Post by niecie on Nov 23, 2016 14:07:28 GMT -5
This one is so weird. Soooooo weird. Soooooooooo... Well, you get the idea.
We start off with Our Heroes riding through a forest, and Artie pointing out that he hasn't seen a bird in three days. Immediately Jim spots the problem: the fruit-bearing plants are dead. Now, the pine trees behind them look in good shape! (By the way, Jim's saddle is plenty squeaky when dismounts and remounts.)
On they ride till they reach a narrow gap between big boulders, the perfect place for an ambush. And ambushed they are - by of all things a knight in shining armor! As Our Heroes sit on their horses staring at the knight, each agents with his hand on his holstered gun, the knight flings this huge stone at them, blocking the narrow path between the boulders. The knight then marches forward as Jim and Artie fire at him - fruitlessly of course. (Oops, the accidentally punster strikes again. Sorry about that, everyone!) And as soon as their guns are empty, that's when the ambush is sprung - but what gets me is that the ambushers emerge from the same side of the boulders as the agents. Shouldn't the men have been hiding behind the boulders from the agents' perspective? But of course it was done that way so the viewing audience wouldn't see the ambushers until the director wanted them to.
And what a crew of ambushers they are, all dressed up like Merry Men and armed with bows and arrows! I gotta wonder how good any of them actually are at archery. Also I'm thinking that bows are long range weapons, not usually used in close quarters. But these guys are standing right next to Jim & Artie. Well, makes for a nice tight grouping for the camera, that's all I can think.
And at last the knight speaks, and does anyone not recognize his voice??? His Elizabethan English isn't quite right. No matter what the closed captioning thinks, his line is: So! Welcome to Sherwood Forest, thou naughty varlets. The problem, though, is that thou is second person singular, so it should only be used to address one person, not two or more, yet he uses it in connection with the plural noun varlets. *roll of eyes* (Sorry, folks, but that's what you get when your humble reviewer is a former teacher of grammar.)
Pretty music as Our Heroes are marched into camp, and Artie has to make a snarky comment about the merriness of the Merry Men. His reward is to be prodded forward by an arrow poking him in the back.
Wow, I just noticed that one of the Merry Men is wearing very blue tights! (And I gotta wonder how these minions were convinced to dress up in tights and so forth to go live in a forest. Surely they got really good pay for this?)
Now we get our first glimpse inside the big tent, with the same rainbow striped curtains from Voulee's fortune-telling tent in Brain and the curtains in the late Bronzini's trailer in Circus of Death. The set dressers must have had a LOT of that fabric on hand!
And of course we also get our first look in this episode at someone very familiar: Antoinette, making her final episode of the series. *sob!* What a lovely costume she has. And this time instead of the harpsichord, she's playing a lute. Ok, it's supposed to be a lute, going by the shape of its body, but the frets on the neck are very modern-looking. (I'll shut up about that now.)
Familiar tune! She sang that in duet with You-know-who in their first appearance.
My word, that's a big hunk of meat on the table! Or a big hunk of papier-mâché masquerading as meat, at least. And what looks almost like a throne at the head of the table.
She finishes her song, and up pops the little man himself, Dr Loveless! He offers Our Heroes squab, then flings a leg of what he calls crow at them. I don't know why he expects them to agree that they should eat crow, but Loveless always did have his own unique view of the world.
Jim identifies Dr Miguelito Loveless by name (just in case the audience is in the dark as to who the villain of the piece might be), to which Artie appends 'PhD.' Which is how I finally found out the good doctor's university accomplishments to include the letters after his name for a fanfic I wrote! Yay for Artie!
Loveless, however, introduces himself as Robin Hood. Except that as he does so, he has an attack of hay fever. Running around in a forest isn't so great when your nose doesn't want to cooperate!
I paused the playback to type my notes and caught this great expression on Artie's face! He looks like he's going to shake his head at Loveless' antics. And in the background stand two of the Merry Men, one of whom has a goatee that does NOT match the color or texture of his natural-looking mustache. *heh*
Jim reminds Artie of the ignore-Loveless-and-he'll-tell-us-everything strategy. Meanwhile, Loveless is still sneezing, and Antoinette has some lines I absolutely love: Prithee, Robin, take heed of thy hay fever. Prithee, blow thy nose. Just so marvelously absurd.
And now we learn that Antoinette is Maid Marian.
The agents stroll over to the groaning board to help themselves to some of that side of... what? deer? And Artie shows just how much he's dying of curiosity by faking a yawn.
Loveless has entirely too happy a look on his face when he relates how the Indians starved. And when Jim surmises that Loveless is taking credit for the famine, Loveless calls the famine a miracle and Jim's remark flattery. Now, how twisted does your thinking have to be to consider causing a famine to be miraculous rather than catastrophic, and to take the accusation of causing said famine as flattery? (But that's our Loveless, yeah?)
At first Our Heroes are picking up small bits of meat that look like boneless chicken, but now Artie's got a leg in hand and takes (or fakes) a bite out of it, reminiscent of that turkey leg in Murderous Spring.
It sure doesn't take much to run right through Loveless' patience!
Loveless has a strange way of showing that he 'loves' the Indians! Reduced them to, in his own words, cruel poverty!
He is so absolute full of himself, isn't he?
And on that happy note, Jim flips the table. Fight fight fight!
That big hunk of meat in Artie's hand makes a good weapon, doesn't it? The Merry Men, however, don't make such good fighters. In my humble opinion, of course. (But perhaps Loveless had told them to fight less than their best, considering how cut up over their escape he shows himself to be shortly.)
They run out of the tent, and Artie's still whacking Merry Men with that haunch of meat! Ah, and there are their horses, conveniently still saddled, ready to hop on and ride - which they do.
Ok, so the first Merry Man to reach the spot where they have a good view to target the agents takes an abominably looooong time nocking his arrow. Others are already shooting arrows before he ever does! And only two of the dudes have quivers, of whom the one on the right keeps reaching back trying to grab another arrow, but he can't find the quiver! (What did I say earlier about my doubts as to this bunch's archery abilities?)
Back to the tent. Maid Marian emerges from hiding behind that throne-like chair and runs around it to find Loveless under the chair. (She couldn't have talked to him from the side of the chair where she was originally?) Loveless crawls out giggling because he did indeed plan for the agents to escape; Loveless wants to teach Jim West a lesson in pride, so he says. He then appeals to the Merry Man sitting crosslegged on the floor, addressing him as 'varlet,' (Loveless seems to be exceptionally fond of that word!) to explain what will happen to Our Heroes when they reach the Indian village of Bright Star. The varlet, who I suppose had a non-speaking role, gives answer by means of the throat-slash gesture. (Well, he also makes a slightly grisly noise. Wonder if he got extra pay for the sound effect.)
