EVERYTHING ELSE YOU CAN STEAL

• Aren’t those two kids a little young to pass as Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry? They look around 18 and the wanted posters age our favorite outlaws in their late twenties. The only similarities I see between these two imposters and the real men is their hair color. I wonder if there was such a thing as a casting director in the 1970s.
• Gee, I hope they bury that horrible vest with Billy Black…
  
• Ah, a scene of our boys riding into a new town…only something seems amiss. The music, the speed of their walking horses, the gingerly way they dismount those horses…I think these men are exhausted. Trail dirty and worn…I’d say they could use a bath and a back rub. *sigh* I’d be happy to volunteer…
• Even though it is spoken exactly as written in the script, I think Peter made an error in modulation—and judgment—on his line: “I was hoping that you’d come up with a bright side to our situation.” He put the emphasis on the word hoping—giving the sense that what he was hoping for had been fulfilled. But it hadn’t. I think the inflection should have been on the word bright in order for the line to work, and the writer, “John Thomas James” miswrote the line.
• I love Kid putting his hat down over his eyes and leaning his head back in the sun, and Heyes, feeling some apparent back pain, sitting forward a bit with his legs outstretched as he picks up the newspaper…the image of both men on that bench is quite stunning really.

• This is the first episode in which Peter wears his ring. It makes me sad. I had a dream about Peter and his ring and since then I have formed a belief of what it meant to him inwardly. I have a hard time whenever I see the ring glisten in the sunlight, like now—or I notice Peter glance at it or adjust it on his finger. He seems very conscious of it in this and the episodes to come…as if he is trying to make sure it is seen, and also trying to remind himself what it means to him. Seeing it hurts my heart.
  
• Hey, are they exiting Wickenburg yet again??
  
• I chuckle as Peter parks Clay too close to the tree and has difficulty dismounting because Ben has brought his horse right up next to Clay. Peter has to push on the tree and get his foot untangled from the bedroll behind the saddle before he squeezes between the two horses to open space, while Ben remains completely oblivious to the whole thing. It is so like Peter to just continue on with the scene rather than insist it be done over until he achieves perfection. One of the things I adore the most about the series is the little missteps …the tiny moments where we see the real people involved and their very human nuances.

• I think Peter’s back was bothering him in this episode. When it did, he tended to jut his stomach forward and his butt back…it is a very pleasant posture on him, and a very common one for back pain sufferers. I wish he weren’t in pain, of course, but he sure looked good when he stood that way.
• I love the exchange about whether to get a drink or go see the sheriff with the prophetic last name first. The boys each share their opinions—but in the end Heyes wins as he takes Kid’s arm and says “Let’s go get a drink second. C’mon.” and that is the final word. It is the way most conflicts between them end, with Heyes the victor—but I don’t think it is necessarily that Heyes is right; it all really falls on the fact that the Kid is willing to acquiesce, and I don’t believe in most situations Heyes would be as willing.

• I guess I am dense (nobody say a word…) but I don’t get the joke Heyes makes after the sheriff derides the boys about their choice of being bounty hunters. Heyes replies with a grin and “oh we just didn’t have no choice, Sheriff, after we got done shooting all the buffalo.” What does that mean?? Just that bounty hunters are more vile than those who nearly obliterated the existence of buffalo? A history lesson, please, someone…
• Sometimes the voiceovers used stand out like a sore thumb. Here is an example when the Kid says “Oh, yeah, yeah, sure…” to Heyes’ suggestion there has to be something they can do. I’m not even sure it is Ben’s voice at all—it actually seems much too emotive to have come from Ben.
• Always the doomsayer, poor Kid is ready to pack it all in and move to South America. And giving in to Heyes’ idea to have a drink first he can’t resist the temptation to at least chide Heyes with “Oh, yeah, it’s probably like the sheriff’s office—the one saloon west of the Mississippi we can walk into like a pair of Texas Rangers.”
  
