In recent years, I've really enjoyed watching a lot of the cop and detective shows of the 1960s and 70s. Who would have known I would have enjoyed shows like "Mannix", "Hawaii Five-O", "Cannon" and "Columbo" so much? Well, since I'd finished up all of these shows and several more, I thought I would give "McCloud" a try....and not surprisingly I started at the beginning with the pilot movie from early 1970. The series would begin about six months later....because apparently someone was impressed by it. I wasn't. Now this isn't to say it was a bad movie...but it certainly wasn't as good as I would have expected for the show to be given the green light.
Deputy Marshall McCloud (Dennis Weaver) is headed to New York City with a man who fled to avoid testifying in a murder case. Oddly, however, after he and the suspect are loaded into a police van, it's stopped and the folks inside are gassed. When McCloud awakens, he learns that the man he brought to New York is gone...snatched by the folks who gassed the truck. Now the reaction to this is just weird, as the police and media start blaming McCloud. Huh?! He was in a police van and it was gassed and the officers driving were taken out...but it's McCloud's fault??
The rest of the film show McCloud running all over New York trying to put the pieces together to see where the man is as well as investigate the original murder. And, when he gets no where, McCloud employs a terrible and nonsensical cliche from old B-mystery movies....he sets a trap to see who would try to kill him. This final portion really made no sense at all and I cannot see any sane lawman doing this....nor any perpetrator falling for it.
The bottom line is that the show had a lot of plot problems, though I did enjoy seeing Dennis Weaver as a fish out of water from New Mexico in the big city. I also liked seeing and hearing him talk to suspects in Spanish...he wasn't bad. Overall, a very flawed film...but mildly interesting.