Antoinette grins at the information, showing how well suited she is (and always was) as Loveless' best friend. Loveless cackles with glee - until he has another hay fever attack. Running gag, I guess.
Our Heroes at last reach the village of Bright Star. And now we meet the chief, played by all-purpose-ethnic actor Anthony Caruso. Hey, I like the actor; he appears no less than three times on WWW (the other times being as Deuce in The Night Loveless Died and as the fisherman who takes Jim out in his rowboat, only to be killed by the phony kraken in TNOT Kraken). Caruso does a very good job as the chief; it's just a pity that, times being what they were in the 60's, Native American roles were rarely cast with Native American actors.
I don't get why, when Artie says, 'That must be the chief,' Jim thinks he's talking about the chief's wife. As if Artie can't tell who's who? (And I might add that the actress playing the chief's wife, Peggy Rea, appeared in an episode of the Jim Hutton Ellery Queen series in the 70's. She played Sergeant Velie's wife in The Adventure of Auld Lang Syne. Yeah, the woman who stomped all over Inspector Queen's toes while dancing to the New Year's Eve music played by Guy Lombardo's band.)
Artie, of course, has to make a snarky comment at the large lady's expense. *facepalm*
Yet another facepalm as Artie does the 'How [looong pause] do you do?' line. C'mon, writers, Artie's not that naive!
Frankly, the chief's lines about the incompetence of government help are right on target - as we will see later when he shows Jim what the government sent as 'help.'
And... just as Jim has convinced the chief to let him at least present his case, here comes the 'Lord of the Forest.' Loveless is on the cart blowing his horn, and in the background is the suit of armor on a horse. No matter what Artie says later about an 'empty suit,' there is OBVIOUSLY someone inside the suit there! (But then how hard would it be for Loveless to have two suits of armor: one regular and the other the special one for him to climb inside and operate?)
Ok, so where is the trumpet fanfare coming from? The only horn I saw was Loveless' cow horn.
It upsets me how well Loveless' plan is working on the people of Bright Star. They welcome the 'Lord of the Forest' gladly as the provider of ready-to-eat food, only to find he has brought them sand instead (the scum!). (Lovingkindness, my eye!)
Yeah, just because someone says the strangers want to kill the 'Lord of the Forest' doesn't make it the truth!
Even before the chief can decide if he really believes Loveless (and the actor is doing a great job, in my opinion, of showing that he doesn't really know whether Loveless is telling him the truth), one of the men of the village attacks Our Heroes with a knife. C'mon, Indians were much better at sneak attacks than that! Jim kicks the dude in the chest, and he and Artie take off running for their horses.
Now, this is a very well done fight scene, don't get me wrong. But I'm surprised at how few of the men of the village join into the fight. Maybe they, like the older chief who shows up later on, doesn't like taking orders from Loveless?
I love the way the one guy sails right over both horses to tackle Jim!
Jim, as usual, winds up fighting a crowd of opponents. Artie has just one and manages to escape.
Jim does one of his patented moves where he uses the guy holding him as a prop to jump up and kick the other guys coming at him. And for the second time in as many fights here in this episode, Jim is walking away from his downed enemies only to be tripped by one of them. In the end, the guy who lost Artie is the one who brings Jim down.
Ah, the merciful Dr Loveless! After insisting the Indians kill West and Gordon, he now tells them to stop and take West prisoner. I would think it's because he would prefer to kill Jim personally, but then he leaves him to be killed by 'some exquisite Indian torture that takes time.' So I don't get what Loveless is after - except that he is, as usual, predictably unpredictable.
Don't any of the Indians wonder how 'Robin Hood' can speak so familiarly for the 'Lord of the Forest'? He didn't go over and consult with the suit; he just tells everyone what the suit wants and thinks. No one catches on to this?
So now they haul Jim into a tent to commence the torture. I wonder what the glass thing was that Jim breaks when they toss him on the floor? Serendipitous broken glass though! He snags a piece before they pick him up again. (Wonder how he didn't get cut; broken glass is notoriously razor-sharp.)
Aha! I ran the episode back a bit, and it's a chimney lamp on the edge of the table. When they toss Jim down, he throws his arm out and knocks down the lamp. Quick thinking on Jim's part! But he sure closes his fist around the piece of glass he picks up. Seriously, he should have gotten cut badly right there.
And now the chief shows Jim the 'help' the government sent. He really does not like those books! (Ok, maybe he's not fond of rutabaga.) Now on the face of it, the seed packets seem reasonable, but considering that Loveless has been spraying his poison around, how are they supposed to raise any crops? As for the canned food that's going bad, well, that's pretty much an insult!
Curious that they have this crossbow device all rigged up and ready, just add soaked thong! (And the thong was already in a bowl soaking too.)
Ah, and there it is: the promise of the 'good life' when no one needs to work. Funny how the government in the story wants to help the Indians help themselves, because look how it acts now!
The usual problem with warning anyone that Loveless is evil (especially after Loveless already poisoned the well by saying West hates the 'Lord of the Forest' and wants to kill him): no one wants to take Jim at his word, and by the time they figure out he was telling the truth and Loveless was lying, it's pretty much too late.
(Hey, come to think of it, how come the Indians buy this 'Lord of the Forest' act anyway? He's obviously a Johnny-Come-Lately and they've been living there a long long time; wouldn't they be thinking 'Who made him lord of this forest? We are the lords of this forest!')
Ok, so the chief explains how the crossbow thingy works, that the wet thong, as it dries, will shrink and eventually pull the trigger. And he outright says it won't take long because it is a warm day. Right? Everyone hear him say that? Because an awful lot of day goes by - yes, even into the night - and that crossbow never fires. For that matter, Jim is sawing at his bonds with that piece of glass for all that time too and never cuts his way free.
Mind, I'm not complaining that both the trap and the glass fail to do their things; I'm just saying the time frame should have been a whole lot tighter.
I love the 'nobody can make me do what I don't want to' scene - because Loveless may say that, but Antoinette just keeps responding, 'Yes, Miguelito' as she feeds him the food he doesn't want to eat. Lovely irony!
And why is Loveless complaining that the chief hasn't killed West yet? The chief is doing exactly what Loveless told him to do. If that's not what he wanted, why did he give that order?
And his horror when she suggests he may have misjudged the chief! He knows human nature! Oh, he is so very very full of himself.
On the other hand, his method of reducing people to passive obedient children is all too correct.
