This is an odd number. We are back in Dallas. The boys stop to help out Zina Bethune, whose car has stopped functioning. (Zina was previously in the third ever episode, "The Swan Bed ". She looks a lot older here, although she's still only 17.) Another car pulls up. Michael Tolan gets out and offers to help. He suggests that Zina would be more comfortable in his car, with him and his sister, (Elena Verdugo, later to become Marcus Welby's nurse). When Zina says she's prefer Tod and Buz, Tolan produces a gun and orders them in his car- Buz and Zina in front and Tod in back- under his feet. He takes them to a hotel and holds them there.
Then a tycoon who had been forced to flee the country, Robert Vesco style, (a decade before Vesco), and who has eluded the police to re- enter the country just to see his daughter, who, ashamed of what her father has done, is entering a convent. Tolan, (who set up Zina's car for the breakdown), is his henchman and his sister is the tycoon's lover. The tycoon tries to convince her not to "throw away her life" because of him. When that fails, he goes to the convent and tries to bribe the nun with a $100,000 contribution in exchange for refusing to take his daughter. But he finds his money can't buy everything.
Throughout the episode you assume that the police will close in and capture the tycoon and the mean-spirited Tolan will get his and die in the arms of his avaricious sister. (They are the types a cynical tycoon would likely find himself surrounded by.) You also wonder what Tod and Buz's fate will be, (but I bet they'll survive). They don't kill our heroes, even though they are witnesses and the cops do not get them. The tycoon and his hangers-on fly off at the end. I guess their punishment is that they deserve each other. Tod and Buz, touched by the tycoon's fatherly concern, (he even lets the nun keep the money), stall the police so they can get away.
The tycoon is played by a very unlikely actor, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., whose acting style is very reminiscent of Ronald Coleman. Both play poetic, idealistic characters very well. When Fairbanks tells the nun that he did what he did because the meanness and selfishness of others convinced him the human race shouldn't be dealt with fairly, it lacks credibility. Fairbanks otherwise does very well with the flowery Silliphant dialog and makes the character as sympathetic as the writer wanted him to be. But he hardly seems like a ruthless businessman or international crook.
Beatrice Straight appears as the nun and, as in "Most Vanquished, Most Victorious" from season one, (as well as "Network", for which she won an Oscar), makes a very strong impression in a very short appearance, giving the episode what little moral anchor it seems to have.
James Brown appears for the fourth of his eight times in this series. In both this and "Aren't Your Surprised to See Me?" he's playing a Dallas police officer who interacts with Tod and Buz but there's no reference in either episode to the other one. In the prior episode he's "Captain Strode". In this one he's just listed as "Sheriff". Why not make him the same character?
Then a tycoon who had been forced to flee the country, Robert Vesco style, (a decade before Vesco), and who has eluded the police to re- enter the country just to see his daughter, who, ashamed of what her father has done, is entering a convent. Tolan, (who set up Zina's car for the breakdown), is his henchman and his sister is the tycoon's lover. The tycoon tries to convince her not to "throw away her life" because of him. When that fails, he goes to the convent and tries to bribe the nun with a $100,000 contribution in exchange for refusing to take his daughter. But he finds his money can't buy everything.
Throughout the episode you assume that the police will close in and capture the tycoon and the mean-spirited Tolan will get his and die in the arms of his avaricious sister. (They are the types a cynical tycoon would likely find himself surrounded by.) You also wonder what Tod and Buz's fate will be, (but I bet they'll survive). They don't kill our heroes, even though they are witnesses and the cops do not get them. The tycoon and his hangers-on fly off at the end. I guess their punishment is that they deserve each other. Tod and Buz, touched by the tycoon's fatherly concern, (he even lets the nun keep the money), stall the police so they can get away.
The tycoon is played by a very unlikely actor, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., whose acting style is very reminiscent of Ronald Coleman. Both play poetic, idealistic characters very well. When Fairbanks tells the nun that he did what he did because the meanness and selfishness of others convinced him the human race shouldn't be dealt with fairly, it lacks credibility. Fairbanks otherwise does very well with the flowery Silliphant dialog and makes the character as sympathetic as the writer wanted him to be. But he hardly seems like a ruthless businessman or international crook.
Beatrice Straight appears as the nun and, as in "Most Vanquished, Most Victorious" from season one, (as well as "Network", for which she won an Oscar), makes a very strong impression in a very short appearance, giving the episode what little moral anchor it seems to have.
James Brown appears for the fourth of his eight times in this series. In both this and "Aren't Your Surprised to See Me?" he's playing a Dallas police officer who interacts with Tod and Buz but there's no reference in either episode to the other one. In the prior episode he's "Captain Strode". In this one he's just listed as "Sheriff". Why not make him the same character?