Tag Archives: Patrick Wayne

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 6.23 “Vicki’s Dilemma/Discount Romance/Loser & Still Champ”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing the original Love Boat, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986!  The series can be streamed on Paramount Plus!

This week, Vicki is accused of corrupting a passenger!

Episode 6.23 “Vicki’s Dilemma/Discount Romance/Loser & Still Champ”

(Dir by Jack Arnold, originally aired on March 5th, 1983)

Poor Vicki!  Finally, someone her own age — Mark Hammond (Glenn Scarpelli) — boards the boat and he turns out to be a speed freak!  In fact, he steals some amphetamines from Doc’s cabin.  (For some reason, Doc didn’t lock the medicine cabinet.  Y’know, people get fired for stuff like that….)  When the speeding Mark collapses on deck, Vicki is the first to help him.  And how does Mark thank her?  By slipping the stolen pills into Vicki’s pocket!

Mark’s mom (Elinor Donahue) accuses Vicki of getting her son hooked on speed.  Luckily, Mark has an attack of conscience and admits the truth.  (“I was going to let you take the fall but….” Mark says.)  Vicki and the Captain are surprisingly forgiving of Mark and his mom.  If I was in Vicki’s shoes, I can’t say I’d be quite so gracious about it.  Then again, I’ve been taking speed for ADD for most of my life so I would at least have an excuse for having the medicine.

Meanwhile, Gopher’s uncle (Red Buttons) boards the boat and starts selling watches out of his cabin.  He’s such a good salesman that he almost puts the boat’s gift shop out of business!  The owner of the gift shop is played by June Allyson and she’s not amused.  She and Red Button still end up falling in love though.

(I thought Juliet Mills was in charge of the gift shop.  When did June Allyson arrive?)

Finally, passenger Tom Joseph (Patrick Wayne) feels threatened because he’s got a crush on another passenger (Ann Turkel) who is a tennis star and much more athletic to him.  Every Love Boat has at least one boring story and this week, it was Tom’s story.

This was an okay episode.  Red Buttons and June Allyson were a cute old couple.  I appreciated the Vicki storyline, if just because it was one of the few times that I’ve seen this show acknowledge that Vicki really doesn’t get to spend much time with people her own age.  Captain Stubing confessed to worrying about whether or not life at sea was fair to Vicki and Gavin MacLeod delivered the lines with such sincerity that, for a few brief moments, The Love Boat became a serious drama.

This was a good cruise.

I Watched Flashing Spikes (1962, Dir. by John Ford)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

When infielder Bill Riley (Patrick Wayne) makes an error that costs his team the game, sports columnist Rex Short (Carleton Young) claims that he witnessed Bill being paid off by Slim Conway (James Stewart).  Slim is a former player who was banned from Major League Baseball after he was accused of taking a bribe from a gambler.

Most the movie is a flashback, showing how Bill first met Slim when Slim was playing for a barnstorming team of former major leaguers.  That was my favorite part of the movie.  Slim and a collection of old, worn-out men stumble out of their bus and even though they might move a little slower and they might need to stretch a little more before swinging a bat, they still show up a cocky team made up of young local players.  Even after the crowd nearly riots when they realize that Slim is one of the players, the old players keep their cool and their eye on the game.  After Bill spikes Slim while sliding into home plate, Bill apologizes.  Slim remembers the young man’s humility and, working with one of the few friends that he has left in the game, Slim helps Bill get his chance in the Majors.

Usually, when my sister yells at me to come watch something because “it’s got baseball!,” I’m prepared for it turn out to just be a movie with one scene of someone holding a bat.  I’m glad that she called me to come watch Flashing Spikes with her because it really is a good and loving celebration of my favorite game.  Even after Slim is treated so unfairly by the press, the League, and even some of the fans, he never stops loving the crack of the bats and the cheers of the crowd.  Flashing Spikes is unabashedly pro-baseball and Slim stands in for every player who was ever unfairly railroaded out of the game by scandal mongers like Rex Short.