• Heyes reverts to his familiar boyish enthusiasm when he claps his hands at the sight of Jenny, then happily hugs and kisses her and laughs. He is an affectionate man, much more so than it first appears. It would be very easy not to notice how he continues to hold Jenny’s arm as she is hugged by the Kid—letting his touch linger there for the entire embrace—and gently gives her arm a loving squeeze.

• I love the aesthetics of the moment when Heyes leans in to Jenny and tells her he is Joshua Smith and the Kid is Thaddeus Jones. There is something about the cut of the camera angle, seeing only part of Heyes’ profile that is just delicious.

• I like Ann Sothern. I like her very contradictory sides…a combination of raunchy and feminine. She plays tough but gentle very well and I think she is perfect for this role.
• When did the Kid start wearing that strange tan jacket with dark lapel and cuffs? Did I fall asleep or something? It doesn’t seem his style to me.

• I would like some back story on who Jenny is to the boys, especially to Heyes. He seems to have a particular fondness for her and I wonder if she was a mother figure to him somewhere along the line. He seems to revere her in the way a son looks on his mother, and I suspect when he and the Kid first ran away from the Valparaiso School for Waywards, she may have given them shelter in some saloon backroom or something.
• I can honestly say I don’t criticize people based on their looks. No one can help how their genetic makeup designed them. I may pick apart the clothes they wear, or ridicule their fake fingernails, or style of hair—all things they can easily change; I may even go so far as to analyze the shape of their butt, but I don’t hold their natural looks against them, or mock them for it. But, my god, I do draw the line at this guy. Mr. Blodgett is so vastly unappetizing, I can’t help but comment. It IS his looks that bother me…it is the persistently protruding and wet lips, hanging there like slabs of warm, raw bacon; formulated in such a way as to expose every tooth and bit of drool. This man simply makes my stomach revolt. How he looks is not his fault—but this actor, Kermit Murdock, does everything in his power to make his mouth even more distasteful by exaggerating the flabby looseness of it—he could suck in his lips a bit, instead of projecting them further outward. I mean really. Ugh. And when this guy stands up, fleshy lips pushed forward, discolored bottom teeth wet and inescapably visible and says, “And what do you think of that?” I almost feel sick. Boy. That is one exceptionally unappealing man. He does fit the bill when it comes to his description in the script though, in all but one instance: “Henry Blodgett sits behind his desk. He is tall, thin, middle-aged, pompous and remarkably ugly.” Can’t argue with that. And here, for your viewing pleasure—two images of the unique Mr. Blodgett.

• Thank god our Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry were there to lighten the unpleasantness of the scene…seeing two handsome men there to neutralize the distastefulness of the other is a very welcome sight indeed.
• I loved Jessica Walter in the wonderful 1971 Clint Eastwood movie Play Misty for Me. It is one of my top 50 movies of all time, probably. The movie came out about a month before this episode aired, so I imagine I was excited to see Miss Walter in the role of Louise, although I have no memory at all of even being aware of it.
  

• I am confused by what the Kid says about Louise: “She’s innocent. A girl who looks like that couldn’t be involved in anything worse than a bundling party.” I can’t find any reference anywhere as to what a bundling party is. Do any of you know?
• I love the exchange between Heyes and the kid about what their mothers thought of them. Heyes asks in all seriousness, “Kid, did your mother think you were perfect?” The Kid seems pleased by the question and assures Heyes that yes, his mother did think he was perfect, only to be shot down by Heyes’ wisecrack that she was wrong. I never quite understand where these little digs come from or why, but I tend to enjoy them quite a lot. I love Heyes as a smart ass. It fits him well, as long as the teasing isn’t mean spirited.
• I don’t quite understand what exactly Louise means by make love. When a drunk man you aren’t dating comes in and tries to “make love” to you—I would take that to mean, although the wording is misguided, that he attempted to rape you. But who would let a man in that frame of mind then walk you home, alone—away from public view—to clear his head? Maybe he tried to kiss her, maybe that’s what she meant by make love…but the looks Heyes and Curry exchange when she uses that term confuses me even further. The Kid seems bothered by the idea of what Caleb White tried to do to Louise, while Heyes appears slightly amused. I am at a loss. This is kind of poor writing in my opinion, not letting us in on the joke…
• DON'T FALL FOR A COIN FLIP, KID!!! Boy, when will you learn??

