Post by niecie on Sept 5, 2016 15:39:12 GMT -5
Artie's monologue on being in the Heartland of America (along with Jim's serious answer to Artie's rhetorical 'Do you know where we are?') is a perfect set-up for the surreal scene that follows. By the way, the varying population numbers on the town's sign give me a big giggle every time. (And someone else — Cal Gal, if memory serves — long ago pointed out that for all of Artie's expansive delight over being in the 'great outdoors,' he and Jim are obviously riding along in an indoor sound stage.)
Notice the guy in the black vest who lassoes Artie? Yep, it's Whitey Hughes!
Jim looks concerned, though not exactly worried. Artie still looks incredulous, like he's thinking, 'This is a joke, right?'
At least until, 'Sam' tries to bash Our Heroes with that big ol' shillelagh!
Strictly according to the book? When it's gonna be an old-fashioned necktie party quicker'n you can say Boo?
(Now Artie really looks unhappy!)
(Frankly, I get pretty upset over the nooses being put around Our Heroes' necks. I mean, nothing injurious came of it, of course, but if an accident had happened on the set, either RC or RM could have gotten badly hurt. Just sayin')
The sheriff's mix of legalese with colloquialisms cracks me up. Of course, we're supposed to wonder how a man of such *ahem* shining mental prowess got to be sheriff. And mayor. And telegraph operator. And whatever else he did in that one-horse town. (The same actor later plays Jeremiah in Cut-Throats, a comic-relief version of a mountain man.)
It does make me feel better that the guy standing up on the platform between Jim and Artie is stunt-coordinator Whitey. Surely he made sure the whole stunt was safe!
Our Heroes exercising their basic mental telepathy: the looks, the blinks, the little nods.
Jim's little smoke bomb in the tip of the holster comes in handy once again. And Artie steals a knife from some dude, then knocks him off the scaffold with a hip bump!
And suddenly the tables are turned! Jim has two guns in hand, and Artie is sawing through the ropes. And there stands the sheriff, jaw agape, eyes a-popping.
Bad sports? Bad sports?? The sheriff seriously thought that two strangers would automatically intuit that the people tying them up and tightening nooses around their necks while proclaiming that they were sentenced to death were merely joking around???
It's Howdy Doody Time! (Gotta love the three-man band!) And a couple or two do a little dancing in the streets.
(Note to self: Look up Danny Deever.)
Sheriff got tired of the band in a hurry! Like his grin when he says, 'To wit, me.'
Aww... the key to the city!
Doesn't take the citizenry long to tire of Artie's speech either!
What does Jim pick up as they're vacating the podium/gallows? Is that his sleeve gun?
I never understand what Artie means about the free sarsaparilla getting him — whether that means he loves sarsaparilla or hates it.
'How can we go wrong?' says Jim. And they get the rest of the show to find out the answer...
Starting with the guy they bump into in the hotel doorway.
Not only is Artie keeping his back turned, but he's hiding his face behind the key to the city.
Ok, so now Our Heroes are in their hotel room. Nice room: double bed, even an attached bathroom (as opposed to a room down the hall). I always get a kick out of Artie appropriating the second pillow for his arm!
From the establishing shot, I couldn't see anything wrong. It's only when the shot switches to Jim's point of view that the problem becomes apparent. And really, that's a very icky-looking spider waaaaay too close to Artie's head!
(Ok, to my inexpert eye, that looks like a tarantula, which I've been told many times is scary-looking but harmless — at least to humans. However, I've also been told that there are other large furry spiders, not tarantulas, that are dangerous. At any rate — big hairy spider! *shudder*)
Artie can't see that thing right next to his head? I mean, he's got peripheral vision, hasn't he?
Ah, the power of suggestion! Now his head itches!
And in the midst of this tense situation, the writers chose to throw in dialog that references the very popular tv quiz shows of the day! (RM was often on game shows, but I don't know if he was ever on the 'Is it bigger than a bread box?' 'Is it used equally by men and women?' one.)