That one woman dancing around the fire sure doesn't want to show her face, eh? Ok, I find this disguise of Artie's particularly cringe-worthy. For one thing, he's too big to play a woman. And his clothes are too shapeless compared to what the other women are wearing. And it's a small tribe; how can he get away with pretending he's one of them when they would obviously all know each other and realize he's a stranger in two seconds. (Yet it works! How does that make sense??)
So it's full dark now, and Jim is still in the tent sawing away at those very skinny ropes while the crossbow thing still hasn't gone off. Another thing that doesn't make sense!
And suddenly the drum in the corner opens up and Loveless steps out. He objects to West saying he's 'sneaking.' (Oh, suddenly I'm reminded of Gollum!)
And as Loveless leans over to examine the crossbow, suddenly I recognize it: isn't it the same contraption the Baddies in Two-Legged Buffalo pointed at Artemus?
Oh, Loveless doesn't want Jim to catch his cold! How thoughtful of him!
Loveless and his little atomizer. So annoying!
And this is the same man who was going to kill off all humans to preserve Nature in Murderous Spring! The same man who was going to set up a kingdom for children in Wizard! He is so contradictory! He may think he's altruistic, but as soon as some principle - say, crying children - interferes with his current plan, bye bye goes that principle. Unstable as water, that's our Dr Loveless.
(But you can see that Jim's jab about crying children definitely hit home.)
I wonder if that's why Loveless doesn't kill Jim, even though he pretty much told Antoinette he was going to kill him. Maybe he suddenly felt it was unfair for Jim to get to be out of this vale of tears and off enjoying his reward?
Jim's suggestion of au revoir literally means 'until we see each other again.' Loveless disagrees and substitutes goodbye - but that comes from 'God be with you' with the implied addition of 'until we meet again.' So the second farewell is pretty much the same as the first.
Presumably that drum leads to a hidden tunnel, but it sure looks like Loveless just climbs in and there's nowhere else to go.
Back to the dancing, and Artie skips off to his horse and raids the saddle bags, all the while doing his skippy little dance. As I objected earlier, I cannot believe that no one in the tribe seems to have the least bit of trouble accepting him as one of their own (particularly as one of their own women). But now, having already risked drawing attention to himself by dancing over to his own horse (and no one has bothered to release that horse from its saddle yet???), he further draws attention to himself by humming and singing! And what is he singing, anyway? I might be persuaded to believe he's singing in the tribe's native language IF they hadn't given him that 'How.............. do you do?' line earlier. But if he's so ignorant of how to talk to Indians as to pull that stunt, no way can I now believe he knows their language!
So he's dancing around yammering who-knows-what, dances over to the two guards, offers them the food while hiding his face!!! and they just go, 'Yeah, someone we don't know is offering us food while we're guarding an important prisoner? Sure, we'll eat it!'
Next thing you know, they both collapse - and no one notices!!! Argh!
On the other hand, I do like how Artie does that back roll into the tent. Also the way he yelps and knocks over the crossbow to get Jim out of danger. (And oh yeah - the crossbow still doesn't go off!)
Now Jim finally cuts through the rope! Artie shucks his disguise (and I gotta wonder where he found it in the first place), and off they go.
Finally somebody notices the knocked-out guards! And this time the guys who investigate don't make a lot of noise, unlike the dude with the knife who tried to attack Jim much earlier. The chief orders Our Heroes to stop and draws his knife on Jim - who neatly disarms him!
Oh, if only Jim hadn't ordered them all to turn around! Now just how long was Mrs Chief wearing that particular papoose on her back, eh?
The looks on Jim's and Artie's faces are absolutely priceless!
So it takes till the next day for Loveless and his party to return to his camp? He's got quite a reception committee waiting for him! Two of them in particular strike me as authentic Native Americans: the man on the far left and the one on the far right (the one with the black hat). But the guy at the front with the buffalo headdress? Not so much!
Oh, and then there's the fellow halfway between Buffalo Hat and Black Hat. Recognize him? He's one of the regular supernumeraries on WWW; I'm pretty sure his name is Mickey Golden. (I'm also pretty sure he was Mr Sunglasses in the episode Casual Killer!)
*sigh* No offense to actor Paul Fix, but I do not buy him as an Indian chief - him, nor his accent! Couldn't they have promoted Black Hat to the Buffalo Hat role? Still, I do like how Buffalo Hat disses Loveless, driving the little doctor crazy. And what I especially like is that Buffalo Hat isn't deliberately goading Loveless; he just considers Loveless to be this little gnat who imagines himself to be an eagle, so he brushes him aside accordingly.
(When Loveless says, 'What are you doing here?' the strata of the rock formation behind him is mighty fake looking. Just sayin'.)
Buffalo Hat blinks a lot.
I do like the pony they supplied Loveless with! Lovely animal.
Aw, and Loveless is annoyed by pine needles and the fact that the forest isn't decently carpeted! *snerk*
Hey! Just as he finishes that line and heads into the tent, there in the background: isn't that the covered cart Akbar the elephant's lunch was served to him in?
Heh, and the 'don't call us; we'll call you' line!
Now we are let in on the secret of the suit of armor. Wonder how hard it was for Michael Dunn to crawl inside? (On the other hand, does he? We see him start to climb in, we see his face wearing the helmet and accompanying chain mail, we see Antoinette putting on the back plate - but only Antoinette! We don't see the back plate actually being fit onto the armor and we certainly don't see Loveless' backside inside the suit. Then she goes over, peeks out the tent entrance, and comes back to close the visor of the helmet - without us seeing Loveless' face inside the helmet now! And then the suit is walking around (rather stiffly, but that's an occupational hazard of plate armor, I would venture). (And I wonder who was really wearing the suit of armor, and how much he - she? - had to practice walking in it, much less fighting with maces in it!)
Hmm... When Loveless took off the back plate to climb inside, it had squared-off bumps for the shoulder blades with a wide gap between them. Now that Antoinette closes the back plate up again, the shoulder blade bumps are rounder and meet in the middle!
And now I'm trying to remember the alliterative insults the Big Giant Head rained on the Tin Woodsman in the classic version of Wizard of Oz. Because this suit certainly ca-lanks!
His 'awful presence'! Yep, still full of himself.
Hey, there's a hooded falcon on a roost to the left of Antoinette! How long has that been there? Seems to be a real live bird too.
Guess Loveless is one of those folks who think if you say a thing often enough, others will begin to believe you... (Saint Loveless though!)
Oh, Artie! You just had to ask that question, didn't you?
'An eagle will not speak with a mole'! Oh, love that line! (Artie loved the line too.)
Now, when Jim and Artie are led over to the secret door in the tree trunk and Artie has his back to the camera, you can see how poorly tied his hands are! He should be able to give a wiggle and release one hand from the other. But of course he doesn't - that wasn't in the script.
