Tue 13 Jan 2015
A TV Western Review: MAVERICK “According to Hoyle” (1957).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV Westerns[25] Comments
“ACCORDING TO HOYLE.” An episode of Maverick, 6 Oct 1957 (Season One, Episode 3). Based on the story “A Lady Comes to Texas,” by Horace McCoy. James Garner. Guest Cast: Diane Brewster, Leo Gordon, Jay Novello, Ted de Corsia, Esther Dale, Tol Avery. Producer: Roy Huggins. Director: Budd Boetticher.
When Maverick gets beaten, badly, in a poker game, by a woman, no less, he has has to wonder how, especially when she’s such a bad player. When he gets beaten again, but only by a strict following of the rules as laid down by Edmond Hoyle, he has to wonder why. Why him?
There are a lot of twists and turns that follow, in this the third episode, and the first that really begins to define the character of Bret Maverick. Each of the first three episodes were directed by Budd Boetticher, and this was to be his last. What is striking is how great an emphasis was placed on Maverick’s honesty. He might take delight in taking money at the poker table, it is understood, but only according to the rules, and all the more so if the losers deserved it.
I don’t know the rules of poker all that well. Whenever I’ve played, I know the basics, and otherwise let the other players tell me the rules as we go along. I lose a lot of hands that way. In any case, I had to look it up on the Internet to see if the rule quoted in this case was legit, and alas, it is not quite so. Here’s a webpage that will tell you all you want to know about that.
But even if a bit flawed, the story itself is a lot of fun to watch, and I have a feeling this is the episode that helped the series catch on. The lady gambler who bests Maverick twice but not the third time, Samantha Crawford (Diane Brewster) has a devious mind behind that pretty face, and watching her at work is a pleasure.
The character proved to be so popular that she was brought back as a friendly but worthy adversary for Maverick to deal with in several future episodes.
There is one question I have that I haven’t found the answer to yet on the Internet. There is a scene toward the end of this episode in which one hell of a fight breaks out in a saloon, practically smashing it bits. The scene was taken, I’m sure, from some other old movie I’ve watched recently, and it will come to me, eventually.
[Later: It may be Dodge City (1939), which I thought either Jon or I had reviewed for this blog, but apparently not. I’m going to have to watch the movie again, but the fact that the film was also a Warner Brothers production is a strong factor in its favor.]
One other thing. I have not tracked down any other reference to the story by Horace McCoy this movie is supposed to have been based on. I suspect, without anything more than a guess to to support my hypothesis, that the story in question may be the one also by McCoy that Texas Lady (1955) was based on. That one starred Claudette Colbert in the role that Diane Brewster plays in this Maverick episode. From the synopsis found on Wikipedia, the openings are almost exactly the same.
January 13th, 2015 at 2:19 pm
Texas Lady was distributed by RKO in its last days. Unlikely, but not impossible, WB could have acquired the rights.
January 13th, 2015 at 5:26 pm
There was no shortage of saloon brawls to choose from, they were a staple of early westerns and not always taken only from the studio in questions backlog. I’ve seen scenes from THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD in all sorts of swashbucklers set in different historical eras. I can’t recall if there is one or not from that Dennis Morgan film for Warner that supposedly inspired Maverick.
I think you could buy stock footage to use as you wished depending on your needs. Which means if this isn’t from DODGE CITY it might be from DESTRY or some other elaborate brawl from another studio. Selling stock footage was a way to make a profit from otherwise expensive and dangerous celluloid stock. A good deal of Warner’s old gangster film stock seemed to pop up other places too.
However, the saloon brawl from DODGE CITY is one of the most elaborate ever staged and shows up in a lot of later movies and television shows in color and black and white.
At this time Brewster was the Warner TV studios go to for slightly wicked ladies who couldn’t be trusted entirely. I wonder of this was the prototype for the one Joanna Barnes played in several episodes of Maverick not much later?
Even as Bret morphed into a bit of a con man, the series always made it clear he never cheated at cards — he didn’t have to. But the Bret that first season and later could have been two other people in regard to honesty and courage. He grew proportionally less honest and less brave as the series went on.
In the first season they make a point that he isn’t a fast gun, but he isn’t slow either. He’s just average, which leads him to think before going up against someone better. At various times he punches cattle and even prospects, but the series makes it clear he would prefer to work with his head in a silk shirt and with a manicure.
There was at least one novelization from the series with this title, I wonder if it was adapted from this episode? I’ve seen it, but never was curious enough to pay $25 to read it (no doubt higher now).
I have to agree this is the episode that defined the series, and it is also ‘borrowed’ from for the Mel Gibson MAVERICK movie.
January 13th, 2015 at 6:26 pm
That was indeed the saloon brawl from DODGE CITY featured in that episode. I actually saw it here first, then recognized it when I first saw DODGE CITY. Over the years I came to realize that whenever you saw anyone riding across the plains in long shot, or a wagon train, Indian battle, cattle drive…. ANY big money shot in a Warners TV Western, it was invariably “borrowed” from one of their feature films. Of course, so were some of the plots. I remember an episode of CHEYENNE freely adapted from ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES. No wonder they called the Writer’s building “Echo Valley.”