How did RC & RM get through that dialog without cracking up though?
As many many people have pointed out, Jim tells Artie to roll off the bed at the count of three, but he doesn't tell him in which direction. I think he goes off the edge closest to him, which makes sense to me, but yeah, Jim should have told him 'to your right' just to ensure that he didn't roll towards the furry critter and into the line of fire.
Feathers everywhere! And it looks like the bedstead got broken too.
And now Jim says directly that the spider was a tarantula, and Artie loses his voice for a few moments. So whatever I've been told about tarantulas being harmless, seems Our Heroes haven't read the same info.
Now we come to some exposition, with Jim & Artie identifying the six men carrying the casket through town. Nicely done, I think, introducing the six baddies and giving us some information about each, all while they are doing something rather unusual. Cyril the firebug is carrying a lit candle in his other hand, and a second lit candle in his pocket! Ok, candles I can understand, but why is Little Pinto doing pallbearer service while carrying his lariat?
(The actor who plays Cyril, Michael Masters, shows up a lot in WWW. He was a Loveless wrestler/henchie in Wizard, one of Faith's brothers in Human Trigger, the hapless Titan in Eccentrics, Bluebeard in Skulls, and apparently an anonymous henchie at least one other time. Busy guy!)
Ah, firing off a telegram to Washington. And just who is the telegraph operator whose face is conveniently hidden as Jim enters the office, hmm?
By the way, does anyone know what the jars with the wires do? I'm assuming it's an essential part of the telegraph, but I don't know if it has something to do with, say, powering the telegraph, or maybe there's some sort of electrolysis going on (the kind that involves passing a current through a liquid, not the kind that involves permanent hair removal.)
And yep, there's our buddy the sheriff!
One shot destroys the entire set of jars!
Oh, look at that — even while he's working the telegraph office, he's got his sheriff's star pinned to his shirt!
Weapons — with a long e. Oh, and the three-day growth of beard.
I can kind of understand the confiscating of the gun from 'Mr Jones' since he's the one who shot the telegraph jars. Sorta kinda understand the confiscating of Jim's two guns (and later Artie's) — but impounding the horses?? For them being tied in front of the hotel where everyone would tie their horse when checking in?? Instead of, say, doing something sensible like ordering the horses' owners (or simply the hotel management) to take the horses back to the livery stable for the night? No, that's just loco! (But it does prevent Jim from riding to that other town to send his telegram.)
Goofy townsfolk, silly town laws, with music to suit. And yet this episode turns out to have one of the highest body counts of any...
Snake's scar looks like it's coming loose. Just sayin'. By the way, is that a pump organ? Because I don't see him pumping. For that matter, is that an actual tune?
So we go along the line and the baddies show off their trademarks: Gallito with his furry little friend, Brutus (aka Mr Jones) and his gauntlet, Sergei and his sandwich (snerk!), Pinto and his lariat, and yes, Cyril and his matches. Striking them on his teeth — that's gotta hurt! (Just ask Prof Fate from The Great Race...)
By the way, Cyril's face looks a lot darker than his hands. And maybe there's something on his teeth to facilitate him striking matches on them?
Somehow, the ALL DELIVERIES TO REAR sign at the Funeral Parlor strikes me as funny.
Jim the wreath thief!
Oh hey — Jim walks into the funeral parlor and politely removes his hat. But every other man in there — all six of them — are still wearing their hats. What, they were all born in barns?
Did Jim really think he could open the casket and peek inside without the six other dudes noticing?
The coffin is sealed — and now, so is the room!
I really love the dialog here. The Russian being so direct, Jim being so snarky, Snakes' objection to the paper wreath.
And when the casket's opened, a bit of Artie's playful theme is heard!
I wonder was Cyril intended to be Peter Lorre-ish.
Aw, Jim uses anything that comes to hand as a weapon! Including that bottle of bubbly!