How come Artie ducks his head before entering the tree trunk door? He's blindfolded and presumably can't see the door, and nobody pushes his head down to avoid the lintel. But he certainly ducks!
Those little balloons hanging all over the place in Loveless' underground lair (yeah, you knew he'd have one!) look an awful lot like the hot air balloon Count Manzeppi sails away in at the end of Feathered Fury.
Caruso's character yells at Loveless to be brief. Well, the good doctor was getting carried away with naming all the bits of his model city as various Federal officials he'd like to do away with. And instead of being brief, he launches into a literary quotation, followed by a thesaurus entry on the word wit!
Humming to himself while he gets his blow dart ready...
Sack and loot? When everything's on fire?
So Loveless plans to kill Jim just like that? With a slingshot loaded with the green powder? While West is tied up and helpless? Jim takes the exact right angle in calling him (or his supposed 'lord') weak; the Indians do not respect people who kill bound and unarmed prisoners.
I love Artie's eyes when the old chief calls Loveless 'you funny little man'! I suppose the only reason Loveless didn't turn his slingshot loaded with the green powder on the chief at that moment is that he needed the rest of the chiefs on his side.
'Gods do not lose!' cries Loveless, telling us what exactly he thinks of himself.
And again the old chief rebukes him for speaking to him, yes, and interrupting him! Impudent little gnat.
Love the exchange in which we learn that Jim has never seen a mace before! And Artie's end-of-act smile.
Here we have the obligatory Loveless and Antoinette duet.
And now, at long last at the start of Act Four, Our Heroes figure out what has seemed so utterly obvious to your humble reviewer from the moment in the Teaser when the knight welcomed the 'naughty varlets' to Sherwood Forest: they realize that Loveless is the knight. Because no one but the audience, over the course of the whole episode, ever recognized the knight's voice is Loveless' voice, I guess.
(Notice that Jim's stump is somewhat taller than Artie's, giving the illusion that Jim is taller.)
And as soon as Artie hits on the truth, he starts trying to argue himself out of it!
Artie's conclusion, that Loveless is bound to try to pull something, is definitely prophetic, isn't it?
Love the kiss on the finger tip transferred to the tip of her nose!
Ok, it's not the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true, but the mace on the pillow is the booby trapped one.
How come as Loveless is about to climb into the suit for the duel, he dons his hunting horn, hat, and gloves? Won't those be encumbrances while he's trying to swing the mace? (Oh, and from this angle you can see the colored buttons inside the suit, presumably the means by which Loveless operates the arms and legs of the armor.)
Aw, the mace his momma gave him! Yep, Loveless played Jim just right with that bit.
The one Merry Man who hands the mace off to Jim, then hauls Antoinette back to a safe distance before the duel begins.
And then Loveless panics when he knocks into the pillow and nearly dumps Mommy's mace, tipping Our Heroes off about the booby trap!
Jim's main advantage, even though he's never used a mace before, is that he's a lot quicker, both on his feet and with his hands. Loveless lumbers around - which is to be expected if his armor's actions are controlled by push-buttons.
To me, the moment the mace hit the ground and exploded would be the moment the dude in the armor loses all my respect. But Jim tops it off by trouncing the 'Lord of the Forest' solidly.
The Merry Men start to arrow up to go after Our Heroes. But that's short-lived! The old chief orders his men to attack the Merry dudes, who promptly turn tail and run!
No one hangs around long enough to see Antoinette let Loveless out of the back of the armor. Well, no one but Our Heroes.
That's the first I've noticed that she's wearing high heels shoes. In a forest.
Unfortunately, Artie doesn't know exactly where the pair disappeared to.
How does that secret door into the lair work? Is it like the fake fireplace on the train? There's a fire burning in the thing, so how is there room for Loveless and Antoinette to sneak out of it???
Up goes the balloon with its load of enough green powder to set the whole forest on fire! (Guess Loveless never learned the old saying of 'what goes up, must come down'...)
Jim and Artie running around the forest. Run around, Jim and Artie, run around.
Loveless and Antoinette spend waaaaaay too much time giggling and waving mocking goodbyes to Our Heroes!
Whatever skills the Merry Men may or may not have had at archery, Jim sure shoots straight!
And what went up comes right back down. It does seem odd to me, though, that as Loveless and Antoinette are about to abandon their underground lair, Loveless is carrying a suitcase. How un-Robin-Hood-like!
Antoinette's screams are great! And my word but the whole place goes up in flames quickly! (Can't help wondering if Phoebe Dorin had a moment's flashback to the Murderous Spring stunt that nearly drowned her.)
I'm not really sure how the secret door behind the furnace was so quickly unusable, considering it was behind metal. And into the log? I just hope there's another secret passage leading out of it, because that's NOT a good place to hide from a raging fire!
Dunno why Loveless has to sound the horn...
The last we see of him, he leaves his horn and hat behind as he crawls into the log. Segue to the horn and log, both charred, as Our Heroes search the burnt out lair.
And I love the quick reversal Artie does when he sits down on the log, then springs right back up again!
Also his warning to Jim not to sit on the log.
All that destruction, yet one of the beakers of blue liquid is still sitting by the stairs unscathed.
Our Heroes ascend the stairs and leave. And what does the camera do? It pans over of the open end of the log, the end Antoinette and Loveless were crawling into when last we saw them...
And out of the log hops a pretty brown rabbit! First time I saw that, I thought, 'What? They turned into a rabbit??' But now I suppose the unburnt bunny is a clue that there really was a secret passage out of the log to safety. (Of course, never once do we find out just how Loveless survived the fire. Or the sunken rowboat. Or unshrinks himself and Antoinette when they fly away on the back of that raven. Or, or, or...)
And on to the Tag, with Jim teaching Artie how to fight. I love the look on Artie's face when Jim kicks him in the seat of the pants for the second time! And Artie diligently goes through all the steps Jim has been showing him.
They gotta stop and pick up a package. The smiling delivery man is none other than Dick Cangey.
I wonder just how hard did Ross hit that box? He does a great job of looking like he hurt his hand - which I hope he didn't, of course. The delivery guy gets so freaked out, though, that he runs right into the edge of the open door. (Which I guess is why they gave that role to one of the stuntmen.)
And then... we get that wonderful little bit of Jim preparing to karate chop the package open: one... two... and on three, he pulls the string untied. Yep, he opened it!
And Artie's fake laugh.
'Unknown admirer.' And how is it that as soon as the little statue swivels up out of the box, Artie goes straight for a gun? It could have been simply an innocent package...