#MondayMuggers presents YOUNG GUNS (1988) starring Emilio Etevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Charlie Sheen!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

Every Monday night at 9:00 Central Time, my wife Sierra and I host a “Live Movie Tweet” event on X using the hashtag #MondayMuggers. We rotate movie picks each week, and our tastes are quite different. Tonight, Monday May 19th, we are showing YOUNG GUNS (1988) starring Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen, Dermot Mulroney, Casey Siemaszko, Terence Stamp, Jack Palance, Terry O’Quinn, Brian Keith, and Patrick Wayne.

This movie focuses on a group of young gunmen, led by Billy the Kid (Emilio Estevez), who become deputies to avenge the murder of John Tunstall (Terence Stamp), the rancher who took them in, gave them jobs, and taught them how to read. But when Billy takes their authority too far, they soon find themselves to be the outlaws and the ones being hunted down.

Join us tonight for #MondayMuggers and watch the extremely fun YOUNG GUNS! It’s on Amazon Prime. The trailer is included below:

I review SHENANDOAH (1965), starring James Stewart! 

Posted on by Bradley Crain

Jimmy Stewart plays Charlie Anderson, the patriarch of a large farming family in Virginia during the time of the Civil War. His family doesn’t own slaves, so he doesn’t figure it’s any of their business what all the fighting is about. He wants to keep working the land in hopes that the war will pass them by. Besides, he has six sons, a daughter, and a daughter in law that he wants to keep safe. He’s trying to keep the family together on his own as his beloved Martha had passed away sixteen years earlier giving birth to their youngest son, who we only know as Boy (Phillip Alford). Aside from the war that’s going on all around them, things seem pretty good for the Anderson’s. They all sit down for a big delicious meal every night. They attend Church every Sunday where they’re usually late and given the side-eye by Pastor Bjoerling (Denver Pyle). One of the sons, James Anderson (Patrick Wayne) and his wife Ann (Katharine Ross), have a precious newborn baby to take care of. The beautiful daughter Jennie (Rosemary Forsyth) is being courted by, and eventually marries, a lovestruck confederate officer named Sam (Doug McClure). Unfortunately the war won’t just go away, and when Boy is taken prisoner by Union soldiers, Charlie can’t stand idly by any longer. They head out to find him and bring him home. 

In the guise of an entertaining semi-western, SHENANDOAH does a great job of illustrating how futile and randomly tragic war can be. The movie starts out lighthearted and fun as the family goes about its normal life, with Jimmy Stewart’s Charlie Anderson giving his homespun advice and rolling his cigars. This is a self-sufficient family that loves, respects and enjoys each other even if they don’t agree on everything. But the war keeps inching its way into their lives. First in the form of small group of confederate soldiers who come by to get some water and try to convince the boys to join up. None of the boys will join up, but they do help bury the soldiers when they’re ambushed and killed just down the road. Next a group of men come to the ranch to try to confiscate their horses for the Union army. Of course, Charlie Anderson isn’t going to let that happen and this turns into the type of brawl that seems to come right out of John Wayne western comedy like MCLINTOCK. Everybody joins in with the participants punching and being punched repeatedly, while Boy keeps getting knocked into the horse trough. This shouldn’t be a surprise because Director Andrew V. McLaglen directed MCLINTOCK and many other John Wayne films. Finally, Boy is taken prisoner because he is wearing a confederate cap that he found floating down the steam while he was out fishing one day. Once Charlie and most of his family head out to search for Boy, the movie begins a turn into tragedy. I won’t give the specifics away, but some members of the family will die, and not a single one of their deaths will be based on the actual fighting of a war. Rather, their deaths will be based on the chaos and depravity that surrounds the war. It’s tough to see, especially when they were all so happy just a little bit earlier. For me, the movie’s changes in tone make the tragedy more powerful and really drive home its message about the futility of war. But the Anderson family, like the United States of America after the Civil War, is made up of tough, resilient folks, and the movie ends on a hopeful note that definitely brought some extra moisture to my eyes. 