• I really enjoy the whole scene of the Kid up in the tree, keeping a close watch on Louise’s comings and goings. It is a testament to the character of Kid Curry—a powerless slave to his primal needs. If he is hungry this boy must eat and if his body says sleep, the Kid sleeps. It is as simple as that.

• How cute when two cats—slave to their own primal needs—do some caterwauling and startle poor Kid, who has been snoozing on the job, right out of the tree! It is a laugh out loud moment!
• Mmmm… *sigh* Why is it seeing Heyes do something as mundane as shave makes me catch my breath and watch it again and again? What is it about this man? ®®§
• What a lovely view of Peter’s forearms and hands...a very special treat for me. Like a decadent piece of rich chocolate found in a bowl of jelly beans…just a wonderful, unexpected pleasure.

• Kid, tired from watching Louise all night, falls asleep while drowsily telling Heyes what he has seen. Heyes, face still covered with shaving cream, gently takes Kid’s hat from his hands and tenderly covers his friend with a quilt. This moment ties with the care he gave the Kid when he fell ill in Night of the Red Dog as my favorite “couple’s moment” in the series. Absolutely beautiful.

• Ben does some of his best acting in scenes where he is falling asleep or waking up! It seems he is fully in character and he is a natural at it…
• I really like the shooting of this scene through the mirror…it is some of director Alex Singer’s best work on the series and features a ploy that he uses in several of the episodes he directs, that of having a primary character blocked from our sight until he is ready for us to see the whole picture. Here, there is the moment when Heyes’ out of focus elbow obstructs the view of the Kid reclining on the bed, reminding us that Heyes is still there shaving and we are watching through the mirror, and I find it to be really exceptional directing.

• It is not my favorite butt shot of Heyes however, which is regrettable, since there is certainly plenty of time here for ogling. His pants are pulled up way too high and from behind in this scene, he looks kind of like an old man! I am satisfied by my last few moments gazing on his forearms and hands, and the sentimentality of him lovingly covering his friend with the quilt, so I don’t feel too let down by a substandard butt shot—this once, anyway.

• Heyes sees Louise go into the bank, and following her, steps off the porch and walks to the bank. Posture erect, steps confident...Damn, baby, I do so enjoy watching you walk. A few moments later he emerges, walks a few steps, pauses, grins and turns to his left…have mercy! I think I will watch that again. And again. ® *sigh*

• The script describes Jenny as a “bountiful, flamboyant, once-beautiful woman in her late forties with an ample figure.” It tickles me to know that Ann Sothern was 62 when she played this role—she seems closer to the late forties, as the script speculates, to me. I love that she isn’t thin, and completely discredit the description of “once-beautiful”—she’s a great looking old broad… *grin*

• Heyes tells Jenny if they can’t get things worked out here, he and the Kid might go to South America. “You two can’t even speak South American!” she responds. Very clever.
• That is some of the most uncomfortable, discombobulated kissing I have ever witnessed between two actors. It is almost as if they are fighting each other. I wonder if Jessica Walter and Patrick O’Neal hated each other in real life or something.

• I absolutely adore the moment when Heyes leaves Jenny and as she ribs the cowboys she is rejoining at her card table with “If you can count to twenty-one you can take all I got—and I got plenty!” he pauses to listen and gets this amazing grin on his face, showing reverence and love for this bawdy woman. Again I am bound to wonder what their story is. It had to be more than the script describes simply as a woman “the boys knew warmly and well during their lamented days as Wyoming desperadoes”. I just feel like she has saved them, or protected them, or mothered them at some point passed. ®

• What could possibly be better than Heyes wandering around in long johns? I’ll tell you. Heyes wandering around in long johns WITHOUT extra underwear holding everything tight and confined under them. Still lovely, though. Just not as lovely as free range long johns might have been. *sigh*
  
• I do very much enjoy the shape of Heyes’ thigh as he reclines in his long johns. Mmmm…§

• I may be a fanatic. I may be obsessed. That’s nothing new. But I just freeze-framed the scene where you clearly see Heyes’ bare foot. I have seen a picture of that very foot, of a barefoot Peter sitting on the stairs to his Fuller Avenue apartment, in which his toes looked very strange and it was disturbing to me. [:Picturing Pete Duel, cover] I see now, though, that his foot looks very normal and even kind of cute and that he must have just had his toes curled under in the publicity photo.

