Alias Smith & Jones: The Story of Two Pretty Good Bad Men
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MAVERICK — Two Tickets to Ten Strike; Escape to Tampico; Shady Deal at Sunny Acres; Point Blank; The Savage Hills; Game of Chance
ALIAS SMITH AND JONES — Exit From Wickenburg; Journey from San Juan; Dreadful Sorry, Clementine; Everything Else You Can Steal; McGuffin; Don’t Get Mad, Get Even
In addition to entire stories being reworked, many small things that were first used in Maverick were used again in Alias Smith and Jones:
MAVERICK — The Quick and The Dead
ALIAS SMITH AND JONES — Pilot
This episode refers to characters named Shields and Kane and a town named Fort Griffin. In the Alias Smith and Jones pilot, the two bullies in the walk-off scene are named Shields and Kane, and Kane recognizes Kid Curry from when he saw him in Fort Griffin, “one jump ahead of the posse.” This Maverick episode was written by Douglas Heyes, who collaborated with Glen Larson on the Alias Smith and Jones pilot.
MAVERICK — Rope of Cards
ALIAS SMITH AND JONES — The McCreedy Bust; and others
This episode was the first to introduce the Five Pat Hands Trick, also known as Maverick Solitaire. In Maverick, Bret wins an acquittal for a man on trial for murder by using this trick to get the lone holdout on the jury to change his mind. In Alias Smith and Jones, Heyes uses this trick to get even with Big Mac after being taken by the Hoyle Rule.
MAVERICK — According To Hoyle
ALIAS SMITH AND JONES — The McCreedy Bust
Speaking of the Hoyle Rule, this episode hinges on Samantha Crawford’s knowledge of an obscure rule in Hoyle — that straights aren’t played in stud poker unless announced at the beginning of the game. Samantha beats Bret with a pair of nines; Big Mac beats Heyes with a pair of jacks.
MAVERICK — Rage For Vengeance
ALIAS SMITH AND JONES — The Biggest Game in The West; What’s In It for Mia?
This episode was the inspiration for two Alias Smith and Jones episodes and is a prime example of how Huggins’s “recycling” resulted in distinctly different stories from the same initial idea, in this case the combination of poker and counterfeit money.
MAVERICK — Point Blank
ALIAS SMITH AND JONES — Jailbreak at Junction City
Here Bret Maverick arrives in town broke and hungry. He uses the Belt Trick to win $5. The Belt Trick involves rolling up a belt and inviting the mark to stick a pencil through one of the loops so that the pencil is inside the belt when it’s unrolled. The trick is that if the belt is unrolled in the opposite direction from that in which it was rolled up, the pencil will always be outside the belt. In “Jailbreak At Junction City,” Heyes and Curry arrive in town broke and hungry. Heyes bets the bartender that he can stand an egg on end without cracking the shell. The trick to this is to use salt to provide enough stability to balance the egg. The Egg Trick earns Heyes and Curry $10.
MAVERICK — Comstock Conspiracy
ALIAS SMITH AND JONES — The McCreedy Bust
In this episode, John Bordeen bet Maverick that he could cut the Ace of Spades on the first try, then stabbed a knife through the deck. Maverick, however, had palmed the card and Bordeen lost the bet. Bordeen did not take it as well as Big Mac did when Heyes caught him out with the same trick.
MAVERICK — The Thirty-Ninth Star
ALIAS SMITH AND JONES — Never Trust an Honest Man
In this episode, Maverick picks up the wrong suitcase and finds himself in trouble with desperate politicians. Heyes picks up the wrong suitcase and the boys find themselves in trouble with a powerful railroad baron.
MAVERICK — Yellow River
ALIAS SMITH AND JONES — 21 Days to Tenstrike
Maverick joins a cattle drive in which two drovers are stabbed to death. Huggins took this idea and melded it with an episode of The Virginian called “50 Days to Moose Jaw,” creating a story of a lethal cattle drive on a deadline.
Besides “50 Days to Moose Jaw,” he recycled several other stories he created during his tenure as executive producer on The Virginian. While “John Thomas James” was his pseudonym of choice on Alias Smith and Jones, on The Virginian he alternated between “John Francis O’Mara” and “Thomas Fitzroy.”
THE VIRGINIAN — The Exiles; Vengeance is The Spur; Strangers at Sundown; Run Away Home
ALIAS SMITH AND JONES — Which Way to The OK Corral?; Return to Devil’s Hole; Stagecoach Seven; The Girl in Boxcar #3
Appendix B
Bloopers
Sometimes the hurried pace of production resulted in filming or editing errors.
PILOT
Wheat refers to “seven sorry lives of crime,” but there are only six outlaws.
Deputy Harker collects guns from the five outlaws at the poker table (the sixth was underground digging), but all six go to collect guns from Harker later, and get them.
Heyes and Curry leave Porterville in jackets, but when the posse is chasing them, they are riding in shirt sleeves.
When Harker stops in front of the door to the saloon, Heyes runs into the back of him.