Jimmy Stewart commands the screen in SHENANDOAH. You simply can’t take your eyes off of him, and his performance alone would make the movie worth watching. But with its powerful message, excellent cast, and solid direction, the movie is much more than just Stewart’s strong performance. I highly recommend it. 

Retro Television Review: Fantasy Island 6.13 “Midnight Waltz/Let Them Eat Cake”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing the original Fantasy Island, which ran on ABC from 1977 to 1984.  Unfortunately, the show has been removed from most streaming sites.  Fortunately, I’ve got nearly every episode on my DVR.

This week, Roarke is in the director’s chair!

Episode 6.13 “Midnight Waltz/Let Them Eat Cake”

(Dir by Ricardo Montalban, originally aired on February 12th, 1983)

Adele Anthony (Adrienne Barbeau) is a hard-working waitress whose fantasy is to be a queen for the weekend.  Mr. Roarke asks her if there’s a country that she would like to rule over.  Adele shrugs and says that she’s always liked France.  Mr. Roarke has her shoot an arrow and suddenly, Adele Anthony is …. MARIE ANTOINETTE!

Yes, the same Marie Antoinette who was beheaded during the French Revolution.

Like, seriously, Mr. Roarke ….. she couldn’t have been any other queen?  I’m not really sure why Mr. Roarke decided to do this to Adele, who is probably about a saintly a guest as has ever visited Fantasy Island.  Occasionally, Roarke will use the fantasies to teach someone a lesson but Adele really hasn’t done anything to justify being beheaded.

Fortunately, Adele isn’t beheaded.  It turns out that Marie Antoinette was saved from the guillotine by Francois (Patrick Wayne), a leader of the revolution who was shocked to discover that the Queen was not as heartless as he had been led to believe and that she had actually been framed by her husband, Louis (James Coco) and Louis’s mistress, Baroness La Rue (Cathryn Damon).  Indeed, all Marie Antoinette did was suggest that the cake that the royals were going to have for desert should be given to the citizens, along with a lot of other food.  Louis spread the story that Marie Antoinette had said, “Let them eat cake.”

So, Marie Antoinette (and Adele) survives!  Meanwhile, Louis is dragged off to be beheaded.  Except, it turns out that Louis was just having a fantasy as well.  Louis is actually Mr. Willaker, who runs the Fantasy Island car towing service.  In lieu of paying him for his services, Roarke gave him a fantasy in which he was beheaded.  The episode ends with Willaker towing away Tattoo’s car.

Meanwhile, John Cook (Lew Ayres) is a widower who wants to have one last dance with his wife, Carol (played, in ghost form, by Rosemary DeCamp).  However, John meets and falls in love with Martha Wilson (Jane Wyatt) and instead dances with her.  Carol approves, saying that she doesn’t want John to spend the rest of his days in mourning.  It’s a pretty simple fantasy but you know what?  It still brought tears to my eyes and I still smiled at the end of it.  A lot of that is due to the Lew Ayres, one of the great actors of Golden Age Hollywood.  Ayres gives such a sincere and downright sweet performance that it’s impossible not to get swept up in his fantasy.

This was a good episode.  I’m still not sure that Adele needed to become Marie Antoinette but the last dance fantasy made up for a lot.  It was just so sweet!  This was the second (and last) episode of the series to be directed by Ricardo Montalban and he did a great job.

Retro Television Review: Fantasy Island 5.21 “The Big Bet/Nancy and the Thunderbirds”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing the original Fantasy Island, which ran on ABC from 1977 to 1984.  Unfortunately, the show has been removed from most streaming sites.  Fortunately, I’ve got nearly every episode on my DVR.

This week, it’s the last Julie episode.

Episode 5.21 “The Big Bet/Nancy and the Thunderbirds”

(Dir by Cliff Bole, originally aired on May 1st, 1982)

Because I’ve got a cold and I’ve still got a lot to do for the holidays, I’m only going to do a mini-review for this episode.  It’s not a very good episode so the less time spent talking about it, the better.