January 13th, 2015 at 7:23 pm
Cheyenne itself was based on a Dennis Morgan movie where he played Jim Bridger — none too accurately either.
January 13th, 2015 at 8:00 pm
Brewster’s Samantha Crawford first appeared in a 1955 episode of CHEYNNE and was ‘drafted’ for this episode of MAVERICK, a cross over that was the first of many with Warner’s produced series.
January 13th, 2015 at 8:15 pm
Dennis Morgan did not play Jim Bridger in Cheyenne, he played character called James Wylie, with no relationship to Bridger, and Cheyenne had no relationship to the television series, other than its title. Much the same as Sugarfoot, the series, bore no relationship to the picture that starred Randolph Scott and was based on a novel by Clarence Buddington Kelland. The Will Hutchins series was based on the film, Boy From Oklahoma with Will Rogers, Jr.
January 13th, 2015 at 8:37 pm
Dennis Morgan did play Jim Bridger in a movie called THE GUN THAT WON THE WEST (Columbia Pictures, 1955).
Jonathan reviewed the movie CHEYENNE (with Dennis Morgan as James Wylie) back here earlier on this blog:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=29128
January 13th, 2015 at 8:39 pm
Dan, back in Comment #3, thanks for confirming the DODGE CITY was the movie in which the saloon fight was taken from. It’s such a distinctive melee that it’s hard to forget even the details.
January 13th, 2015 at 9:52 pm
I remember Jonathan’s review of Cheyenne very well — and the many interesting comments that went along with it.
January 14th, 2015 at 2:38 am
The practice of cannibalising old movies was still going on in the 70s. I remember watching THE INCREDIBLE HULK when it was originally shown in the UK. There had already been a certain amount of rumbling when an episode where David Banner had to land an ailing jet liner had had used chunks of AIRPORT 75. The last straw came when Banner fled from a homicidal truck driver. DUEL had been shown only about a week before on the same channel and viewers wrote letters of complaint to the broadcaster about the amount of material sliced out of the movie. They in turn complained to the producers of THE INCREDIBLE HULK, and got an apology and a promise not to do it again. How much difference this made I don’t know…
January 14th, 2015 at 3:15 pm
Morgan plays Jim Bridger in THE GUN THAT WON THE WEST, which is the source for CHEYENNE according to several sources. With the self cannibalism within studios its hard to determine that sometimes. “Source” can mean anything from direct inspiration to left over footage and borrowed concepts. He wears virtually the same outfit as Clint Walker in much of the film (a bit fancier though as I remember), though obviously a smaller size.
Since Cheyenne is a scout rather than cowboy or gunfighter it is possible the idea came from the Bridger film. Morgan certainly does not play the historical Bridger, in fact I think the film even has him in the wrong era — certainly as a man that young.
It’s the old one about trying to keep the army’s new guns from the Indians and keep the peace — which probably was used as at least an episode of CHEYENNE considering how much was borrowed from Warner’s films.
As Barry says, SUGARFOOT bore no relation other than the name to the Kelland novel or the Scott film, though I would not be surprised if they weren’t trying to capitalize on the name recognition of that well known and oft reprinted book.
January 14th, 2015 at 3:59 pm
David,
Are we referencing Cheyenne the television series or Cheyenne the film. I have no information regarding the Clint Walker show, but Dennis Morgan, Jane Wyman, Raoul Walsh’s Cheyenne was filmed almost ten years prior to The Gun That Won The West. So, what exactly is the deal here?
January 15th, 2015 at 7:53 pm
Gun That Won The West was a Columbia release produced by Sam Katzman, not a Warner Brothers film; they wouldn’t have been legally able to base a TV show on it. I suspect that it’s been cited as the TV Cheyenne’s “source” in some places because of confusion with the Cheyenne movie (due to Dennis Morgan being in both), and to the fact that (as David notes) Morgan wears a buckskin shirt in Gun (which, by the way, is a fairly dreadful movie, as most films produced by Katzman were).
Cheyenne the movie was the “source” of the TV series, but there was of course no real resemblance between the two. There was a practical reason for the “adaptation,” though: Jack Warner (as related by Roy Huggins) deliberately and ostentatiously announced that his TV shows were based on “studio properties” so he wouldn’t have to pay royalties to any writer for “creating” a show; he rooked Huggins out of the royalties to Maverick by rejecting the pilot Huggins had written and using an episode adapted from a book the studio owned as the pilot instead; the show thus became based on a “studio property” and Huggins couldn’t claim he had written the pilot (which would have entitled him to royalties); Huggins’ putative pilot then was filmed and aired as the second episode of Maverick.
January 15th, 2015 at 9:59 pm
You mean the less than suave Clint Walker as Cheyenne Bodie is based on the ultra smooth Dennis Morgan’s performance as James Wylie…? Other than the title, I do not think so.
January 15th, 2015 at 10:14 pm
Barry
Am I reading Daniel’s comment wrong? This seems to be exactly what he is saying:
“Cheyenne the movie was the “source†of the TV series, but there was of course no real resemblance between the two.”
