Post by zimmerman on May 24, 2014 15:04:01 GMT -5
Airing toward the end of The Wild Wild West's abbreviated third season, The Night of the Vipers is a unique Wild Wild West episode for several reasons:
It is one of the few episodes that does not include a single scene of action or conversation between Jim and Artie on the Wanderer.
It is a rare episode that features James West not romancing the bad girl for the bulk of the episode (or Artie, for that matter).
It is one of the few episodes where longtime stuntman Red West receives considerable amount of screentime (and even a commercial break artwork cartoon square) in a strong supporting role still catering to his fighting strong suits--as prizefighter Jack Claxton, the top boxer in all of Kansas. His confrontation with James West in the middle of the episode turns out to be one of the longest fights that James West has between one opponent in a single episode.
It is also one of the few episodes wherein Artemus Gordon stays in disguise throughout the entire episode--joining a select few episodes in the series, including the infamous Night of the Infernal Machine, wherein he played Swedish pastry chef Herr Ostroployer (Come to think of it, that is another episode where Jim and Artie have no scenes on The Wanderer either).
Finally, it is one of the few episodes that features a (Mostly) original music score by Morton Stevens, at the time the music director for CBS television, who got his start being the musical director for former Wild Wild West guest star Sammy Davis Jr in the late-1950's. His score relies heavily on trumpets and timpani in several key scenes, while another scene replaces the timpani with a unique shaker sound that was being featured quite a bit in popular and Rock music during that time period.
Donald Davis (I am not sure if he is related in some way to Daniel Davis, the actor who played Niles the butler on The Nanny) here does a wonderful job playing Vance Beaumont, who seems to be a nice gentleman doing his responsibility as the kindly Mayor of the town of Freedom, Kansas, but in reality is a ruthless, power-hungry politician who will do anything and everything to finance his campaign for Govenor, including being the real mastermind of the Viper gang, which includes such key members as Kimball, Coulter, Lutz, Barney, and Slade, who together terrorize eleven key towns in the state of Kansas, robbing the town's banks of their money in rather elaborate and unique ways, including several involving explosives, even killing a few people along the way "in the streets", according to James West's conversation with the sheriff of Cottonwood in the episodes opening teaser. Mayor Vance Beaumont is also quite the charmer, convincing Kansas' newspaper kingpin, the lovely Nadine Conover, to support his cause. Miss Conover really encourages Beaumont to run for governor throughout the course of the episode, but even though he flatly refused Nadine's urgings throughout this episode, the truth was (as we find out later in the episode when Beaumont gets caught) that Beaumont has been wanting to be a governor for a long time, way before Miss Conover enters the picture. Mayor Beaumont considers himself "The hired hand of the citzens" and has issues with the fine citizens of Freedom amusing themselves watching boxing matches, calling it a "Roman Spectacle." According to Artie, Beaumont has what it takes be a governor, the only issue is that no one really knows his name. His well-crafted scheme of killing off the Vipers, making him the good guy, cleaning up what could have been an "Embarrasment" to his campaign in a shoo-in quest to become the Govenor, goes terribly awry once James and Artemus expose his wicked, twisted scheme. The last we see of Beaumont, chained to the bank-tellers post, is a classic case of paranoid rage that would have made the celebrated film director Alfred Hitchcock very, very proud.
Even though Donald Davis is sly, crafty, and yet a gentleman in the role of Mayor Beaumont, next to Claxton, the real star of this particular Wild Wild West episode is returning guest star Nick Adams, in one of his final roles before he passed away under mysterious circumstances on February 7, 1968 (Yet aired just a few weeks before his death, on January 12, 1968), as the conniving surly Sheriff Dave Cord, a role that is completely the opposite from his previous appearance as "Prince Creepy" in the first season's The Night of the Two-Legged Buffulo, yet is somewhat more along the lines of the characters he normally played on films and television, including The Rebel--Johnny Yuma, whose theme song was co-written by our show's theme song writer Richard Markowitz. If James Dean had lived long enough to play a Western villain, his performance could have been remarkably similar to the masterful sly, crafty, performance that Nick Adams gives here as Sheriff Cord, second-in-command to the Viper gang and a sheriff who does not tolerate wrongdoing in any way , shape, or form. His boss, Mayor Beaumont, has nothing but high praise for his wonderful work as the Sheriff of the town of Freedom, Kansas. As he tells "Ned Buntline" (aka Artemus Gordon) later that evening with Nadine Conover, Before Dave Cord took over as Sheriff, the town of Freedom was "A cesspool where anything could happen--anything violent, illegal, murderous. Dave Cord cleaned up the mess, and only Dave Cord could have done it. There's no one I would rather have at my side when there's an important job to be done." For all of the sneaky things he does and the surly things he says throughout the course of the episode, in my opinion the best moment with Sheriff Cord in the entire episode is the conversation he has with Mayor Beaumont after the fight between James and Claxton and the way he says it, loaded with passion and attitude: "Now, you just hold on, Mr. Mayor. I'm recalling a day a year back when you came to me and put a pin on this star and clean up a town that had done a real outstanding job of attracting every high-steppin' fancy baggage, greasy artist, and Bushwhacker from around the state. At the time, you told me I never would have to hold my fire. You're changing the ground rules at this late date? "
Artie, in his only disguise in this episode, as "Ned Buntline"--"the famous writer from the St. Louis Journal." is one of his more classy and dignified disguises, wherein he gets to play a gentleman reporter throughout the course of the episode. I really enjoy watching Artie touching the brim of his hat to the lovely Nadine Conover throughout the course of the episode, and the overall charming joire-de-vivre and distinctiveness he puts into the characterization of Mr. Buntline. In this episode, we also get to watch Artie's prowess as a Billiard player, and there are some great conversations involving the case between him and James, both at the bar where the prizefight is taking place (wherein he slyly tells James that "They're trying to sucker you into that ring. You know that, don't you?") and at the Freedom Bell Hotel. We also get another opportunity to watch Artie use his fancy lock-pick which he uses to take a look at the Architectural drawings that are in the safe during his cover as he goes to get his own brandy.
For James West fans, there is a lot to like in this particular episode, especially the long, extended fight between him and Jack Claxton, the funny moment when he knocks out the late spectator of the fight and borrows his horse, and the very close call from Death by Pinebox--Viper Style by activating the bomb in his left boot before he gets totally soaked and drowns in the pinebox. After the long fight between James and Mr. Claxton, the rest of the episodes fights are quick and more faster-paced. Plus, the closing shootout in the streets of Freedom, Kansas, wherein he takes down the Viper gang one by one is a classic moment in the series, filled with outstanding Wild Wild West Western action.
Speaking of the rather interesting closing moments of this episode, had he watched it, this episode must have made a deliable impact on one Peter S. Fischer, who would get his start in television a few years later writing scripts for shows such as McMillan And Wife before he went into television production. Many years later, he would reuse this episodes Cold ending premise several times during the years that he was running Wild Wild West 's producer Bruce Lansbury's sister Angela's hit series Murder, She Wrote during the years that he was Executive producer, finally being eliminated when Angela Lansbury took over as Executive producer of Murder She Wrote, inviting her brother Bruce to be a part of the production and writing team of that hit CBS Sunday night series of the 1980's and '90's.
One interesting sidenote: One of the guys that James West kills during the shootout in the streets of Freedom looks an awful lot like the same man who played the Sheriff of Cottonwood earlier in the episode! Either way, he wound up getting killed twice in one episode. .
Overall, an episode that was a mixed bag the first few times I watched it, but is now slowly becoming one of my favorite episodes of The Wild Wild West.
A surprisingly strong 9 out of 10 from me. .