• The whole middle of the night interaction between the two men is fun and amusing. Heyes is entirely self-absorbed, not concerned in the least that he has woken Kid from a deep sleep. We have seen it before—this need to connect when Kid is sleeping—and we have seen how the Kid doesn’t really mind when he realizes his partner needs to talk. It is a nice bond between the two men. They really do complete each other.

• I’m really kind of put off by all the scenes between Jessica Walter and Patrick O’Neal. I can’t explain why. They all just feel uncomfortable to me.
• A private moment of pride by Heyes for the Kid and a stroke to his own healthy ego as Kid informs Louise at the picnic that there is no way to open a Pierce and Hamilton ‘78 by manipulating the tumblers. He tells her authoritatively that Heyes tried it in Denver in ‘79 and again 10 weeks ago, and both times had to use nitro, and Heyes appreciatively smiles at the Kid’s knowledge. The look he shoots at the Kid just a moment later, when he oversteps and offers to show Louise Billy and Caleb’s graves, is quite the opposite in flavor though.
• There’s Shoshone! I have watched this episode at least a dozen times and this is the first time I have noticed her here…maybe because I tend to look away in scenes featuring Mr. Blodgett! She is always on the move, a real live action girl--making it exceedingly difficult to get a good vidcap of her!

• When I first rediscovered Alias Smith and Jones, I read a fan discussion about the scene in this episode where Louise tells the boys she doesn’t believe in killing, and that she would not help the territory of New Mexico kill Kenneth Blake. It was after reading this fan discussion—opining that no one was against the death penalty in those days and that made the episode unrealistic—that made me entirely stop reading other peoples’ opinions about the show. I found the idea that anyone could think that at any time in history no one opposed the death penalty so absurd…so wildly naïve…that I decided just to branch out on my own when it came to opinions about Alias Smith and Jones, and it was actually that fan discussion that propelled me to begin writing my notes.
• The fact that Louise is suddenly a strong woman, schooling Heyes and Curry on the fact that women have brains and frequently use them, is surprising to me. It is a pleasant surprise, but one I wish the build up of Louise’s character throughout the episode would have better supported.
  
• Why did Louise deserve the rude comment Heyes throws at her at the train station? It offends me and makes me want to take him by the ear and remind him of his manners. He’s no angel himself, after all. I am pleased that he realizes his words may have been meaner than he intended them and he apologizes. Good for him.

• The looks Jenny gives our stricken outlaws as she is escorted from the bank after shooting the man who cold-bloodedly murdered her son are heartbreaking. I read so much into them, it is almost a conversation, It’s ok boys…I’ll be all right…He killed my son…You know how I loved my Billy…Like I love you boys…
  

• I like the cute old guy with his trousers pulled up almost to his armpits. He adds a momentary light note to a horrible reality—that Jenny has just as cold-bloodedly murdered the man as the man cold-bloodedly murdered her own son.

• Oh, my god, have mercy…this image, this moment, just makes me swoon…how exquisitely beautiful… *appreciative sigh*

• Poor Louise seems so abandoned, so in need of friends, as our boys take their leave of the town. It feels slightly shameful to me that they don’t stay around to see to it in some way that Jenny is exonerated. I feel a certainty that they owe that woman for deeds passed.
• I suppose someone will want to throw a rotten tomato at me, but I just can’t stand the final scene or the poem—neither of which fit anything in the show for me. Why would either of these men give a rat’s ass whether Kenneth Blake has a headstone? How does that poem work anyway, in correlation to Kenneth Blake? What sense does any of this make? Here’s my suggestion. Get off the damned train, go back to your friends in need—Jenny and Louise—and use that $100 toward Jenny’s defense fund. THAT is poetic.