We learn Paladin has yet another area of expertise - high stakes Five Card Stud . Note Peter Falk as young man with a twisted sadistic streak. Warren Oates with no lines as the standing armed kibitzer in the background. Oates later to become one of Sam Peckinpahs Wild Bunch.
3 Reviews
Not below average at all
S74rw4rd1 May 2021
Warning: Spoilers
I like the rare supernatural-seeming western episode (like, for example, Twilight Zone's episode, "The Grave)"---and seeing this for the first time, I felt like it was certainly skirting the supernatural when the discussion became metaphysical about playing for the weak man's soul. And I believe Peter Falk delivered a superb performance as an agent of evil---whether he was only a human being (as sinister in his way as, say, Jack the Ripper), or actually a demonic entity. His exact nature is not clarified by the end of the episode, leaving the viewer to speculate as to what he might really have been, or what Falk might have thought the character could have been. My impression on this first viewing is that Falk made his character as sinister as he made Columbo comic, but, like Columbo's comedy, the sinister-ness is very subtle, and could be interpreted more than one way. As a Western series episode, it was engaging; but I do not think I would care to watch it on All Hallows' Eve.
Below Average
dougdoepke12 May 2011
Paladin's hired by a wife to bring back her rich husband before he loses their fortune in a five- month poker marathon! Naturally, the gamblers don't want to lose their pigeon, so trouble ensues.
You don't expect to see dude types like Peter Falk or Jack Weston in a macho Western, but here they are, thankfully playing gamblers instead of cowpokes. It's an odd entry, entirely indoors, and about gambling addiction. The story's not very believable since Weston's character is so pathetic, yet tough broad Sommers is supposedly stuck on him. In fact, the narrative as a whole is rather hard to follow, especially the showdown poker game where Falk and Paladin play for Weston's "soul". But then maybe that's just me. I wish there were some kind of highlight to single out, but, in my book, there just isn't, adding up to a sub-standard entry.
You don't expect to see dude types like Peter Falk or Jack Weston in a macho Western, but here they are, thankfully playing gamblers instead of cowpokes. It's an odd entry, entirely indoors, and about gambling addiction. The story's not very believable since Weston's character is so pathetic, yet tough broad Sommers is supposedly stuck on him. In fact, the narrative as a whole is rather hard to follow, especially the showdown poker game where Falk and Paladin play for Weston's "soul". But then maybe that's just me. I wish there were some kind of highlight to single out, but, in my book, there just isn't, adding up to a sub-standard entry.
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