When Heyes gets down to the saloon, he has bangs, then he doesn’t. When he’s talking to Wheat the bangs are back.
When Harker looks at his watch, it has regular numbers. The next time he checks, it has Roman numerals.
MCCREEDY BUST
There’s an electrical cord hanging behind Armandariz’s armoire.
Heyes’s hat and coat go on/off while he’s safe-cracking.
A microphone precedes them as they walk in the street after having left Blake in the bar. In the US version, the camera pulls back until you can see their feet along with the microphone, this is not in the BBC version.
Heyes lays out five cards across on the table, but in the next camera angle, there are six across.
Heyes and Curry are dusty and dirty in the saloon. When they leave, Heyes’s hat is clean.
EXIT FROM WICKENBURG
Mary says, “Good morning” when Curry is practicing his marksmanship in the alley. Later Heyes tells Curry to forget what he said “this afternoon.”
WRONG TRAIN TO BRIMSTONE
The conductor’s lantern was unlit, even though he signaled with it at night.
Heyes’s hat moves forward and backward on his head when he and Curry are locked in the baggage car.
They asked the man on the wagon about the stagecoach. He said it had already left but there was a train headed east at “8:00 tonight.” At 8:00 p.m. it should be dark or getting there. When they go to the train depot to buy tickets, it’s dark. When they follow Grant and Gaines into the washroom, it’s dark. When they come out of the washroom, the sun is shining, it looks like early morning.
There is an Out of Order sign on the privy. What part of a privy can be out of order?
THE GIRL IN BOXCAR #3
When Heyes is being slapped around, his hair gets suddenly combed.
THE GREAT SHELL GAME
In the scene where Sylvester, Heyes and Grace are at the club, Grace is wearing a cream lace dress with a hat. In the next scene, presumably after Dr. Sylvester has downed a few drinks, they are half-dragging him through the hotel corridor. She is in a completely different dress — red!
On the way to Texas, Grace mentions they will be in “Laredo” in the morning. But when the coach pulls up at the end of their journey, the driver says “El Paso, folks. Everybody out.”
RETURN TO DEVIL’S HOLE
Big Jim was told that Hamilton hit his head on the wall when he fell. He was standing in an open doorway and fell backwards.
When Heyes hits Jim, Jim is holding his glass of whisky. After Heyes has hit him, Heyes is holding the whisky and gives it back to Jim.
When Heyes first dumps a stack of money out of Clara’s bag, it appears to be about an inch thick. By the end of the scene, it looks to be about half that.
In the bunkhouse scene, when Heyes tries to tell the gang that Jim is quitting, in the mid-shots Hamilton is wearing a jacket. In his close-ups, he isn’t.
FISTFUL OF
DIAMONDS
In the last shot, there should have been about thirty-one stones — ten sent to TF Ayers and twenty-one to salt the diamond field with, instead there are only about fifteen.
STAGECOACH SEVEN
Heyes’s hair goes from messy to combed and back again.
Nine riders are on the hill ready to hold up the stage. Five of them are shown actually holding up the stage. Seven men ride off after the holdup. They are down to six after riding off to catch Heyes and Curry. Then, they are up to seven.
ROOT OF IT ALL
Heyes’s and Curry’s pants are soaking wet from being in the water, but when approached by bad guys minutes later, their pants are dry.
When Deputy Treadwell is hurrying to the saloon to gather a posse to chase our boys, he's fumbling around trying to put on his gunbelt, and the gun falls out. He goes into the saloon with the gun still lying in the street, but he comes out of the saloon with it in his holster.
The boys’ guns — now you see them, now you don't.
When the stage is first held up, the robbers take their guns. But Heyes and Curry have guns when they catch up. When they're pacing out the map, neither one is wearing guns or gunbelts. When they're held up again, Simpson tells his gang to get their guns. Then, walking back, both are wearing gunbelts, but no guns. Then, at the train, they've got guns again.
Heyes has $1,500 of Leslie’s money in his hand when the gang surprises them. Then he turns and raises his hands and the money is gone.
5TH VICTIM
There are colored Polaroids on Helen’s dresser mirror.
When Heyes is shot, he flies off the left side of his horse, consistent with being hit on the right side. But when he is in bed, the bullet wound is on the left side of his forehead.
When Curry crawls out of pond, the camera moves around him 180 degrees and the shadow of the cameraman is over him.
JOURNEY FROM SAN JUAN
The table nearly tips when Heyes and Curry sit down with Blanche and Michelle.
When Curry escorts Michelle to her room, he puts his hand on her shoulder. In the next scene, filmed at a different angle, his hand is not on her shoulder.
NEVER TRUST AN HONEST MAN
Harlingen’s hair goes from being parted on left to the right and back to left again when he’s talking to his son about the jewels.
LEGACY OF CHARLIE O’ROURKE
When talking to Charlie, Curry’s hand is on the jailbars by his face, in the next shot his hand is down.
At the funeral, they wear string ties. They still have on ties when they are beaten up and when they dunk Harry. In the next scene in the saloon with Harry, the ties are missing. Then they go to Alice’s room and Curry has his tie back on.