But why is there a door that opens on a brick wall?
So sandwiches aren't Sergei's only specialty. (No, not the apple, the knives.)
Saved by the bell?
I wonder were there little marks on the floor for the actors to line up their chairs on?
The guy playing Cyril is really into his matches! And Sergei is into his food, yep.
Brutus and Pinto seem to dance attendance on the Big Bad.
You know, if it hadn't been for that big pink bow around Miss Posey's gavel, she might not have even noticed it and just gone ahead and used it...
The way Snakes uses his hands after he's been scratched puzzles me. He covers his left cheek with the back of his right hand, then reaches across to his holster at his right hip to draw his gun with his left hand. Curious!
Exit Snakes. And that's the first of the body count...
I like her substitute gavel. (The butt-end of her derringer.)
So where does the music come from when the next dude comes tapdancing in? And I notice the bulk of his dancing is his shadow moving around outside the door before he enters, and then a cut to Jim's face while the guy continues to tapdance. Then back to him for the 'Tada!'
Ascot Sam! But it's plainly Artie. Oh, and his New York accent is priceless!
As Artie is doing his 'Why? Why?' routine, you can see smoke wafting across the table. Cyril's play-pretties, of course.
And the look Artie shoots Jim right after saying his name! Kind of saying 'How did you get into this much trouble so quickly, huh? And how do I get you out of it??'
Now Sergei has a banana.
Love the travel agency line.
The Big Bad monologues.
Ok, so looking at the map, I see a red dot on North America, one on South America, one in the Moscow area, one along about Gibraltar, and it looks like at least three other points off screen that lines converge on. For that matter, there are seven lines radiating out from the North America dot. Doesn't seem to quite match up with her talk of six regions, nor with the six heads she had before Snakes met his demise. For example, what region belongs to Brutus, since he's from the Caribbean? And none of the guys seem to be East Asian or Australian, yet I think two of the red dots must be in Eastern Asia and Australia. (Map maker shoulda read the script more closely, methinks!)
She's so sure Jim was tipped off; she'd never believe it was in fact serendipity.
And now we have the famous 'repeat the question' flirting ploy! It doesn't work for Jim here, but when Artie pulls it in Big Blackmail, ah, then it works like a charm! (Actually, Miss Posey's nose doesn't crinkle when she says 'tip' — but the supervisor's nose does when she says 'supervisor.')
For that matter, telling her to stop being a tomboy and go get dressed up in something silky and soft and revealing — if that's a flirting ploy, it's just bound to backfire.
I love Jim's game of walking around and pausing behind each man's chair as he's going to name the fink! All so he can get close to Artie.
Not to mention, get close to the door! Pity Brutus is so quick with the gauntlet. Pity too that 'Ascot Sam's' offer of assistance is turned down.
They're fond of using ice houses in this series. (Also fond of sending Jim West down chutes.)
Little Pinto has a nasty imagination.
So now we have Artie starting the little game of divide and conquer. I'm wondering though: when did they add a boxing bag to the room for the board meeting?
Wondering also: how did Artie hear a sound from the spider in the glove?
That glove sure packs a huge punch! (It also looks like it was made by knitting.) And the body count stands at two now.
Yay, another trap involving a lamp burning through a rope.
Pinto cackles too much!
So Sergei curries a horse while eating a sandwich. Also he has some interesting lines about his math abilities, etc.
And the saddle catches on fire! And Artie gets in the 'great jumping balls of St Elmo's fire' line in his Noo York accent.
'His first name begins with Cyril!'
Gotta love the pose Artie strikes after Sergei runs out! (Body count is now at three.)
Back to the ice house. Jim has found a convenient pointy nail to scrub the rope tied around his wrist against — hope he doesn't also cut up his wrist.
And another board meeting! The table is definitely looking empty now.
Numerous accidents.
Oh, look who tapdanced in!
When Miss Posey asks to see the scar and Ascot Sam the second starts to strip buy Artie doesn't — yep, he's in biiiiig trouble now!
