From the pinnacle of "A Continual Roar of Musketry" we descend to the nadir of the series with this misfired attempt to dramatize the plight of displaced Indians.
So who's the Mexican guy and his hippie chick girlfriend? Oops, that's Reni Santoni and Louise Sorel playing Indians and playing them very poorly. Bronx-born Santoni swaggers and tawks like a New Yawk street thug but expects us to believe he spent every day of his life in the backwoods of the "central state" our hero Hays Stowe represents. Sorel is squandered in this miscast role, wearing a black wig and headband, she spends the hour doe-eyed in admiration of her hot-headed husband.
What was Alan Deurivieres so mad about anyway? As Stowe states, this dwindling tribe of 76 had two years to protest the dam project and to reject the government buyout of their reservation. The tribal chairman accepted the deal and the money. But agitator Alan drives a ragtag group of Indians from that central state to Washington where they crash and disrupt Stowe's press conference and Alan proceeds to smash the model of the damsite before scuffling with Jordan.
Stowe, putting the "bleeding heart" into liberal, talks the police into letting the agitators go. Alan, repeating the slander of the title, challenges Stowe to read a treaty signed by George Washington in 1792 guaranteeing the Badger River Tribe this land. The librarian informs Stowe this treaty has not been transcribed, and the last time it was requested to be read was during the Martin Van Buren administration (i.e., 1837-41). First, it was difficult to believe any document by Washington would not have been transcribed and eagerly accessed and analyzed by historians. Scholars don't know about it, but Alan does? C'mon. Second, how would Washington know about let alone agree to treaties in land then far outside America's borders? Washington could not even have envisioned what are today the central states a decade before Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery Expedition. The whole plot rests on this faulty premise, and its collapse left the show mortally wounded.
After learning of Washington's agreement, Stowe then wrings his hands weighing the ethics of this signed, sealed, and delivered deal made in good faith by both parties. Even Jordan grows impatient with Hays' vacillating and willingness to accommodate a malcontent in desperate need of anger management.
Protracted scenes back at the dirt-poor reservation did nothing to win sympathy. Instead of living in a shotgun shack, why don't Alan and Mary take this generous payout of $8,500 (in 1970 dollars) and relocate to a city where there are jobs, education, and opportunities? I would suggest they were paralyzed by generations of learned helplessness, but agitator Alan shows initiative in leading an uprising, burning down the reservation's schoolhouse, threatening and chasing away the construction workers, and then occupying the worksite.
Reagan's quotable quote "I'm from the government and I'm here to help" sprang to mind when into the fray swoops our hero to smooth ruffled feathers and strike a compromise. Again, all of this could have been avoided had Alan and friends expressed dissatisfaction with the terms of the buyout in the two years it was in the works and when public meetings were held.
I bristled at the slander against George Washington, especially because it was wholly unfounded. A fictitious treaty Washington signed in 1792 gave the Badger River Tribe their land. Now the Badger River Tribe agreed to sell the land for a quarter million dollars. Where did Washington lie? Alan, ill-educated by his own admission, only weakens his already tissue-paper-thin claim by repeating this gross inaccuracy.
Stowe suffers fools gladly, however, and his defusing the combustible situation reaps him some backslapping from the old boys inside the beltway.
Ernest Kinoy, who penned the "Power Play" episode with Burgess Meredith, wrote the original story for this stinker. I'm guessing the final teleplay by Joel Oliansky was such a travesty that Kinoy requested his name be removed, which is why the story is credited onscreen to his pen name "Bontche Schweig." I learned Bontche Schweig is a character in Jewish folk legend who silently suffered cruelty and humiliation all his life. Wow, Kinoy must have been profoundly disgusted with the finished script. Me too.
So what went wrong? In addition to the ahistorical premise, a lame story that dedicated too much screen time to the unlikeable characters of Alan and his sycophantic squaw Mary. And the inept casting of Reni Santoni and Louise Sorel that defied credulity and sympathy. Alan, granted an audience with Stowe, uses the opportunity to condescend, patronize, and make himself odious in the eyes f the audience.
Casting missteps continued to hamstring the show. Rounding out the cast were respectable but undistinguished B-list performers. Instead of Will Geer, Ed Binns, and Burgess Meredith we got Malcolm Atterbury, George Mitchell, and Robert Donner (best remembered as Exidor on MORK AND MINDY). The supporting cast simply lacked the oomph to put this one over the top.
