ALIAS SMITH AND JONES: DREADFUL SORRY, CLEMENTINE (TV)
Summary
One in this western series about a pair of notorious outlaws attempting to reform via a secret deal with the governor.
Hannibal and the Kid check into a hotel in the town of Boonville, and learn from the innkeeper that someone from out of town is looking for them. Fearing the worst they decide to leave, but soon discover that their pursuer is their old friend Clementine Hale, and they’re overjoyed to see each other. She asks them to assist her in a heist to steal $50,000, and blackmails them into compliance with a photograph of them she has which could lead to their capture. That night, Hannibal breaks into the hotel safe and steals Clementine’s photograph, narrowly avoiding being discovered. The next day, Clementine explains to Hannibal and the Kid that the target of her heist is Winford Fletcher, an investment broker and her father’s former employer who made a fortune with his unethical business practices. However, they still decline her offer and destroy the pilfered photograph before her eyes, only for her to reveal that she has another copy stashed away. Thus the duo is convinced to aid her and they pull into the town of Silver Springs.
To aid in the heist they call in the assistance of their rich acquaintance Diamond Jim Guffy, who seems enamored with Clementine. Hannibal poses as a buyer and agrees to purchase a dilapidated old steamboat from Fletcher for the sum of $25,000 in cash, claiming he will need several days to produce the money. During their meeting Hannibal deliberately plants a wallet in Fletcher’s surrey and inquires about Golden Meadows, a supposedly barren plot of land north of Silver Springs. When Fletcher discovers the wallet and its contents Hannibal, the Kid, and Clementine hide in their hotel room just before Fletcher enters and sees further documents planted by Hannibal, including a letter detailing the urgency of purchasing Golden Meadows. Hannibal enters and Fletcher returns his wallet, but Fletcher is intrigued by the letter and meets with Hannibal again, claiming he can help him save a great deal of money in purchasing the land he wants. Hannibal agrees and asks Fletcher to accompany him to the nearby town of Kingsville to discuss further business as the Kid and Clementine ride off ahead of them in secret.
Hannibal and Fletcher arrive at a mansion in Kingsville and are greeted by the Kid, posing as the owner, and Clementine, posing as his sister Charlotte. They discuss the sale of Golden Meadows and strike up a deal which seems unpalatable to Fletcher, who believes that Hannibal’s “principals” are making a grave mistake with their purchase. Hannibal convinces Fletcher that he will earn a hefty commission on the Golden Meadows purchase and asks him to come along to Kingsville where he will be paid in cash for the transaction, warning him not to ask to be let in on the arrangement. They meet with Guffy posing as a land development company agent, who pretends to be indignant when Hannibal reveals that Fletcher knows about their Golden Meadows deal. Fletcher is on hand when Hannibal is paid for his purchase at a far higher price than what he paid. Hannibal secretly switches envelopes so as to send the money back to Guffy without Fletcher noticing, and Guffy vacates the “borrowed” office space.
The plan goes awry when Fletcher goes out on his own and finds another owner of Golden Meadows land offering to sell it and reports his findings to Hannibal. He manages to coerce Hannibal into giving him a percentage on the sale and leaves, revealing that the land belongs to an old local named Horace Wingate. Clementine believes that the plan can be salvaged if the Kid gets to Wingate before Hannibal and Fletcher and purchases his Golden Meadows deeds, although they have no money left to do so. The Kid and Clementine try to buy Wingate’s deeds with a check, which infuriates him, however Clementine manages to convince him otherwise. They secure the sale and drive off moments before Hannibal and Fletcher arrive. He reports to them that the deeds have been sold and becomes incensed when he learns that Hannibal would have paid him a far higher price for his land. On the way back to town Fletcher takes his chance to eject Hannibal from the coach and drive off.
The Kid rides back to speak to Wingate, who holds him at gunpoint over the apparently bogus deal he struck up. He forces the Kid to return the deed and allows him to go free. Fletcher collects $50,000 from his safe and offers it to Clementine, again posing as Charlotte, for the purchase of her acreage in Golden Meadows. She agrees and Fletcher rides off to try to re-sell the land to Guffy at an inflated price, unaware that he has already played his part in the con and already left two days earlier. Meanwhile, Clementine rides off with the $50,000 to catch a train, and Hannibal and the Kid wait up all night for her. They decide not to let her get away and believe she may be in Denver, where her safety deposit box containing the other photograph of them is located. They get on the first train there and locate her, but she pleads with them to leave, claiming that she’s meeting with a federal marshal and a deputy attorney general. Hannibal and the Kid don’t believe her, but they arrive just as she said they would. It turns out that the entire scheme was devised in order to release Clementine’s father from prison; he was imprisoned for embezzlement and the money is part of his restitution in regards to the firm he stole from, which happens to be Fletcher’s firm. However, Clementine reveals to her visitors that Fletcher is the embezzler and framed her father, thus accounting for the $50,000 he used to purchase the Golden Meadows land. She presents them with a cashier’s check for the money and, satisfied, they leave. Clementine decides to keep the photo of Hannibal and the Kid in the event that she requires their aid again in the future, much to their dismay. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: November 18, 1971 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:51:27
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:87754
- GENRE: Drama, western
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, western
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 1971-1973
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Roy Huggins … Executive Producer
- Jo Swerling Jr. … Associate Executive Producer
- Glen A. Larson … Producer, Created by, Writer
- Nicholas E. Baehr … Associate Producer
- Barry Shear … Director
- John Thomas James … Writer
- John Andrew Tartaglia … Music by
- Billy Goldenberg … Theme Music by
- Pete Duel … Cast, Hannibal Heyes (alias Joshua Smith)
- Ben Murphy … Cast, Jedediah "Kid" Curry" (alias Thaddeus Jones)
- Rudy Vallee … Cast, Winford Fletcher
- Keenan Wynn … Cast, Horace Wingate
- Don Ameche … Cast, Diamond Jim Guffy
- Sally Field … Cast, Clementine Hale
- Jackie Coogan … Cast, Crawford
- Buddy Lester … Cast, Drunk
- Ken Scott … Cast, Toomey
- Stuart Randall … Cast, Hawkins