Naw, caution in the face of such a package is the proper response! (Especially once you hear the accompanying recording.)
We start off with Our Heroes riding through a forest, and Artie pointing out that he hasn't seen a bird in three days. Immediately Jim spots the problem: the fruit-bearing plants are dead. Now, the pine trees behind them look in good shape! (By the way, Jim's saddle is plenty squeaky when dismounts and remounts.)
On they ride till they reach a narrow gap between big boulders, the perfect place for an ambush. And ambushed they are - by of all things a knight in shining armor! As Our Heroes sit on their horses staring at the knight, each agents with his hand on his holstered gun, the knight flings this huge stone at them, blocking the narrow path between the boulders. The knight then marches forward as Jim and Artie fire at him - fruitlessly of course. (Oops, the accidentally punster strikes again. Sorry about that, everyone!) And as soon as their guns are empty, that's when the ambush is sprung - but what gets me is that the ambushers emerge from the same side of the boulders as the agents. Shouldn't the men have been hiding behind the boulders from the agents' perspective? But of course it was done that way so the viewing audience wouldn't see the ambushers until the director wanted them to.
And what a crew of ambushers they are, all dressed up like Merry Men and armed with bows and arrows! I gotta wonder how good any of them actually are at archery. Also I'm thinking that bows are long range weapons, not usually used in close quarters. But these guys are standing right next to Jim & Artie. Well, makes for a nice tight grouping for the camera, that's all I can think.
And at last the knight speaks, and does anyone not recognize his voice??? His Elizabethan English isn't quite right. No matter what the closed captioning thinks, his line is: So! Welcome to Sherwood Forest, thou naughty varlets. The problem, though, is that thou is second person singular, so it should only be used to address one person, not two or more, yet he uses it in connection with the plural noun varlets. *roll of eyes* (Sorry, folks, but that's what you get when your humble reviewer is a former teacher of grammar.)
Pretty music as Our Heroes are marched into camp, and Artie has to make a snarky comment about the merriness of the Merry Men. His reward is to be prodded forward by an arrow poking him in the back.
Wow, I just noticed that one of the Merry Men is wearing very blue tights! (And I gotta wonder how these minions were convinced to dress up in tights and so forth to go live in a forest. Surely they got really good pay for this?)
Now we get our first glimpse inside the big tent, with the same rainbow striped curtains from Voulee's fortune-telling tent in Brain and the curtains in the late Bronzini's trailer in Circus of Death. The set dressers must have had a LOT of that fabric on hand!
And of course we also get our first look in this episode at someone very familiar: Antoinette, making her final episode of the series. *sob!* What a lovely costume she has. And this time instead of the harpsichord, she's playing a lute. Ok, it's supposed to be a lute, going by the shape of its body, but the frets on the neck are very modern-looking. (I'll shut up about that now.)
Familiar tune! She sang that in duet with You-know-who in their first appearance.
My word, that's a big hunk of meat on the table! Or a big hunk of papier-mâché masquerading as meat, at least. And what looks almost like a throne at the head of the table.
She finishes her song, and up pops the little man himself, Dr Loveless! He offers Our Heroes squab, then flings a leg of what he calls crow at them. I don't know why he expects them to agree that they should eat crow, but Loveless always did have his own unique view of the world.
Jim identifies Dr Miguelito Loveless by name (just in case the audience is in the dark as to who the villain of the piece might be), to which Artie appends 'PhD.' Which is how I finally found out the good doctor's university accomplishments to include the letters after his name for a fanfic I wrote! Yay for Artie!
Loveless, however, introduces himself as Robin Hood. Except that as he does so, he has an attack of hay fever. Running around in a forest isn't so great when your nose doesn't want to cooperate!
I paused the playback to type my notes and caught this great expression on Artie's face! He looks like he's going to shake his head at Loveless' antics. And in the background stand two of the Merry Men, one of whom has a goatee that does NOT match the color or texture of his natural-looking mustache. *heh*
Jim reminds Artie of the ignore-Loveless-and-he'll-tell-us-everything strategy. Meanwhile, Loveless is still sneezing, and Antoinette has some lines I absolutely love: Prithee, Robin, take heed of thy hay fever. Prithee, blow thy nose. Just so marvelously absurd.
And now we learn that Antoinette is Maid Marian.
The agents stroll over to the groaning board to help themselves to some of that side of... what? deer? And Artie shows just how much he's dying of curiosity by faking a yawn.
Loveless has entirely too happy a look on his face when he relates how the Indians starved. And when Jim surmises that Loveless is taking credit for the famine, Loveless calls the famine a miracle and Jim's remark flattery. Now, how twisted does your thinking have to be to consider causing a famine to be miraculous rather than catastrophic, and to take the accusation of causing said famine as flattery? (But that's our Loveless, yeah?)
At first Our Heroes are picking up small bits of meat that look like boneless chicken, but now Artie's got a leg in hand and takes (or fakes) a bite out of it, reminiscent of that turkey leg in Murderous Spring.
It sure doesn't take much to run right through Loveless' patience!
Loveless has a strange way of showing that he 'loves' the Indians! Reduced them to, in his own words, cruel poverty!
He is so absolute full of himself, isn't he?
And on that happy note, Jim flips the table. Fight fight fight!
That big hunk of meat in Artie's hand makes a good weapon, doesn't it? The Merry Men, however, don't make such good fighters. In my humble opinion, of course. (But perhaps Loveless had told them to fight less than their best, considering how cut up over their escape he shows himself to be shortly.)
They run out of the tent, and Artie's still whacking Merry Men with that haunch of meat! Ah, and there are their horses, conveniently still saddled, ready to hop on and ride - which they do.
Ok, so the first Merry Man to reach the spot where they have a good view to target the agents takes an abominably looooong time nocking his arrow. Others are already shooting arrows before he ever does! And only two of the dudes have quivers, of whom the one on the right keeps reaching back trying to grab another arrow, but he can't find the quiver! (What did I say earlier about my doubts as to this bunch's archery abilities?)
Back to the tent. Maid Marian emerges from hiding behind that throne-like chair and runs around it to find Loveless under the chair. (She couldn't have talked to him from the side of the chair where she was originally?) Loveless crawls out giggling because he did indeed plan for the agents to escape; Loveless wants to teach Jim West a lesson in pride, so he says. He then appeals to the Merry Man sitting crosslegged on the floor, addressing him as 'varlet,' (Loveless seems to be exceptionally fond of that word!) to explain what will happen to Our Heroes when they reach the Indian village of Bright Star. The varlet, who I suppose had a non-speaking role, gives answer by means of the throat-slash gesture. (Well, he also makes a slightly grisly noise. Wonder if he got extra pay for the sound effect.)