January 16th, 2015 at 12:04 am
CHEYENNE was one of three series that began in WB first TV program called WARNER BROTHERS PRESENTS. The other two were KING’S ROW and CASABLANCA. All three were loosely based on the film of the same name. In this case CHEYENNE was so loosely based it was more in title only.
The Museum of Broadcasting has two great articles about the show.
WARNER BROTHERS PRESENTS
http://www.museum.tv/eotv/warnerbrothe.htm
Quote from article: “After considerable tinkering-including the recycling of scripts from several of the studio’s western movies- CHEYENNE emerged as the sole hit among the WARNER BROTHERS PRESENTS series.”
CHEYENNE
http://www.museum.tv/eotv/cheyenne.htm
Quote from article: “Essentially, the producers of CHEYENNE changed the character’s circumstances at will in order to insert him into any imaginable conflict. Indeed, several CHEYENNE episodes were remakes of earlier Warner Brothers movies like TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944) and TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948) with the character of Cheyenne Bodie simply inserted into the original plot.”
January 16th, 2015 at 12:24 am
Steve,
You are not reading this wrong — but if anything other than studio bookkeeping is involved, any creative participation, source material, anything at all, I would like to know. Even the titles reference different story elements. in the 1947 film, it is the City in Wyoming (which I have visited at the urging of my mother-in-law and enjoyed a fine piece of chees cake) or the series in which the lead is named Cheyenne, and was adopted in some way by that, or another, tribe during childhood.
What I am ultimately saying, no correlation, although the other titles, Casablanca and King’s Row, on the WB wheel, were, of course, directly inspired by the films. Is there even a note, inter-office correspondence to the relationship of film and series? An awful lot of ‘information’ is floating around the internet that is unacceptable. Sadly, in printed matter (books) as well.
January 16th, 2015 at 1:12 am
Barry
I don’t know if the references that Michael provided would be helpful to you. It sounds as though they might. I mention this because for some reason every once in a while Michael’s comments have to be approved by me, and you didn’t see what he had to say before you left yours.
January 16th, 2015 at 1:57 am
Steve, the comment bot hates when I add links, add I have two computers I use may confuse it as well.
MAVERICK has close ties to CHEYENNE. Roy Huggins was one of the first (if not the first) producer of CHEYENNE. He has claimed that whenever Maverick needed to do something he would think of Cheyenne and do the opposite. Look at the premise of both, wandering men getting involved with trouble at every stop. The premise was used often by WB such as SUGARFOOT and BRONCO. The only difference was the lead character of each series and how each reacted to the conflict.
January 16th, 2015 at 11:22 am
Steve,
Quite right. Had not seen Michael’s comment or read the link prior to making mine. I thought the material was interesting but makes ‘zero’ mention of the Cheyenne source.
January 16th, 2015 at 12:03 pm
Uh, from the article on WARNER BROTHERS PRESENTS, “…drawn from three rotating series based loosely on the Warner Brothers movies KINGS ROW, CASABLANCA, and CHEYENNE.”
The source of the series was the WB movie CHEYENNE, but they paid little attention to the source.
January 16th, 2015 at 12:24 pm
They paid no attention to it , Michael. May have been a thought at the initial stage, but…not there on screen, in story, production or credits, meaning with all the writing talent listed, not one was associated, that I can find, with the Morgan-Walsh film.
January 16th, 2015 at 2:19 pm
Barry, I really think all WB wanted was the title. Most movie studios at the time swore never to lower themselves to TV.
Few people today realize how important Disney’s DISNEYLAND was to the success of television. Beside hooking the baby boomers at an early age, Disney proved to studios such as Warners how profitable television was going to be.
WB was less interested in the series adaptions than the 15 minute Behind The Scenes program that was part of WARNER BROTHERS PRESENTS where they could promote their films like Disney promoted his projects.
I think WB wanted types of dramas – small town rural drama, action adventure and a western. They took the titles of WB films for economic reasons more than creative.
I do wonder who was the person who decided to put Cheyenne on the road. According to early reports in “Broadcasting” (6/27/55) the original producer was Harve Foster (PUBLIC DEFENDER and WHIRLEYBIRDS) with Richard Bare directing. Roy Huggins was the original producer of KINGS ROW but would move over later to CHEYENNE.
The book “Television Series and Specials Scripts, 1948-1992 (McFarland) does not list Foster as a producer. The first script was written by Don Martin and directed by Richard Bare and no producer was cited.
Barry, this is a long way for me to say I believe CHEYENNE was an original that used a famous movie title to make sure WB kept the rights as well as promoting WB as a famous film studio.
January 16th, 2015 at 3:10 pm
Ah, Michael, finally we arrive at the truth. Yes, yes, sir.
Good stuff.
January 18th, 2015 at 10:33 am
michael Says:
January 16th, 2015 at 2:19 pm
Barry, I really think all WB wanted was the title.
CHEYENNE was an original that used a famous movie title to make sure WB kept the rights as well as promoting WB as a famous film studio.
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Exactly; that was what I thought I was saying multiple posts back.