By my (probably inaccurate) count, Stephen Kandel had his name in the writing credits of at least fourteen network TV episodes during the 1971-72 season, down from about twenty-one the previous year. Most are hour-long crime dramas (two scripts each for detectives Mannix and Cannon, one for Longstreet, plus a story for Cade's County) and medical dramas (three scripts for Medical Center, one for The Bold Ones: The New Doctors). His one half-hour script this year is an interesting episode of Room 222. Of course, the IMDB may not be listing all his credits, plus Kandel was known to do script doctoring and use pen names, so he may have been even busier than he appears. Says Kandel: "I'm a very fast writer. I can write an hour show in a couple of days, no problem."
"Conqueror's Gold" is the first of the three scripts he contributed to that season's short-lived Bearcats! Adventure series, a teleplay co-written by Alexander Richards, from a story by Richards. It's one of Kandel's typically busy pulp thrillers; a "white savior" tale where the good whites (a British newspaperwoman, our two mercenary heroes, and a comic relief sidekick) rescue the good non-whites (Indians held hostage) from the bad whites (murderous gold thieves). Much of the action takes place in a spectacular location, on and around a towering mesa topped by ruins which hold the hidden gold. Along the way, we get: murders, a jail break, a mountain lion, an escape attempt, plans going awry, some sneaking around in the dark, an ingenious effort to bluff the bad guys, a car chase, fistfights; you name it.
The series' premise is enjoyably far-fetched; sort of a less campy, early 20th century version of "The Wild Wild West." Circa 1914, two handsome masculine guys (who frequently romance beautiful women, just in case anybody gets the wrong idea) drive their fancy sports car, a Stutz Bearcat, through the American southwest renting themselves out as mercenaries to anyone who will give them a (literal) blank check and having adventures that are supposed to be fun and thrilling. Naturally, it doesn't always work out that way, but series star Rod Taylor valiantly tries to save even the worst episodes with his engaging talent and charisma. The other regular, Dennis Cole, is solid and likable.
In "Gold," English actress Jane Merrow plays an uptight, bespectacled, plainly dressed journalist who loosens up and turns into a sexy "distraction" with a plunging neckline under the tutelage of our macho heroes -- an unconvincing subplot, but mostly played for laughs, so I guess we're supposed to not take it too seriously and forgive it. ("Do you know the trouble with you two? You're not used to being 'round a lady." "Don't want a lady. Want a woman.") This "Hero Defrosts the Ice Queen" trope is a favorite of Kandel's, going back to some of his earliest teleplays. Given the character's transformative arc and Merrow's broad acting, I wondered if she had ever played Eliza Doolittle in a stage production of either "Pygmalion" or "My Fair Lady"; I looked it up and, sure enough, she starred in a British "Lady" a few years earlier.
Other standouts in the cast: Kevin McCarthy as the nasty, intelligent villain; Pepper Martin as the broad comic relief sidekick who "hasn't got the brains to get out of a cardboard box if the ends were open"; Tom Nardini as an heroic padre who does what he can to minimize the bloodshed.
Richard Donner directs, still a few years away from his big movie hits, "The Omen" and "Superman," and there's some interesting camerawork: striking helicopter shots and other views of the mesa, a couple of unobtrusive tracking shots with no cuts that run longer than a minute, and a car chase that's surprisingly exciting given that they probably couldn't afford to wreck their expensive replicas of vintage autos. Fine work by the stunt crew throughout.
"Conqueror's Gold" is the first of the three scripts he contributed to that season's short-lived Bearcats! Adventure series, a teleplay co-written by Alexander Richards, from a story by Richards. It's one of Kandel's typically busy pulp thrillers; a "white savior" tale where the good whites (a British newspaperwoman, our two mercenary heroes, and a comic relief sidekick) rescue the good non-whites (Indians held hostage) from the bad whites (murderous gold thieves). Much of the action takes place in a spectacular location, on and around a towering mesa topped by ruins which hold the hidden gold. Along the way, we get: murders, a jail break, a mountain lion, an escape attempt, plans going awry, some sneaking around in the dark, an ingenious effort to bluff the bad guys, a car chase, fistfights; you name it.
The series' premise is enjoyably far-fetched; sort of a less campy, early 20th century version of "The Wild Wild West." Circa 1914, two handsome masculine guys (who frequently romance beautiful women, just in case anybody gets the wrong idea) drive their fancy sports car, a Stutz Bearcat, through the American southwest renting themselves out as mercenaries to anyone who will give them a (literal) blank check and having adventures that are supposed to be fun and thrilling. Naturally, it doesn't always work out that way, but series star Rod Taylor valiantly tries to save even the worst episodes with his engaging talent and charisma. The other regular, Dennis Cole, is solid and likable.
In "Gold," English actress Jane Merrow plays an uptight, bespectacled, plainly dressed journalist who loosens up and turns into a sexy "distraction" with a plunging neckline under the tutelage of our macho heroes -- an unconvincing subplot, but mostly played for laughs, so I guess we're supposed to not take it too seriously and forgive it. ("Do you know the trouble with you two? You're not used to being 'round a lady." "Don't want a lady. Want a woman.") This "Hero Defrosts the Ice Queen" trope is a favorite of Kandel's, going back to some of his earliest teleplays. Given the character's transformative arc and Merrow's broad acting, I wondered if she had ever played Eliza Doolittle in a stage production of either "Pygmalion" or "My Fair Lady"; I looked it up and, sure enough, she starred in a British "Lady" a few years earlier.
Other standouts in the cast: Kevin McCarthy as the nasty, intelligent villain; Pepper Martin as the broad comic relief sidekick who "hasn't got the brains to get out of a cardboard box if the ends were open"; Tom Nardini as an heroic padre who does what he can to minimize the bloodshed.
Richard Donner directs, still a few years away from his big movie hits, "The Omen" and "Superman," and there's some interesting camerawork: striking helicopter shots and other views of the mesa, a couple of unobtrusive tracking shots with no cuts that run longer than a minute, and a car chase that's surprisingly exciting given that they probably couldn't afford to wreck their expensive replicas of vintage autos. Fine work by the stunt crew throughout.