(By the way, the actor playing the real Ascot Sam showed up a lot in WWW. He was the Mexican officer Jim shared a cell with in Freebooters, the French dude in Pelican, and seems to me somebody else... Oh, yeah, Feodor Rimsky in Tartars. So that makes twice he played a character that Artie disguised himself as.)
Back to Jim in the ice house. He gets the rope off his wrist and cuts his arms loose just in the nick of time — and just as Artie takes the chute route to enter the ice house too.
When Little Pinto jumps down from that platform and lands behind the stack of ice, I do wonder if the actor did that, or was that a stunt man?
Interesting little chase scene, everybody sneaking around the stacks of ice. I like when the camera frames Pinto's face between blocks. Artie finds something to use as a weapon (the ice tongs), and so does Jim — but Jim gets just a bit more use out of his juryrigged spear.
One thing I wonder about the ice: the blocks are fairly uniform in shape and size, and there's also the chute down which a new block slides periodically, which makes me think there's a machine somewhere in the building freezing new blocks of ice. And what I wonder is this: had a machine to freeze ice been invented by the time of WWW, or is that an anachronism?
Anyway, the body count is now — what, four? Yeah, four.
Our Heroes escape the ice house, and now Brutus is taking potshots at them.
Jim hides in front of the barber shop — and here comes the sheriff, with his badge pinned on his barber sheet.
'That fellow's shootin' real bullets!' exclaims the sheriff — and now Jim realizes the gun he just pinched off the sheriff is loaded with blanks. Oh yippie!
Now why on earth does the three-man marching band wander through the scene, huh? Gives Jim a bit of cover to charge across the street, but really — that's kinda of stretching credulity there.
One thing about Jim — he may know that his gun is full of blanks, but he isn't about to let his opponent know about that. Good bluff!
On the other hand, getting that close to Brutus and his magic gauntlet — maybe not so good an idea, James!
Jim's clothes are getting really really dirty by now!
Very satisfying fight scene between Jim and Brutus — right up until the end, when the shotgun fires and hits Brutus in the back. That I don't quite get!
Oh well, body count is up to five now.
So Jim checks the shotgun, finds it's empty, tosses it aside and walks into the street — and here comes Sergei, swinging a sword (scimitar, I think?) at Jim from horseback! Jim sure comes up with a rapid solution to the Sergei problem. Actually, I get a little concerned for the horse in that stunt, but the horse hops back up and walks out of the shot.
Unlike Sergei. Body count is now six — all six 'pallbearers' from the start of the show.
Come to think of it, did Artie inform Jim that the real Ascot Sam showed up? Because Jim jogs on into the funeral parlor as if he doesn't have any other enemies left to worry about. Surely he doesn't think Miss Posey is a pushover!
(Ran it back and listened, and if Artie did mention Ascot Sam, he didn't do it onscreen.)
Well, here comes Miss Posey, dressed in something silky and soft and revealing — just what Jim ordered, and why? To catch him offguard because she's pretty — and it works! C'mon, Jim, use your brain!
(He tells her she's the only one left — yep, Artie didn't mention the real Ascot Sam.)
'Let a lady do a few last minute things' — and then off she sails through the brickwall door, seals Jim in, and lo and behold, the pipe organ's a Gatling gun!
Yeah, but Jim comes through that unscathed. Only now does Artie actually mention Ascot Sam, whom he has managed to capture offscreen. And it takes him about a paragraph of jabbering before it sinks in that he, Artie himself, handed Miss Posey aboard the stagecoach. Off he runs, hijacks a horse, and pelts off to try to catch up to the coach — which is a great and funny image, but really, isn't racing on a horse after a stagecoach more Jim's line?
And on to the tag — Artie is still in his Ascot Sam outfit, including the mustache (which he pulls off and tosses aside). Wonder where Jim's going in his best formal suit though?
