of the railroad car. She explains to him that the two men with her are treasury agents; she’s taking them to the plates and wants him to get her away from them. Peterson wants to see the plates first, then he’ll get her away from the two men. Kate acquiesces to his plan.

  Fifty miles later, they ride on horseback to a stream where the plates are buried under a pile of rocks. The boys strip off boots, socks and gun belts as they wade into the water and begin to dig. Couldn’t she have found an easier hiding place? “Like under the mattress?” she smirks.

  When they’ve unearthed the plates, Peterson shows up gun in hand. He orders all three of them to lie down, then ties their hands behind their backs. He leaves with the plates.

  Heyes, Curry and Kate struggle to free themselves. “It’s your turn to untie,” Curry tells Heyes, “I did it last time.”

  Back in town, the railroad ticket agent verifies that a man answering the description of Peterson bought a train ticket east. The man had inquired about the boat going from Centralia to New Orleans. With no more passenger trains till the next day, the trio hops a freight train. In Centralia they race for the steamboat ticket window.

  A very slow, thoughtful ticket agent confirms that a Harold Patterson bought tickets for the steamboat. After much more methodical thinking, he identifies Patterson enough that they’re certain it’s Peterson. They buy three tickets and run to the dock. The paddlewheel churns on the great riverboat and the gangplank is rolled away. They jump on board just in time.

  They plan to separate and look for the chemist, but Kate is exhausted. Heyes orders her to stay put while he and Curry search. Running along the decks, they look into the face of each male passenger. Peterson stands on the top deck smoking a cigar and whistling until Heyes and Curry each grab an arm as they come up beside him. Threatening to toss him overboard if he doesn’t come up with the plates, they lean him far enough over the rail to see the roiling water. They’re in his cabin, he says.

  Peterson had hidden them, where else but under the mattress. When the plates are not to be found, Heyes and Curry realize immediately that Kate got there first. They head out the door with Peterson close behind. He doesn’t get far before he sees two treasury agents and turns around, but they’ve already spotted him. Cornered, Peterson swings out over the rail but is hauled back onboard by the agents.

  Heyes and Curry search the boat for Kate. When she sees them coming for her, she steps over the deck rail and, without hesitation, jumps into the river. With no choice, the boys follow. All three swim for shore.

  Soaked and exhausted, they crawl onto the sandy bank. Curry checks Kate’s purse and finds it empty. The plates must have fallen out somewhere in the river. Now they have no way to prove they weren’t involved.

  Curry wants to know where all the crooks came from. Except for McGuffin, they haven’t run into one treasury agent. Kate reiterates once again that McGu
ffin’s name is really Lewis, he’s her father, and he’s not a treasury agent. But she is!

  Later, in the office of the Treasury, she tells them that she is on one special assignment. If she can turn in the plates, it will save her father from prosecution. With luck, she may be able to clear them too.

  The chief agent enters with Mr. Lewis/McGuffin. The chief is sorry, he tells Kate, but without the plates, her father will go to prison. That was the deal. Weeping, Kate embraces her father.

  The two agents who were on the boat enter the office to notify the chief that divers have found the plates. They saw where Kate jumped in. Laughing, Kate embraces her father.

  Outside in the street, Heyes and Curry make their goodbyes to Kate and McGuffin. “It’s not McGuffin,” he tells them, “it’s Lewis, Gordon Lewis.” If they’re ever in Denver, they should look him up.

  Later, riding along, Curry is worried. How do they know they’re really out of trouble with the Treasury Department? That’s easy for Heyes to answer. The chief agent told them so. How do they know he was really the chief agent? It said so on the door. But, Curry rebuts, anyone could paint letters on the door of an empty office. Heyes is exasperated and asks one question of Curry — how do they know they were ever in trouble with the Treasury Department?

  GUEST CAST

  DARLEEN CARR — KATE LEWIS

  CLARKE GORDON — TOM MCGUFFIN/GORDON LEWIS

  L.Q. JONES — PETERSON

  ALICE NUNN — HOTEL CLERK

  JACK MANNING — DR. O’CONNELL

  MORT MILLS — 1ST MAN

  WALTER BROOKE — CHIEF AGENT

  JACKIE COOGAN — PASSENGER AGENT

  ALLEN JOSEPH — TICKET AGENT

  CHUCK HICKS — CARSON

  MONTY LAIRD — TELEGRAPHER

  X BRANDS — ROBERTS

  According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first usage of the word McGuffin (or MacGuffin) was recorded in a lecture that filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock gave at Columbia University in March 1939. According to Hitchcock, the term “McGuffin” was coined by his friend, Scottish screenwriter Angus MacPhail, and means something that sets the film’s plot in motion. It is merely an excuse, a diversion. A Hitchcock scholar notes “the first tangible appearance of the McGuffin occurs in Hitchcock’s ‘chase’ films of the 1930s.” In those it might be a necklace, a kidnapped child or the top-secret plans of a new aircraft engine. The McGuffin became a key device in Hitchcock’s films working as a type of red herring: the false clue or the misdirection of the audience’s suspicions. [56]