Charlie buried his treasure not too far from the Mexican border, but Alice had been looking at a map of Wyoming. When they get to the gold, however, it’s in Joshua tree forest.
THE DAY THEY HANGED KID CURRY
Curry is leaning on right side of courtroom doorway, then on the left side.
JAILBREAK AT JUNCTION CITY
One bank robber wears little round glasses. Though his hands are tied behind his back, he raises both of them, pushes his glasses back up, then puts his hands back behind his back.
SMILER WITH A GUN
Danny Bilson puts a glove on his left hand, then draws with his right.
The guys grew beards and mustaches while at the mine, but their hair did not grow.
During the rattlesnake scene, Heyes says, “Don't anybody move” his lips don't move.
THE POSSE THAT WOULDN’T QUIT
After shooting with the girls, Curry twirls his pistol before putting it back in his holster, but misses.
Bridget shoots all ten cans off the fence. When it’s Curry’s turn, he shoots six cans that have suddenly materialized on the fence.
The posse is made up of stock footage taken from other shows, a useful device as long as no one is recognizable. However, one shot clearly shows Nick and Heath Barkley of The Big Valley leading the chase.
SOMETHING TO GET HUNG ABOUT
Kid Curry enters the hotel after the fight with a dirty shirt. Minutes later, he’s wearing the same shirt, but it’s clean.
The sound man makes a brief appearance after the fight scene.
When Heyes goes riding off to see Sarah, a cowboy in a vest rides by. An instant later, Heyes has galloped out of sight, the scene switches to the saloon and the same slouching cowboy rides by.
SIX STRANGERS AT APACHE SPRINGS
Heyes wears no hat after the first Indian chase, then the hat appears as they ride into Apache Springs.
Sr. Grace appears behind Fielding and behind Mrs. Fielding in the scene at dinner. She is continually polishing the same glass in every scene no matter which angle the camera shows.
In the saloon when chairs and glasses are flying through the air, Curry is suddenly wearing his first season hat.
NIGHT OF THE RED DOG
When Heyes and Curry are panning for gold dust, a hand attached to naked arm and shoulder is seen fingering the dust, but both Heyes and Curry have shirts on.
THE REFORMATION OF HARRY BRISCOE
When Harry comes into their camp with Sam to rob Molly of the $30,000, they show her getting up. She uses her hands to throw the blanket aside and push herself off the ground, but when Harry tells her to tie the boys up, she says “I can’t, I’m the one tied up.” She raises her hands and they’re tied.
DREADFUL SORRY, CLEMENTINE
When Heyes and Curry meet Clem, Heyes’s hat is on correctly. After he hugs Clem, his hat falls off. Peter puts his hat on back to front, but carries on with the scene as he calmly takes his hat off, looks at it and places it back on correctly.
SHOOTOUT AT DIABLO STATION
When leaving the cabin to raise the flag, Hayfoot tucks it under his right arm, immediately he steps out through the door and the flag is under his left arm.
How did Curry get in the little hidey-hole with four gunheads in the cabin? All were asleep? Curry can be so quiet? The gang had to pry it open!
Hayfoot’s cabin at night is not same as it is during the day; it’s two completely different sets.
THE MAN WHO BROKE THE BANK AT RED GAP
Wouldn’t Powers have smelled the burned-out candle that the boys used to find their way around his darkened study?
The posse coming to the granary is stock film shot in the daytime, but it’s supposed to be 10 p.m.
THE LONG CHASE
The stagecoach doesn’t raise any dust with four horses, but the posse creates so much it can be seen for a half mile.
THE CLEMENTINE INGREDIENT
Heyes and Curry each have three different horses while riding to Clem’s house.
MCGUFFIN
Curry and Heyes are on the same horses after a fifty-mile train ride.
ONLY THREE TO A BED
For the final confrontation with Tisdale, Heyes leaves the house wearing his gun. When the camera shows him from behind, he’s not wearing the gun, but when shown from the front again, the gunbelt’s there.
Appendix C
Trivia
ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEES (* Indicates Winner)
JACK ALBERTSON 1969
DON AMECHE *1985
ANNE ARCHER 1987
WALTER BRENNAN *1936, *1938, *1940, 1941
BRODERICK CRAWFORD *1949
SALLY FIELD *1979, *1984
LOU GOSSETT, JR. *1982
JOAN HACKETT 1981
BURL IVES *1958
DEAN JAGGER *1949
SAM JAFFE 1950
KATY JURADO 1954
SHIRLEY KNIGHT 1960, 1962
ARTHUR O’CONNELL 1955, 1959
ANN SOTHERN 1987
CHILL WILLS 1960
EMMY NOMINEES (* Indicates Winner)
Actors
JACK ALBERTSON 1975* (two categories, won one), 1976*, 1977, 1982
NOAH BEERY 1977, 1980
SORRELL BOOKE 1964
BARBA
RA BOSSON 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1996
WALTER BRENNAN 1959
JOSEPH CAMPANELLA 1968