User Reviews

This episode was the second season premiere of Laredo.It introduced ranger Eric Hunter(Robert Wolders wearing the fanciest outfits ever seen in the wild west)as a regular cast member,as well as new duds for Chad(a blue bib shirt,black vest,& new hat) & Joe(a nifty looking buckskin shirt)that were superior to what they wore in the first season.Midas Mantee is an intelligent,well read,criminal mastermind.He intends to use camels as an escape across a desert with his recently stolen gold.He uses laughing gas to render the guards in the bank(Reese & a deputy)unconscious so that his gang can break in & steal the gold.It almost sounds like a plot out of Mission:Impossible or The Wild,Wild West.It all ends with an exciting shootout between the Texas Rangers & Mantee & his gang at an abandoned army fort that was used as Mantee's hideout.There were some gaffes with the plot I felt.Firstly,Joe Riley manages to track the gang at night,quite a feat in itself even for a top tracker as Joe.He's alone & simply rides up to the fort & is captured by the outlaws.That seems like a pretty dumb move on Joe's part.When the rangers & the gang battle it out in the fort we see the horses scatter due not only to all the gunfire but because they naturally are skittish around camels.At the end of the episode Reese is riding on top of one camel,Chad & Joe together on another as the criminals,tied up,walk in front of them.Did all the horses run away,were Reese,Chad & Joe unable to capture any? How come Reese & Chad aren't riding their own horses? When they first arrived at the fort,they tied up their mounts well outside the fort in order to sneak up & into it.So their horses should have still been waiting for them at the conclusion of the battle.This also is the only episode of the show where we hear Joe sing a few lyrics from the classic country western song Streets of Laredo,& later hear it as background music during the duel between Chad & Eric.

The second season of "Laredo" finds our trio of good ole' boy Texas Rangers dressed in different outfits as well as the addition of a fourth so they constitute a quartet. Dutch actor Robert Wolders joined them for the show's final season as a French dude named Erik Hunter. Hunter dresses himself in fashionably elegant apparel, but he can hold his own against his rough and rowdy Ranger cohorts. This first episode, entitled "The Legend of Midas Mantee," written by "Black Hole" scenarist Gerry Day and freshman writer B.W. Sandefur, is inventive and often hilarious. The use of Nitrous oxide (N2O), dental laughing gas, and camels distinguishes this television oater about a career-criminal, Midas Mantee (Cliff Osmond of "Oklahoma Crude"), who has planned an elaborate gold robbery. Mantee wears a suit and necktie, walks with a noticeable limp, and carries a cane, with a razor-sharp blade encased in the tip. He has made good use of his time in prison to research these robberies. Erik Hunter (Robert Wolders of "Raid on Rommel") takes charge of the situation, while Reese (Neville Brand) spends part of the time locked up in his own handicuffs, riding his horse awkwardly with his saddle clutched in his arms. You see, Reese arrested Erik as a criminal, but Erik outsmarted him and stole the key. Later, as part of an effort to penetrate Mantee's gang of hardcases, Erik and Chad (Peter Brown) stage a shootout that leaves Chad sprawled on main street. One of Mantee's henchmen, knife-wielding Winston (Howard Wendell), witnesses this spectacle. Meanwhile, Mantee's female accomplice, Rita Silver (Maura McGiveney), masquerades as a bespectacled nurse for a dentist. She relies on Nitrous oxide (N2O), aka laughing gas, to acquire the combination to the bank vault from an unsuspecting banker while he is sedated under the influence of it. For the record, nitrious was discovered in 1772. and the 1961 episode of "The Deputy." entitled "The Hard Decision," deployed the use of laughing gas. Erik takes up with Rita, despite Chad's comments that classify her as nobody worth dating. Joe Riley (William Smith of "The Losers") tracks down Mantee and his gunman to an abandoned cavalry fort, but they trap him and hold him as a hostage. When Erik arrives, Mantee decides to challenge his usefulness by having him kill Joe, who is roped and tied like a turkey. Erik warns Mantee that Ranger patrols have got him cornered so the only escape route lies in the desert. As it turns out, Mantee has factored this predicament into his plans, and he has hired the use of camels. Reese has seen this exotic animals, but Chad has him believing that he has seen a mirage. The outcome is funny, with our heroes emerging unscathing after dispatching members of Mantee's outfit. Altogether, "The Legend of Midas Mantee" ranks as an above-average, interesting, and often rib-tickling adventure.