  • I knew this episode wasn’t going to be my cup of tea when Julie was the one who greeted Mr. Roarke as he stepped out of his office.  That’s nothing against Wendy Schaal, the actress who played Julie.  It’s just that the episodes in which Julie helps out Roarke are never as good as the Tattoo episodes.  Ricardo Montalban and Wendy Schaal just didn’t have the same type of entertaining chemistry as Montalban and Herve Villechaize.
  • I think a huge part of the problem with Julie is that she is Roarke’s goddaughter and spends a lot of time looking up to him and treating him like a father figure.  Tattoo and Roarke were, more or less, equals and they could relate to each other on a much more honest and, by the standards of the show, realistic fashion.
  • As for the fantasies, neither one is very interesting.
  • Mary Ann Mobley plays Nancy Carsons, who was adopted and raised by an Indian chief.  Nancy]s fantasy is to fulfil the Chief’s prophecy and conquer a thunderbird.  Apparently, only by doing this can Nancy prevent the tribe from falling apart when the Chief dies.  The problem is that the thunderbird is a mythological bird who does not exactly exist.
  • However, there is a squadron of airplanes known as the Thunderbirds and they’re visiting Fantasy Island.  Can Nancy, who is a licensed pilot, fly one of those plans and kind of make the prophecy come true?
  • Of course, she does!  And she also falls in love with Major Wood (Patrick Wayne) so, not only is the Tribe saved but Nancy will now be doing even more flying.
  • If the Thunderbirds fantasy was just kind of bland, the “Big Bet” fantasy is downright offensive, with Corky Daniels (John James) making a bet with his co-workers that he can have sex with Playpen model, Judy Moreau (Lydia Cornell).  Judy just happens to be on the Island, accompanied by Playpen published Hugh Hefner Al Henshaw (Edd Byrnes).
  • Corky tells Judy a lot of lies to get her to fall for him.  When Judy finds out about the bet, she’s so upset that she …. sleeps with Corky anyways.  But then Corky doesn’t tell his friends about sleeping with Judy and loses the bet which proves to Judy that he really does love her.
  • Now, let’s give credit where credit it due.  Both Roarke and Julie tell Corky that he’s being a sexist pig.  I always like it when Roarke gets offended with his guest’s because Montalban always seemed to enjoy playing up Roarke’s anger.  Mr. Roarke comes across as being the perfect host but you don’t want to get him mad.
  • Corky and Judy leave the Island together.  Judy should have tossed Corky in the lagoon.

We’ve got one episode left in season 5.  I checked and it’s a Tattoo episode, which means this week’s episode was Julie’s grand finale.  Unfortunately, it’s not really much of a finale.  Julie’s sudden presence on the Island was never really adequately explained, though it was kind of nice to be reminded that there’s always a lot taking place on the Island and Roarke doesn’t always have time to oversee every little thing.  I suppose Roarke probably has many assistants who we rarely see.

Because of the holidays, this is my final Fantasy Island review of 2024.  I will resume reviewing Fantasy Island on January 7th!

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 4.16 “Gopher’s Bride/Love with a Married Man/Not Tonight, Jack!”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing the original Love Boat, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986!  The series can be streamed on Paramount Plus!

This week’s cruise did not make me want to set course for adventure.

Episode 4.16 “Gopher’s Bride/Love with a Married Man/Not Tonight, Jack!”

(Dir by Richard Kinon, originally aired on January 24th, 1981)

This week’s episode is all about cabins.

For instance, Jack Clayton (Patrick Wayne) invited his girlfriend of four weeks, Helen Mann (Trish Stewart), to join him on the cruise without telling her that they would be sharing a cabin.  Sorry, Jack — Helen doesn’t go for that sort of thing!  Jack is kicked out and spends most of the cruise trying to find some place else to sleep.  (He also ends up awkwardly lugging his suitcase around with him.)  Eventually, Helen gets some romantic advice from Julie (always a mistake) and decides that it’s not fair to kick Jack out of the cabin that he paid for.  She tells him that he can stay in the cabin.  Jack’s like, “Finally, let’s get it on!”  No, Jack, Helen doesn’t go for that.  Instead, she plans on sleeping outdoors for the rest of the cruise!