Antoinette grins at the information, showing how well suited she is (and always was) as Loveless' best friend. Loveless cackles with glee - until he has another hay fever attack. Running gag, I guess.
Our Heroes at last reach the village of Bright Star. And now we meet the chief, played by all-purpose-ethnic actor Anthony Caruso. Hey, I like the actor; he appears no less than three times on WWW (the other times being as Deuce in The Night Loveless Died and as the fisherman who takes Jim out in his rowboat, only to be killed by the phony kraken in TNOT Kraken). Caruso does a very good job as the chief; it's just a pity that, times being what they were in the 60's, Native American roles were rarely cast with Native American actors.
I don't get why, when Artie says, 'That must be the chief,' Jim thinks he's talking about the chief's wife. As if Artie can't tell who's who? (And I might add that the actress playing the chief's wife, Peggy Rea, appeared in an episode of the Jim Hutton Ellery Queen series in the 70's. She played Sergeant Velie's wife in The Adventure of Auld Lang Syne. Yeah, the woman who stomped all over Inspector Queen's toes while dancing to the New Year's Eve music played by Guy Lombardo's band.)
Artie, of course, has to make a snarky comment at the large lady's expense. *facepalm*
Yet another facepalm as Artie does the 'How [looong pause] do you do?' line. C'mon, writers, Artie's not that naive!
Frankly, the chief's lines about the incompetence of government help are right on target - as we will see later when he shows Jim what the government sent as 'help.'
And... just as Jim has convinced the chief to let him at least present his case, here comes the 'Lord of the Forest.' Loveless is on the cart blowing his horn, and in the background is the suit of armor on a horse. No matter what Artie says later about an 'empty suit,' there is OBVIOUSLY someone inside the suit there! (But then how hard would it be for Loveless to have two suits of armor: one regular and the other the special one for him to climb inside and operate?)
Ok, so where is the trumpet fanfare coming from? The only horn I saw was Loveless' cow horn.
It upsets me how well Loveless' plan is working on the people of Bright Star. They welcome the 'Lord of the Forest' gladly as the provider of ready-to-eat food, only to find he has brought them sand instead (the scum!). (Lovingkindness, my eye!)
Yeah, just because someone says the strangers want to kill the 'Lord of the Forest' doesn't make it the truth!
Even before the chief can decide if he really believes Loveless (and the actor is doing a great job, in my opinion, of showing that he doesn't really know whether Loveless is telling him the truth), one of the men of the village attacks Our Heroes with a knife. C'mon, Indians were much better at sneak attacks than that! Jim kicks the dude in the chest, and he and Artie take off running for their horses.
Now, this is a very well done fight scene, don't get me wrong. But I'm surprised at how few of the men of the village join into the fight. Maybe they, like the older chief who shows up later on, doesn't like taking orders from Loveless?
I love the way the one guy sails right over both horses to tackle Jim!
Jim, as usual, winds up fighting a crowd of opponents. Artie has just one and manages to escape.
Jim does one of his patented moves where he uses the guy holding him as a prop to jump up and kick the other guys coming at him. And for the second time in as many fights here in this episode, Jim is walking away from his downed enemies only to be tripped by one of them. In the end, the guy who lost Artie is the one who brings Jim down.
Ah, the merciful Dr Loveless! After insisting the Indians kill West and Gordon, he now tells them to stop and take West prisoner. I would think it's because he would prefer to kill Jim personally, but then he leaves him to be killed by 'some exquisite Indian torture that takes time.' So I don't get what Loveless is after - except that he is, as usual, predictably unpredictable.
Don't any of the Indians wonder how 'Robin Hood' can speak so familiarly for the 'Lord of the Forest'? He didn't go over and consult with the suit; he just tells everyone what the suit wants and thinks. No one catches on to this?
So now they haul Jim into a tent to commence the torture. I wonder what the glass thing was that Jim breaks when they toss him on the floor? Serendipitous broken glass though! He snags a piece before they pick him up again. (Wonder how he didn't get cut; broken glass is notoriously razor-sharp.)
Aha! I ran the episode back a bit, and it's a chimney lamp on the edge of the table. When they toss Jim down, he throws his arm out and knocks down the lamp. Quick thinking on Jim's part! But he sure closes his fist around the piece of glass he picks up. Seriously, he should have gotten cut badly right there.
And now the chief shows Jim the 'help' the government sent. He really does not like those books! (Ok, maybe he's not fond of rutabaga.) Now on the face of it, the seed packets seem reasonable, but considering that Loveless has been spraying his poison around, how are they supposed to raise any crops? As for the canned food that's going bad, well, that's pretty much an insult!
Curious that they have this crossbow device all rigged up and ready, just add soaked thong! (And the thong was already in a bowl soaking too.)
Ah, and there it is: the promise of the 'good life' when no one needs to work. Funny how the government in the story wants to help the Indians help themselves, because look how it acts now!
The usual problem with warning anyone that Loveless is evil (especially after Loveless already poisoned the well by saying West hates the 'Lord of the Forest' and wants to kill him): no one wants to take Jim at his word, and by the time they figure out he was telling the truth and Loveless was lying, it's pretty much too late.
(Hey, come to think of it, how come the Indians buy this 'Lord of the Forest' act anyway? He's obviously a Johnny-Come-Lately and they've been living there a long long time; wouldn't they be thinking 'Who made him lord of this forest? We are the lords of this forest!')
Ok, so the chief explains how the crossbow thingy works, that the wet thong, as it dries, will shrink and eventually pull the trigger. And he outright says it won't take long because it is a warm day. Right? Everyone hear him say that? Because an awful lot of day goes by - yes, even into the night - and that crossbow never fires. For that matter, Jim is sawing at his bonds with that piece of glass for all that time too and never cuts his way free.
Mind, I'm not complaining that both the trap and the glass fail to do their things; I'm just saying the time frame should have been a whole lot tighter.
I love the 'nobody can make me do what I don't want to' scene - because Loveless may say that, but Antoinette just keeps responding, 'Yes, Miguelito' as she feeds him the food he doesn't want to eat. Lovely irony!
And why is Loveless complaining that the chief hasn't killed West yet? The chief is doing exactly what Loveless told him to do. If that's not what he wanted, why did he give that order?
And his horror when she suggests he may have misjudged the chief! He knows human nature! Oh, he is so very very full of himself.
On the other hand, his method of reducing people to passive obedient children is all too correct.