Aw, poor Artie! Another six hours on horseback! Makes me wonder if that's a real assignment, or did Jim arrange for them to get a fake message sending them out on horseback right away again?
Well, like I said earlier, this is a strongly humorous episode, yet also fairly grim, considering how many of the baddies wind up dead by the end. Curious combination.
Notice the guy in the black vest who lassoes Artie? Yep, it's Whitey Hughes!
Jim looks concerned, though not exactly worried. Artie still looks incredulous, like he's thinking, 'This is a joke, right?'
At least until, 'Sam' tries to bash Our Heroes with that big ol' shillelagh!
Strictly according to the book? When it's gonna be an old-fashioned necktie party quicker'n you can say Boo?
(Now Artie really looks unhappy!)
(Frankly, I get pretty upset over the nooses being put around Our Heroes' necks. I mean, nothing injurious came of it, of course, but if an accident had happened on the set, either RC or RM could have gotten badly hurt. Just sayin')
The sheriff's mix of legalese with colloquialisms cracks me up. Of course, we're supposed to wonder how a man of such *ahem* shining mental prowess got to be sheriff. And mayor. And telegraph operator. And whatever else he did in that one-horse town. (The same actor later plays Jeremiah in Cut-Throats, a comic-relief version of a mountain man.)
It does make me feel better that the guy standing up on the platform between Jim and Artie is stunt-coordinator Whitey. Surely he made sure the whole stunt was safe!
Our Heroes exercising their basic mental telepathy: the looks, the blinks, the little nods.
Jim's little smoke bomb in the tip of the holster comes in handy once again. And Artie steals a knife from some dude, then knocks him off the scaffold with a hip bump!
And suddenly the tables are turned! Jim has two guns in hand, and Artie is sawing through the ropes. And there stands the sheriff, jaw agape, eyes a-popping.
Bad sports? Bad sports?? The sheriff seriously thought that two strangers would automatically intuit that the people tying them up and tightening nooses around their necks while proclaiming that they were sentenced to death were merely joking around???
It's Howdy Doody Time! (Gotta love the three-man band!) And a couple or two do a little dancing in the streets.
(Note to self: Look up Danny Deever.)
Sheriff got tired of the band in a hurry! Like his grin when he says, 'To wit, me.'
Aww... the key to the city!
Doesn't take the citizenry long to tire of Artie's speech either!
What does Jim pick up as they're vacating the podium/gallows? Is that his sleeve gun?
I never understand what Artie means about the free sarsaparilla getting him — whether that means he loves sarsaparilla or hates it.
'How can we go wrong?' says Jim. And they get the rest of the show to find out the answer...
Starting with the guy they bump into in the hotel doorway.
Not only is Artie keeping his back turned, but he's hiding his face behind the key to the city.
Ok, so now Our Heroes are in their hotel room. Nice room: double bed, even an attached bathroom (as opposed to a room down the hall). I always get a kick out of Artie appropriating the second pillow for his arm!
From the establishing shot, I couldn't see anything wrong. It's only when the shot switches to Jim's point of view that the problem becomes apparent. And really, that's a very icky-looking spider waaaaay too close to Artie's head!
(Ok, to my inexpert eye, that looks like a tarantula, which I've been told many times is scary-looking but harmless — at least to humans. However, I've also been told that there are other large furry spiders, not tarantulas, that are dangerous. At any rate — big hairy spider! *shudder*)
Artie can't see that thing right next to his head? I mean, he's got peripheral vision, hasn't he?
Ah, the power of suggestion! Now his head itches!
And in the midst of this tense situation, the writers chose to throw in dialog that references the very popular tv quiz shows of the day! (RM was often on game shows, but I don't know if he was ever on the 'Is it bigger than a bread box?' 'Is it used equally by men and women?' one.)
How did RC & RM get through that dialog without cracking up though?
As many many people have pointed out, Jim tells Artie to roll off the bed at the count of three, but he doesn't tell him in which direction. I think he goes off the edge closest to him, which makes sense to me, but yeah, Jim should have told him 'to your right' just to ensure that he didn't roll towards the furry critter and into the line of fire.