The two of them work it out eventually.  When Jack objects to Helen sleeping outside, even if it means Jack would again have to find someplace else to go, Helen realizes that he actually does care about her and he’s not just interested in sex.  They leave the boat together, with Helen promising that she and Jack will always sleep in the same bed from now on.  I give their relationship another two weeks or so.

Meanwhile, Kay Tindal (Susan Oliver) wants Ned Beacham (Paul Burke) to come visit her cabin and Ned is sorely tempted because his wife, Margo (Dana Wynter), is such a workaholic.  Fortunately, Ned and Margo’s 24th anniversary falls right in the middle of the cruise and it causes Ned to realize that he still loves Margo and it causes Margo to realize that she spends too much time worrying about her career.  Ned and Margo leave the ship together while Kay can only watch from the staircase.  Ha!  Take that, homewrecker!

Finally, Gopher risks his job so that Nicole (Marie Laurin) can stay in his cabin.  Nicole is Gopher’s pen pal from Quebec.  (Actually, she was writing to Doc and Isaac who, for reasons that are never made clear, signed Gopher’s name to all of the letters.)  When Nicole shows up on the boat, Gopher takes one look at her and says that she can stay with him.  Of course, it’s against ship regulations for passengers to stay with crewmembers so, in order to keep Captain Stubing from finding out, Gopher tells him that Nicole is a new maid.  Gopher ends up doing all of Nicole’s work and Nicole ends up meeting and getting engaged to a passenger named Frank (Paul Gale).  Sorry, Gopher!

This was a pretty forgettable episode and it was a bit hard to sympathize with any of the passengers.  Jack was a cad.  Helen was a prude.  Kay was a homewrecker.  Ned was a wimp.  Margo was cold.  Nicole was so self-centered that she didn’t even notice that Gopher was killing himself with extra work to keep her from getting kicked off the boat.  I wouldn’t want to be on a cruise with any of these people.

On a slightly positive note, Captain Stubing did ask Vicki if she had done her homework so I now definitely know that Vicki has a tutor and is getting an education while living on the boat.  At least I don’t have to worry about that anymore!

Retro Television Review: Fantasy Island 4.22 “Hard Knocks/Lady Godiva”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing the original Fantasy Island, which ran on ABC from 1977 to 1984.  Almost the entire show is currently streaming on Daily Motion.

Welcome to Fantasy Island, where Mr. Roarke does whatever he wants.

Episode 4.22 “Hard Knocks/Lady Godiva”

(Dir by Don Weis, originally aired on May 9th, 1981)

Sheila Godfrey (Michelle Phillips) comes to Fantasy Island with a simple fantasy, one that Mr. Roarke manages to totally screw up.

Sheila grew up in Montana and loves horses.  Because she was often ill while she was growing up, she was often not allowed to ride as much as she would have liked.  Now, she wants to be the world’s most famous female equestrian.  To me, this seems like a pretty simple and straight-forward request.  Sheila is asking to be famous for riding a horse.

Roarke, however, decides that Sheila’s fantasy is that she wants to be the most famous female equestrian in history.  And, in Roarke’s opinion, that means that Sheila wants to be Lady Godiva.  Now, setting aside the idea that Mr. Roarke is suddenly such a stickler for detail that he’s forcing Sheila to go with a literal translation of her fantasy (which is something that no other guest has ever had to deal with), is Lady Godiva truly the most famous female equestrian ever?  Katharine Hepburn used to ride horses.  Belle Starr used to ride horses.  Joan of Arc rode a horse on occasion.  What about Annie Oakley?