Hey, every series has a dud or two. I'm confident a course correction will bring the series to a strong finish in the next episode.
So who's the Mexican guy and his hippie chick girlfriend? Oops, that's Reni Santoni and Louise Sorel playing Indians and playing them very poorly. Bronx-born Santoni swaggers and tawks like a New Yawk street thug but expects us to believe he spent every day of his life in the backwoods of the "central state" our hero Hays Stowe represents. Sorel is squandered in this miscast role, wearing a black wig and headband, she spends the hour doe-eyed in admiration of her hot-headed husband.
What was Alan Deurivieres so mad about anyway? As Stowe states, this dwindling tribe of 76 had two years to protest the dam project and to reject the government buyout of their reservation. The tribal chairman accepted the deal and the money. But agitator Alan drives a ragtag group of Indians from that central state to Washington where they crash and disrupt Stowe's press conference and Alan proceeds to smash the model of the damsite before scuffling with Jordan.
Stowe, putting the "bleeding heart" into liberal, talks the police into letting the agitators go. Alan, repeating the slander of the title, challenges Stowe to read a treaty signed by George Washington in 1792 guaranteeing the Badger River Tribe this land. The librarian informs Stowe this treaty has not been transcribed, and the last time it was requested to be read was during the Martin Van Buren administration (i.e., 1837-41). First, it was difficult to believe any document by Washington would not have been transcribed and eagerly accessed and analyzed by historians. Scholars don't know about it, but Alan does? C'mon. Second, how would Washington know about let alone agree to treaties in land then far outside America's borders? Washington could not even have envisioned what are today the central states a decade before Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery Expedition. The whole plot rests on this faulty premise, and its collapse left the show mortally wounded.
After learning of Washington's agreement, Stowe then wrings his hands weighing the ethics of this signed, sealed, and delivered deal made in good faith by both parties. Even Jordan grows impatient with Hays' vacillating and willingness to accommodate a malcontent in desperate need of anger management.
Protracted scenes back at the dirt-poor reservation did nothing to win sympathy. Instead of living in a shotgun shack, why don't Alan and Mary take this generous payout of $8,500 (in 1970 dollars) and relocate to a city where there are jobs, education, and opportunities? I would suggest they were paralyzed by generations of learned helplessness, but agitator Alan shows initiative in leading an uprising, burning down the reservation's schoolhouse, threatening and chasing away the construction workers, and then occupying the worksite.
Reagan's quotable quote "I'm from the government and I'm here to help" sprang to mind when into the fray swoops our hero to smooth ruffled feathers and strike a compromise. Again, all of this could have been avoided had Alan and friends expressed dissatisfaction with the terms of the buyout in the two years it was in the works and when public meetings were held.
I bristled at the slander against George Washington, especially because it was wholly unfounded. A fictitious treaty Washington signed in 1792 gave the Badger River Tribe their land. Now the Badger River Tribe agreed to sell the land for a quarter million dollars. Where did Washington lie? Alan, ill-educated by his own admission, only weakens his already tissue-paper-thin claim by repeating this gross inaccuracy.
Stowe suffers fools gladly, however, and his defusing the combustible situation reaps him some backslapping from the old boys inside the beltway.
Ernest Kinoy, who penned the "Power Play" episode with Burgess Meredith, wrote the original story for this stinker. I'm guessing the final teleplay by Joel Oliansky was such a travesty that Kinoy requested his name be removed, which is why the story is credited onscreen to his pen name "Bontche Schweig." I learned Bontche Schweig is a character in Jewish folk legend who silently suffered cruelty and humiliation all his life. Wow, Kinoy must have been profoundly disgusted with the finished script. Me too.
So what went wrong? In addition to the ahistorical premise, a lame story that dedicated too much screen time to the unlikeable characters of Alan and his sycophantic squaw Mary. And the inept casting of Reni Santoni and Louise Sorel that defied credulity and sympathy. Alan, granted an audience with Stowe, uses the opportunity to condescend, patronize, and make himself odious in the eyes f the audience.
Casting missteps continued to hamstring the show. Rounding out the cast were respectable but undistinguished B-list performers. Instead of Will Geer, Ed Binns, and Burgess Meredith we got Malcolm Atterbury, George Mitchell, and Robert Donner (best remembered as Exidor on MORK AND MINDY). The supporting cast simply lacked the oomph to put this one over the top.
Hey, every series has a dud or two. I'm confident a course correction will bring the series to a strong finish in the next episode.