That one woman dancing around the fire sure doesn't want to show her face, eh? Ok, I find this disguise of Artie's particularly cringe-worthy. For one thing, he's too big to play a woman. And his clothes are too shapeless compared to what the other women are wearing. And it's a small tribe; how can he get away with pretending he's one of them when they would obviously all know each other and realize he's a stranger in two seconds. (Yet it works! How does that make sense??)
So it's full dark now, and Jim is still in the tent sawing away at those very skinny ropes while the crossbow thing still hasn't gone off. Another thing that doesn't make sense!
And suddenly the drum in the corner opens up and Loveless steps out. He objects to West saying he's 'sneaking.' (Oh, suddenly I'm reminded of Gollum!)
And as Loveless leans over to examine the crossbow, suddenly I recognize it: isn't it the same contraption the Baddies in Two-Legged Buffalo pointed at Artemus?
Oh, Loveless doesn't want Jim to catch his cold! How thoughtful of him!
Loveless and his little atomizer. So annoying!
And this is the same man who was going to kill off all humans to preserve Nature in Murderous Spring! The same man who was going to set up a kingdom for children in Wizard! He is so contradictory! He may think he's altruistic, but as soon as some principle - say, crying children - interferes with his current plan, bye bye goes that principle. Unstable as water, that's our Dr Loveless.
(But you can see that Jim's jab about crying children definitely hit home.)
I wonder if that's why Loveless doesn't kill Jim, even though he pretty much told Antoinette he was going to kill him. Maybe he suddenly felt it was unfair for Jim to get to be out of this vale of tears and off enjoying his reward?
Jim's suggestion of au revoir literally means 'until we see each other again.' Loveless disagrees and substitutes goodbye - but that comes from 'God be with you' with the implied addition of 'until we meet again.' So the second farewell is pretty much the same as the first.
Presumably that drum leads to a hidden tunnel, but it sure looks like Loveless just climbs in and there's nowhere else to go.
Back to the dancing, and Artie skips off to his horse and raids the saddle bags, all the while doing his skippy little dance. As I objected earlier, I cannot believe that no one in the tribe seems to have the least bit of trouble accepting him as one of their own (particularly as one of their own women). But now, having already risked drawing attention to himself by dancing over to his own horse (and no one has bothered to release that horse from its saddle yet???), he further draws attention to himself by humming and singing! And what is he singing, anyway? I might be persuaded to believe he's singing in the tribe's native language IF they hadn't given him that 'How.............. do you do?' line earlier. But if he's so ignorant of how to talk to Indians as to pull that stunt, no way can I now believe he knows their language!
So he's dancing around yammering who-knows-what, dances over to the two guards, offers them the food while hiding his face!!! and they just go, 'Yeah, someone we don't know is offering us food while we're guarding an important prisoner? Sure, we'll eat it!'
Next thing you know, they both collapse - and no one notices!!! Argh!
On the other hand, I do like how Artie does that back roll into the tent. Also the way he yelps and knocks over the crossbow to get Jim out of danger. (And oh yeah - the crossbow still doesn't go off!)
Now Jim finally cuts through the rope! Artie shucks his disguise (and I gotta wonder where he found it in the first place), and off they go.
Finally somebody notices the knocked-out guards! And this time the guys who investigate don't make a lot of noise, unlike the dude with the knife who tried to attack Jim much earlier. The chief orders Our Heroes to stop and draws his knife on Jim - who neatly disarms him!
Oh, if only Jim hadn't ordered them all to turn around! Now just how long was Mrs Chief wearing that particular papoose on her back, eh?
The looks on Jim's and Artie's faces are absolutely priceless!
So it takes till the next day for Loveless and his party to return to his camp? He's got quite a reception committee waiting for him! Two of them in particular strike me as authentic Native Americans: the man on the far left and the one on the far right (the one with the black hat). But the guy at the front with the buffalo headdress? Not so much!
Oh, and then there's the fellow halfway between Buffalo Hat and Black Hat. Recognize him? He's one of the regular supernumeraries on WWW; I'm pretty sure his name is Mickey Golden. (I'm also pretty sure he was Mr Sunglasses in the episode Casual Killer!)
*sigh* No offense to actor Paul Fix, but I do not buy him as an Indian chief - him, nor his accent! Couldn't they have promoted Black Hat to the Buffalo Hat role? Still, I do like how Buffalo Hat disses Loveless, driving the little doctor crazy. And what I especially like is that Buffalo Hat isn't deliberately goading Loveless; he just considers Loveless to be this little gnat who imagines himself to be an eagle, so he brushes him aside accordingly.
(When Loveless says, 'What are you doing here?' the strata of the rock formation behind him is mighty fake looking. Just sayin'.)
Buffalo Hat blinks a lot.
I do like the pony they supplied Loveless with! Lovely animal.
Aw, and Loveless is annoyed by pine needles and the fact that the forest isn't decently carpeted! *snerk*
Hey! Just as he finishes that line and heads into the tent, there in the background: isn't that the covered cart Akbar the elephant's lunch was served to him in?
Heh, and the 'don't call us; we'll call you' line!
Now we are let in on the secret of the suit of armor. Wonder how hard it was for Michael Dunn to crawl inside? (On the other hand, does he? We see him start to climb in, we see his face wearing the helmet and accompanying chain mail, we see Antoinette putting on the back plate - but only Antoinette! We don't see the back plate actually being fit onto the armor and we certainly don't see Loveless' backside inside the suit. Then she goes over, peeks out the tent entrance, and comes back to close the visor of the helmet - without us seeing Loveless' face inside the helmet now! And then the suit is walking around (rather stiffly, but that's an occupational hazard of plate armor, I would venture). (And I wonder who was really wearing the suit of armor, and how much he - she? - had to practice walking in it, much less fighting with maces in it!)
Hmm... When Loveless took off the back plate to climb inside, it had squared-off bumps for the shoulder blades with a wide gap between them. Now that Antoinette closes the back plate up again, the shoulder blade bumps are rounder and meet in the middle!
And now I'm trying to remember the alliterative insults the Big Giant Head rained on the Tin Woodsman in the classic version of Wizard of Oz. Because this suit certainly ca-lanks!
His 'awful presence'! Yep, still full of himself.
Hey, there's a hooded falcon on a roost to the left of Antoinette! How long has that been there? Seems to be a real live bird too.
Guess Loveless is one of those folks who think if you say a thing often enough, others will begin to believe you... (Saint Loveless though!)
Oh, Artie! You just had to ask that question, didn't you?
'An eagle will not speak with a mole'! Oh, love that line! (Artie loved the line too.)
Now, when Jim and Artie are led over to the secret door in the tree trunk and Artie has his back to the camera, you can see how poorly tied his hands are! He should be able to give a wiggle and release one hand from the other. But of course he doesn't - that wasn't in the script.