Feathers everywhere! And it looks like the bedstead got broken too.
And now Jim says directly that the spider was a tarantula, and Artie loses his voice for a few moments. So whatever I've been told about tarantulas being harmless, seems Our Heroes haven't read the same info.
Now we come to some exposition, with Jim & Artie identifying the six men carrying the casket through town. Nicely done, I think, introducing the six baddies and giving us some information about each, all while they are doing something rather unusual. Cyril the firebug is carrying a lit candle in his other hand, and a second lit candle in his pocket! Ok, candles I can understand, but why is Little Pinto doing pallbearer service while carrying his lariat?
(The actor who plays Cyril, Michael Masters, shows up a lot in WWW. He was a Loveless wrestler/henchie in Wizard, one of Faith's brothers in Human Trigger, the hapless Titan in Eccentrics, Bluebeard in Skulls, and apparently an anonymous henchie at least one other time. Busy guy!)
Ah, firing off a telegram to Washington. And just who is the telegraph operator whose face is conveniently hidden as Jim enters the office, hmm?
By the way, does anyone know what the jars with the wires do? I'm assuming it's an essential part of the telegraph, but I don't know if it has something to do with, say, powering the telegraph, or maybe there's some sort of electrolysis going on (the kind that involves passing a current through a liquid, not the kind that involves permanent hair removal.)
And yep, there's our buddy the sheriff!
One shot destroys the entire set of jars!
Oh, look at that — even while he's working the telegraph office, he's got his sheriff's star pinned to his shirt!
Weapons — with a long e. Oh, and the three-day growth of beard.
I can kind of understand the confiscating of the gun from 'Mr Jones' since he's the one who shot the telegraph jars. Sorta kinda understand the confiscating of Jim's two guns (and later Artie's) — but impounding the horses?? For them being tied in front of the hotel where everyone would tie their horse when checking in?? Instead of, say, doing something sensible like ordering the horses' owners (or simply the hotel management) to take the horses back to the livery stable for the night? No, that's just loco! (But it does prevent Jim from riding to that other town to send his telegram.)
Goofy townsfolk, silly town laws, with music to suit. And yet this episode turns out to have one of the highest body counts of any...
Snake's scar looks like it's coming loose. Just sayin'. By the way, is that a pump organ? Because I don't see him pumping. For that matter, is that an actual tune?
So we go along the line and the baddies show off their trademarks: Gallito with his furry little friend, Brutus (aka Mr Jones) and his gauntlet, Sergei and his sandwich (snerk!), Pinto and his lariat, and yes, Cyril and his matches. Striking them on his teeth — that's gotta hurt! (Just ask Prof Fate from The Great Race...)
By the way, Cyril's face looks a lot darker than his hands. And maybe there's something on his teeth to facilitate him striking matches on them?
Somehow, the ALL DELIVERIES TO REAR sign at the Funeral Parlor strikes me as funny.
Jim the wreath thief!
Oh hey — Jim walks into the funeral parlor and politely removes his hat. But every other man in there — all six of them — are still wearing their hats. What, they were all born in barns?
Did Jim really think he could open the casket and peek inside without the six other dudes noticing?
The coffin is sealed — and now, so is the room!
I really love the dialog here. The Russian being so direct, Jim being so snarky, Snakes' objection to the paper wreath.
And when the casket's opened, a bit of Artie's playful theme is heard!
I wonder was Cyril intended to be Peter Lorre-ish.
Aw, Jim uses anything that comes to hand as a weapon! Including that bottle of bubbly!
But why is there a door that opens on a brick wall?
So sandwiches aren't Sergei's only specialty. (No, not the apple, the knives.)
Saved by the bell?
I wonder were there little marks on the floor for the actors to line up their chairs on?
The guy playing Cyril is really into his matches! And Sergei is into his food, yep.
