User Reviews

Review - Fisherman's Luck Four bad guys to start with and three HP officers with Dan made a good story and a well-acted episode with no gun fire, but plenty of guns drawn. The carefully planned crime always goes awry when something unexpected occurs such as the fatal car accident by the guys stealing the large payroll. The manner used to secure the money from the wreck was not the best executed part of the plan, slugging the lot attendant, stealing the wreck with the same Jeep noticed at the crash, unsuccessfully hiding the wreck were just a few items the crooks performed poorly. The bad guys recover the $50,000 but a trail of clues leads the HP to easily follow and arrest. As Dan closed with not a bad catch for this early in the season.

**SPOILERS** Yeah, bad things do happen. In this case, Two dirtbags get away with a load of cash from a robbery, only to drive recklessly, crash the car they borrowed without permission, and kill themselves. Matthews was right, of course, they didn't buckle up. At that time, seat belts weren't mandated in cars, but Mopar and Ford included them as part of their sales package. The saying was "Ford sold safety, Chevy sold CARS".

Now, a good example of this deal is in a movie called "The Pledge". It stars Jack Nicholson, and features the way bad things don't just happen to good people, you know? Sometimes , it's not that the criminals get away, they just get killed, accidentally.

The Highway Patrol tracks down the bad guys, due to their own stupidity, and they get busted, even though they didn't do the actual robbery. It's interesting to note that even if they can't really trace the money, the state will be able to prosecute the men for auto theft.

Two young men have just robbed the $50,000 payroll from an industrial plant. As the two are making their getaway in a car, the sadly overly cocky and careless driver runs the car into a tree, killing them both. At the scene, Matthews ruefully notes that "They'd be alive now if they wore safety belts." I wasn't aware seat belts were that available on cars in 1956. At any rate, the robbery's mastermind, Gil Martin, and his henchman Joe have been awaiting at a fishing camp for the two young men. They learn of the accident and that the police did not find the loot hidden in the car. They steal the impounded car from the lot, retrieve the stolen money, and then hide the wrecked car. But Joe and the mastermind didn't do a very good job of covering the car with brush and it's quickly discovered by a Highway Patrol officer. Thanks to Matthews' keen observation, the culprits are tracked down. This is a pretty average entry - entertaining enough but nothing special.

Our story begins with two men speeding along a rural road, far faster and more dangerously than the passenger is comfortable with. The driver just laughs it off. We learn from Art Gilmore (our narrator) that they have just robbed some company of a $50,000 payroll (more on that later) and are on their way to meet up with 2 partners, including a somewhat older man named Gil, who masterminded the theft.

Despite another warning from his partner, the reckless driver smashes their car into a tree and we learn both men died instantly. They were quite close to the fishing cabin where they were to meet their partners to divvy up the loot-close enough that when Gil and partner Joe hear a siren, Joe goes to see what happened and he is next seen sitting on Gil's Jeep right beside the wreck, appearing to be a curious citizen.

That's where he was when Dan shows up at the accident scene, alerted to this because the description of the bandits was merely two men in a green and white convertible-which matches this accident. Dan briefly talks with Joe and gives the Jeep the once over. I thought it was odd the neither he nor the other officers directed this "gawker" to drive along and not stay so close to the investigation scene. He was, I thought, close enough to hear what Dan was saying as he talked to the other officers.

With nothing to do at present Dan goes back to the office. Meanwhile, Joe has returned to tell Gil what happened to their cohorts, and where the wrecked car has been taken. The pair heads to the place and Gil tells the old man he wants to buy a wreck, almost immediately focusing on the just-delivered wreck. As the man says he can't sell him that one, Joe conks him on the head and the pair hook up the car to their Jeep and haul it away-as the old man is waking up, as he was unconscious only a couple of minutes. More sloppiness on their part-there was no certainty the man wouldn't come to in time to do more to either stop them or identify them, and as we saw, the alert about this stolen vehicle went out quickly.

They haul it some distance toward their cabin, but then stop in a secluded place and after working to get the damage hood open, pull out a small box with the entire payroll inside-five bundles of money that is said to be $50,000. It was a metal box their cohorts in crime placed somewhere under the hood. They toss a few branches on top of the car and figure nobody will find it for a long time, and retreat to their cabin to resume their "fishermen" covers to wait until the heats off. Gil tells Joe if they left now, that would draw lots of attention.

After Dan and buddies find the wreck and the box that was large enough for the money, they decide to talk to some fishermen, and right away come upon the cabin in question as the two crooks are walking away with their fishing gear. Dan observes green paint on the back of the Jeep-it bumped the stolen car as they hauled it away-and tells them he wants to question them-and spells out all the reasons he suspects them. Gil tells Joe to put the stuff away (so they can go with the cops) including the bait. Joe goes to get the stuff and a cop says he'll help-the last thing Joe wanted to hear because that bait box had a pistol in it, he was about to grab it. Instead the pair get arrested, making for a very good catch for fisherman Dan early in the fishing season.

I didn't understand Gil's thought that two fisherman leaving an isolated cabin for parts unknown would have attracted much attention. It was most uncharacteristic for Dan to spell out all the evidence he had on them before he took them in for questioning. This included mentioning he wanted the owner of the green convertible to see the two men. Gil knew that he would be recognized as he was known by the owner as a friend of the relative of his that took the car without permission.

We didn't really hear how the holdup was committed, but I am not sure when the men had the time in their getaway to put this box inside the engine compartment of the car, nor why this seemed like a good idea. If police stopped them, suspecting them of the robbery, they would have searched the car thoroughly and a mere opening of the hood would have revealed this box that didn't belong. If they had to abandon the car with the money, it would have slowed them down to have to retrieve the money from there instead of somewhere in the seating area.

My biggest beef: Five stacks of bills, each about one inch high, totaling $50,000 would mean 100 bills, each a $100 bill in each stack. If they were $50s, the stacks would have been much higher. What sort of company payroll in the 1950s would see all the workers being paid in cash-receiving only $100 bills? Any normal payroll would have required a large number of $20s, and smaller bills, even without any coins being involved. Of course, my eyeballing of those stacks could be disputed, that maybe they were all $50s, but the same argument applies-that the workers would not be paid only with $50 bills. They couldn't have been 20s or smaller bills and come close to fitting in that box.

As portrayed, four men conspired to steal $50,000. One man cased the joint, planned the whole thing and then waited for the money to be brought to him as he had no part in the physical theft. Two men alone went and took the money and made the getaway, doing all the physical stuff. Then there's a fourth man, Joe who appears to have had no role in any part of it-but he was going to get an even split. Gil mentioned that he purposely chose two guys who had no criminal record-but that doesn't enter into it unless they are caught. What mastermind really focuses on getting caught? If Gil could "case" the place as he said, then he could have done the robbery with Joe, and left out the other two. That would mean a share of $25,000 each, instead of $12,500. Why bring in two more men who totally were not needed?

As others have hinted at, this car after the wreck was shown to only have minor damage to the bumper and front of the hood. There was no damage to the windshield. I was in a VW bus years ago when the driver missed a stop sign and hit a telephone pole at 10 MPH. His bus had more damage than the car here, and no passenger got more than a scraped knee. Can't see how these guys could have been thrown out of the car and killed with such minor damage caused to the car.

Sending Joe down to examine the scene of the accident-and hang around instead of just drive by sort of put a target on him and the Jeep for cops to investigate. While that didn't cause the problem, it gave Dan a chance to observe the Jeep and later note the fresh paint damage which was the key in making him think these men were involved. Had Joe just driven by and not been spotted, they would have been less suspicious.

Overall, a slightly less than ordinary episode, a 5.