But let’s accept that Sheila’s fantasy is to become Lady Godiva.  Roarke doesn’t even do that!  Instead, he gives her a magic horse named Lancelot, which Sheila rides into medieval England.  And, in the past, Lancelot turns into a donkey and Sheila is promptly arrested for poaching on a nobleman’s land.  Sheila ends up a servant to Lady Godiva (Gunilla Hutton), who is being imprisoned in her own castle for criticizing the taxes that her husband, Leo (Ken Berry, who is very much not British), has placed on the people living on his land.  When Leo says that he’ll release his wife and lower the taxes but only if she’ll agree to humiliate herself by riding her horse naked, Godiva agrees.  However, before the ride, she is given a magic potion that knocks her out.

It falls to Sheila to disguise herself as Godiva and take the famous ride.  The servants respect her decision and turn their back as she rides by on a horse.  Well, one guy does take a look and gets yelled at as a result.  “You’ll always be known as Peeping Tom!”

Sheila returns to the present and is somehow not upset about the fact that she really didn’t get her fantasy.  (Not only did she not get the fantasy she asked for but she didn’t even get the fantasy that Roarke claimed she was asking for.  I mean, even if we accept that Sheila’s fantasy was to be Lady Godiva, that didn’t happen.  Instead, she became a servant who pretended to be Lady Godiva.)  Roarke agrees to send her Lancelot and also informs her that handsome Sir John Apensdale (Patrick Wayne), who Sheila fell in love with while in the past, was actually a Montana rancher who was having a fantasy of his own.  And he’ll be happy to teach Sheila how to ride!

Meanwhile, Steve Pryor (Philip Levian) comes to the Island with the fantasy of being a hard-boiled detective.  Roarke gives Steve his fantasy and even provides him with a mentor to offer him advice.  Who is that mentor?  The ghost of Humphrey Bogart (played by Robert Sacchi)!  Only Steve can see Bogart, which leads to a lot of scenes of people wondering why Steve is talking to himself.

The case involves delivering a package, picking up a key to a safety deposit box, and dealing with a femme fatale (Martha Smith).  It’s a pretty simple case, to be honest.  But at least Steve gets to hang out with Bogart.  And, to give credit where credit is due, Robert Sacchi’s Bogart impersonation was spot-on.

This episode was silly enough to be likable.  That said, I do think Sheila could probably sue Mr. Roarke for not actually granting her fantasy.  Seriously, I wonder how many lawyers Mr. Roarke kept on retainer.

Retro Television Reviews: The Love Boat 3.8 “Play By Play/Cindy/What’s A Brother For?”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing the original Love Boat, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986!  The series can be streamed on Paramount Plus!

It’s time for a Halloween cruise!

Episode 3.8 “Play by Play/Cindy/What’s A Brother For?”

(Dir by James Sheldon and George Tyne, originally aired on October 27th, 1979)

Yes, this episode does feature the Love Boat’s annual Halloween cruise but sadly, it doesn’t do much with the theme.  Last season’s Halloween cruise featured Vincent Price as an illusionist.  This season, there is a costume ball but it’s mostly just there so that the show can do a take off on Cinderella.

Cindy (Melissa Sue Anderson) is a shy girl who boards the ship with her wicked stepmother (Carolyn Jones) and her two less-than appealing step-sisters (Ronda Bates and Lila Kent).  While the stepmother tries to find an eligible bachelor for either one of her biological daughters, Cindy is expected to stay in the cabin and do the laundry.  However, Gopher hears Cindy singing Witchcraft and decides that Cindy simply has to sing for “the prince of pop,” Preston Maddox (Frank Sinatra, Jr., who looks like a cross between his father and Jerry Lewis).  However, how can Cindy escape from the cabin?  Gopher arranges for her to go to the costume ball and he even steals Julia’s Cinderella costume so Cindy can go incognito.  Cindy impresses Preston but, when Julie sees that Cindy is wearing her costume, Cindy makes a run for it.  She leaves behind one glass slipper and …. well, you know where this is going, right?  As everyone disembarks in Los Angeles, Preston has them try to on the slipper.  Cindy, however, doesn’t have to try on the slipper to prove her identity.  She just has to start singing Witchcraft.  By the end of the episode, you’ll wonder if Cindy knows any other songs.