Brutus and Pinto seem to dance attendance on the Big Bad.
You know, if it hadn't been for that big pink bow around Miss Posey's gavel, she might not have even noticed it and just gone ahead and used it...
The way Snakes uses his hands after he's been scratched puzzles me. He covers his left cheek with the back of his right hand, then reaches across to his holster at his right hip to draw his gun with his left hand. Curious!
Exit Snakes. And that's the first of the body count...
I like her substitute gavel. (The butt-end of her derringer.)
So where does the music come from when the next dude comes tapdancing in? And I notice the bulk of his dancing is his shadow moving around outside the door before he enters, and then a cut to Jim's face while the guy continues to tapdance. Then back to him for the 'Tada!'
Ascot Sam! But it's plainly Artie. Oh, and his New York accent is priceless!
As Artie is doing his 'Why? Why?' routine, you can see smoke wafting across the table. Cyril's play-pretties, of course.
And the look Artie shoots Jim right after saying his name! Kind of saying 'How did you get into this much trouble so quickly, huh? And how do I get you out of it??'
Now Sergei has a banana.
Love the travel agency line.
The Big Bad monologues.
Ok, so looking at the map, I see a red dot on North America, one on South America, one in the Moscow area, one along about Gibraltar, and it looks like at least three other points off screen that lines converge on. For that matter, there are seven lines radiating out from the North America dot. Doesn't seem to quite match up with her talk of six regions, nor with the six heads she had before Snakes met his demise. For example, what region belongs to Brutus, since he's from the Caribbean? And none of the guys seem to be East Asian or Australian, yet I think two of the red dots must be in Eastern Asia and Australia. (Map maker shoulda read the script more closely, methinks!)
She's so sure Jim was tipped off; she'd never believe it was in fact serendipity.
And now we have the famous 'repeat the question' flirting ploy! It doesn't work for Jim here, but when Artie pulls it in Big Blackmail, ah, then it works like a charm! (Actually, Miss Posey's nose doesn't crinkle when she says 'tip' — but the supervisor's nose does when she says 'supervisor.')
For that matter, telling her to stop being a tomboy and go get dressed up in something silky and soft and revealing — if that's a flirting ploy, it's just bound to backfire.
I love Jim's game of walking around and pausing behind each man's chair as he's going to name the fink! All so he can get close to Artie.
Not to mention, get close to the door! Pity Brutus is so quick with the gauntlet. Pity too that 'Ascot Sam's' offer of assistance is turned down.
They're fond of using ice houses in this series. (Also fond of sending Jim West down chutes.)
Little Pinto has a nasty imagination.
So now we have Artie starting the little game of divide and conquer. I'm wondering though: when did they add a boxing bag to the room for the board meeting?
Wondering also: how did Artie hear a sound from the spider in the glove?
That glove sure packs a huge punch! (It also looks like it was made by knitting.) And the body count stands at two now.
Yay, another trap involving a lamp burning through a rope.
Pinto cackles too much!
So Sergei curries a horse while eating a sandwich. Also he has some interesting lines about his math abilities, etc.
And the saddle catches on fire! And Artie gets in the 'great jumping balls of St Elmo's fire' line in his Noo York accent.
'His first name begins with Cyril!'
Gotta love the pose Artie strikes after Sergei runs out! (Body count is now at three.)
Back to the ice house. Jim has found a convenient pointy nail to scrub the rope tied around his wrist against — hope he doesn't also cut up his wrist.
And another board meeting! The table is definitely looking empty now.
Numerous accidents.
Oh, look who tapdanced in!
When Miss Posey asks to see the scar and Ascot Sam the second starts to strip buy Artie doesn't — yep, he's in biiiiig trouble now!
(By the way, the actor playing the real Ascot Sam showed up a lot in WWW. He was the Mexican officer Jim shared a cell with in Freebooters, the French dude in Pelican, and seems to me somebody else... Oh, yeah, Feodor Rimsky in Tartars. So that makes twice he played a character that Artie disguised himself as.)