How come Artie ducks his head before entering the tree trunk door? He's blindfolded and presumably can't see the door, and nobody pushes his head down to avoid the lintel. But he certainly ducks!
Those little balloons hanging all over the place in Loveless' underground lair (yeah, you knew he'd have one!) look an awful lot like the hot air balloon Count Manzeppi sails away in at the end of Feathered Fury.
Caruso's character yells at Loveless to be brief. Well, the good doctor was getting carried away with naming all the bits of his model city as various Federal officials he'd like to do away with. And instead of being brief, he launches into a literary quotation, followed by a thesaurus entry on the word wit!
Humming to himself while he gets his blow dart ready...
Sack and loot? When everything's on fire?
So Loveless plans to kill Jim just like that? With a slingshot loaded with the green powder? While West is tied up and helpless? Jim takes the exact right angle in calling him (or his supposed 'lord') weak; the Indians do not respect people who kill bound and unarmed prisoners.
I love Artie's eyes when the old chief calls Loveless 'you funny little man'! I suppose the only reason Loveless didn't turn his slingshot loaded with the green powder on the chief at that moment is that he needed the rest of the chiefs on his side.
'Gods do not lose!' cries Loveless, telling us what exactly he thinks of himself.
And again the old chief rebukes him for speaking to him, yes, and interrupting him! Impudent little gnat.
Love the exchange in which we learn that Jim has never seen a mace before! And Artie's end-of-act smile.
Here we have the obligatory Loveless and Antoinette duet.
And now, at long last at the start of Act Four, Our Heroes figure out what has seemed so utterly obvious to your humble reviewer from the moment in the Teaser when the knight welcomed the 'naughty varlets' to Sherwood Forest: they realize that Loveless is the knight. Because no one but the audience, over the course of the whole episode, ever recognized the knight's voice is Loveless' voice, I guess.
(Notice that Jim's stump is somewhat taller than Artie's, giving the illusion that Jim is taller.)
And as soon as Artie hits on the truth, he starts trying to argue himself out of it!
Artie's conclusion, that Loveless is bound to try to pull something, is definitely prophetic, isn't it?
Love the kiss on the finger tip transferred to the tip of her nose!
Ok, it's not the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true, but the mace on the pillow is the booby trapped one.
How come as Loveless is about to climb into the suit for the duel, he dons his hunting horn, hat, and gloves? Won't those be encumbrances while he's trying to swing the mace? (Oh, and from this angle you can see the colored buttons inside the suit, presumably the means by which Loveless operates the arms and legs of the armor.)
Aw, the mace his momma gave him! Yep, Loveless played Jim just right with that bit.
The one Merry Man who hands the mace off to Jim, then hauls Antoinette back to a safe distance before the duel begins.
And then Loveless panics when he knocks into the pillow and nearly dumps Mommy's mace, tipping Our Heroes off about the booby trap!
Jim's main advantage, even though he's never used a mace before, is that he's a lot quicker, both on his feet and with his hands. Loveless lumbers around - which is to be expected if his armor's actions are controlled by push-buttons.
To me, the moment the mace hit the ground and exploded would be the moment the dude in the armor loses all my respect. But Jim tops it off by trouncing the 'Lord of the Forest' solidly.
The Merry Men start to arrow up to go after Our Heroes. But that's short-lived! The old chief orders his men to attack the Merry dudes, who promptly turn tail and run!
No one hangs around long enough to see Antoinette let Loveless out of the back of the armor. Well, no one but Our Heroes.
That's the first I've noticed that she's wearing high heels shoes. In a forest.
Unfortunately, Artie doesn't know exactly where the pair disappeared to.
How does that secret door into the lair work? Is it like the fake fireplace on the train? There's a fire burning in the thing, so how is there room for Loveless and Antoinette to sneak out of it???
Up goes the balloon with its load of enough green powder to set the whole forest on fire! (Guess Loveless never learned the old saying of 'what goes up, must come down'...)
Jim and Artie running around the forest. Run around, Jim and Artie, run around.
Loveless and Antoinette spend waaaaaay too much time giggling and waving mocking goodbyes to Our Heroes!
Whatever skills the Merry Men may or may not have had at archery, Jim sure shoots straight!
And what went up comes right back down. It does seem odd to me, though, that as Loveless and Antoinette are about to abandon their underground lair, Loveless is carrying a suitcase. How un-Robin-Hood-like!
Antoinette's screams are great! And my word but the whole place goes up in flames quickly! (Can't help wondering if Phoebe Dorin had a moment's flashback to the Murderous Spring stunt that nearly drowned her.)
I'm not really sure how the secret door behind the furnace was so quickly unusable, considering it was behind metal. And into the log? I just hope there's another secret passage leading out of it, because that's NOT a good place to hide from a raging fire!
Dunno why Loveless has to sound the horn...
The last we see of him, he leaves his horn and hat behind as he crawls into the log. Segue to the horn and log, both charred, as Our Heroes search the burnt out lair.
And I love the quick reversal Artie does when he sits down on the log, then springs right back up again!
Also his warning to Jim not to sit on the log.
All that destruction, yet one of the beakers of blue liquid is still sitting by the stairs unscathed.
Our Heroes ascend the stairs and leave. And what does the camera do? It pans over of the open end of the log, the end Antoinette and Loveless were crawling into when last we saw them...
And out of the log hops a pretty brown rabbit! First time I saw that, I thought, 'What? They turned into a rabbit??' But now I suppose the unburnt bunny is a clue that there really was a secret passage out of the log to safety. (Of course, never once do we find out just how Loveless survived the fire. Or the sunken rowboat. Or unshrinks himself and Antoinette when they fly away on the back of that raven. Or, or, or...)
And on to the Tag, with Jim teaching Artie how to fight. I love the look on Artie's face when Jim kicks him in the seat of the pants for the second time! And Artie diligently goes through all the steps Jim has been showing him.
They gotta stop and pick up a package. The smiling delivery man is none other than Dick Cangey.
I wonder just how hard did Ross hit that box? He does a great job of looking like he hurt his hand - which I hope he didn't, of course. The delivery guy gets so freaked out, though, that he runs right into the edge of the open door. (Which I guess is why they gave that role to one of the stuntmen.)
And then... we get that wonderful little bit of Jim preparing to karate chop the package open: one... two... and on three, he pulls the string untied. Yep, he opened it!
And Artie's fake laugh.
'Unknown admirer.' And how is it that as soon as the little statue swivels up out of the box, Artie goes straight for a gun? It could have been simply an innocent package...
Naw, caution in the face of such a package is the proper response! (Especially once you hear the accompanying recording.)