While all that is going on, Bud Pomeroy (Christopher George) and Peggy Rossmore (Lynda Day George) are two sportscasters who work together but actually dislike each other.  Peggy thinks Bud is a chauvinist and Bud thinks that Peggy was only hired for her looks.  They decide to compete in a series of athletic events to determine who will stay at their station and who will quit.  Bud wins at arm wrestling.  Peggy wins a 5-mile race around the ship.  To determine their third event, Peggy randomly draws a piece of paper from Captain Stubing’s hat and discovers that the next competition will be weight-lifting!  When Bud throws his back out, it looks like Cindy is going to win but then Cindy asks Bud to stay and they discover that they actually love each other.  Yay!  Neither the story nor the characters were that interesting but Christopher George and Lynda Day George were married in real life and they made an attractive couple.

Finally, Tom Benton (Tom Hallick) has devoted his entire life to looking after his brother, Matt (Patrick Wayne), who uses crutches.  When Tom meets and falls in love with Kris (Joan Van Ark), Matt realizes that it is time for Tom to move on and find some happiness of his own.

For the most part, this was a typically pleasant episode of The Love Boat but, as a Halloween episode, it was a major disappointment.  They should have had some fun with season but, unfortunately, they didn’t.  This was like going on a Christmas cruise and not getting any presents.

The Gatling Gun (1971, directed by Robert Gordon)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In the post-civil war west, two Calvary troopers steal a Gatling Gun, the weapon that was invented to be such a powerful instrument of death that people would stop fighting wars just to avoid finding themselves in front of its barrel.  (It didn’t work out that way, of course.)  With the help of a pacifist reverend named Harper (John Carradine), they smuggle the gun into Apache territory.  Rev. Harper thinks that the gun is going to be destroyed and, thus, another instrument death will be eliminated. from the world  Instead, the greedy troopers are planning on selling the gun to Apache Chief Two Knife (Carlos Rivas).  Two Knife has promised a fortune’s worth of gold to anyone who can deliver to him the deadliest weapon in the west.

Before the gun can be exchanged, the reverend, his daughter, and the two deserters are intercepted by a group of Calvary troops led by Lt. Wayne Malcolm (Guy Stockwell).  One of the deserters is killed while the other, Pvt. Sneed (Robert Fuller) is captured.

However, Chief Two Knife still wants what he calls “the king gun.”  Malcolm and his troops find themselves pinned down by the Apaches.  Can Malcolm, with the help of a rancher (Phil Harris), a scout (Woody Strode), and a cook (Pat Buttram), keep both the gun and the all important firing pin from falling into the hands of Two Knife?

The Gatling Gun is a low-budget western that would probably be today forgotten except that it has fallen into the public domain and has been included in several DVD box sets.  It has the flat, generic look of a Western television show and Guy Stockwell’s stiff performance may be believable for a 19th century Calvary captain but it’s still doesn’t exactly make for compelling viewing.  The main problem is that the most exciting and interesting part of the story, the two deserters stealing the gun and tricking the Reverend into helping them, occurs off-screen and the movie instead begins with Malcolm capturing Sneed.

Western fans will mostly want to watch this one to see John Carradine and Woody Strode, two very different actors who were both favorites of John Ford’s and who appeared in several other, better westerns.  (Strode and Carradine had both previously appeared in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, to name just one example.)  Carradine is typically theatrical, delivering his lines like the old Shakespearean that he was.  Strode, as usual, is stoic but his imposing screen presence makes him the most memorable of the film’s heroes.  Also keep an eye out for Patrick “son of John” Wayne, playing the rancher’s son.

Though The Gatling Gun has the look of a film that was shot on a studio backlot in Hollywood, it was actually filmed, on location, in New Mexico.  The state’s then-governor, David Cargo, has a small role as Corporal Benton and is listed in the credits as “Honorable Governor David Cargo.”  A look at his imdb page reveals that David Cargo appeared in four films while he was governor.  All of them were filmed in New Mexico so I guess casting the governor was a requirement for filming in that state.  When Cargo left office in 1971, his movie career ended.