Back to Jim in the ice house. He gets the rope off his wrist and cuts his arms loose just in the nick of time — and just as Artie takes the chute route to enter the ice house too.
When Little Pinto jumps down from that platform and lands behind the stack of ice, I do wonder if the actor did that, or was that a stunt man?
Interesting little chase scene, everybody sneaking around the stacks of ice. I like when the camera frames Pinto's face between blocks. Artie finds something to use as a weapon (the ice tongs), and so does Jim — but Jim gets just a bit more use out of his juryrigged spear.
One thing I wonder about the ice: the blocks are fairly uniform in shape and size, and there's also the chute down which a new block slides periodically, which makes me think there's a machine somewhere in the building freezing new blocks of ice. And what I wonder is this: had a machine to freeze ice been invented by the time of WWW, or is that an anachronism?
Anyway, the body count is now — what, four? Yeah, four.
Our Heroes escape the ice house, and now Brutus is taking potshots at them.
Jim hides in front of the barber shop — and here comes the sheriff, with his badge pinned on his barber sheet.
'That fellow's shootin' real bullets!' exclaims the sheriff — and now Jim realizes the gun he just pinched off the sheriff is loaded with blanks. Oh yippie!
Now why on earth does the three-man marching band wander through the scene, huh? Gives Jim a bit of cover to charge across the street, but really — that's kinda of stretching credulity there.
One thing about Jim — he may know that his gun is full of blanks, but he isn't about to let his opponent know about that. Good bluff!
On the other hand, getting that close to Brutus and his magic gauntlet — maybe not so good an idea, James!
Jim's clothes are getting really really dirty by now!
Very satisfying fight scene between Jim and Brutus — right up until the end, when the shotgun fires and hits Brutus in the back. That I don't quite get!
Oh well, body count is up to five now.
So Jim checks the shotgun, finds it's empty, tosses it aside and walks into the street — and here comes Sergei, swinging a sword (scimitar, I think?) at Jim from horseback! Jim sure comes up with a rapid solution to the Sergei problem. Actually, I get a little concerned for the horse in that stunt, but the horse hops back up and walks out of the shot.
Unlike Sergei. Body count is now six — all six 'pallbearers' from the start of the show.
Come to think of it, did Artie inform Jim that the real Ascot Sam showed up? Because Jim jogs on into the funeral parlor as if he doesn't have any other enemies left to worry about. Surely he doesn't think Miss Posey is a pushover!
(Ran it back and listened, and if Artie did mention Ascot Sam, he didn't do it onscreen.)
Well, here comes Miss Posey, dressed in something silky and soft and revealing — just what Jim ordered, and why? To catch him offguard because she's pretty — and it works! C'mon, Jim, use your brain!
(He tells her she's the only one left — yep, Artie didn't mention the real Ascot Sam.)
'Let a lady do a few last minute things' — and then off she sails through the brickwall door, seals Jim in, and lo and behold, the pipe organ's a Gatling gun!
Yeah, but Jim comes through that unscathed. Only now does Artie actually mention Ascot Sam, whom he has managed to capture offscreen. And it takes him about a paragraph of jabbering before it sinks in that he, Artie himself, handed Miss Posey aboard the stagecoach. Off he runs, hijacks a horse, and pelts off to try to catch up to the coach — which is a great and funny image, but really, isn't racing on a horse after a stagecoach more Jim's line?
And on to the tag — Artie is still in his Ascot Sam outfit, including the mustache (which he pulls off and tosses aside). Wonder where Jim's going in his best formal suit though?
Aw, poor Artie! Another six hours on horseback! Makes me wonder if that's a real assignment, or did Jim arrange for them to get a fake message sending them out on horseback right away again?
Well, like I said earlier, this is a strongly humorous episode, yet also fairly grim, considering how many of the baddies wind up dead by the end. Curious combination.