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'The Ice Man:' 1961 Jack Kelly Episode Review

posted 15 years ago by jeremylr
7 replies | jump to latest

******MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS********Here's my review of "The Ice Man." Feel free to share your comments or review below, too.

From January 1961, the next-to-last season of Maverick, comes this episode. I'm currently watching them commercial free on Encore Westerns. I've read much commentary concerning how the later seasons of the show suffered from the loss of creator/producer Roy Huggins as well as creative writing, but this episode stands with the best episodes from the early seasons with its great story & cast. Also, the title alone dictates this episode might stand apart from the others.

Andrew Duggan, a character actor who seemingly appeared in hundreds of westerns, dramas, action, war, you name it genre, is the guest star, & his name is in the opening credits after Jack Kelly.

This episode has Bart losing his money once again after a robbery in the street. He's found by Duggan, who's running for governor or another political office, mainly due to corruption, with the town sheriff even being bought. Not much emphasis on card playing, which I thought made it better.

After Bart is taken to Duggan's ranch, he starts working for them. This was a change of pace episode, seeing Bart work for his food, even though he was still up to usual conniving ways.

A body is then found, having been frozen for 20 years. It turns out the body has a connection to Duggan, & the other politician knows this info could cause Duggan to lose the election. Also, Duggan's family has secrets to hide.

Basically, a good dramatic episode with funny lines sprinkled here & there. Virginia Gregg, the other guest star I knew, has some great scenes, look out for the one where she sets the barn on fire. She runs out into Bart's arms, screaming & seemingly out of her mind. Very realistic scene & excellent acting.

Another scene in the beginning has Bart (Jack Kelly) realizing one of the bad politician's cronies is the one who robbed him. I enjoyed seeing Bart's sense of cowardice disappear as he let the crony know that you don't steal from Bart Maverick. You also see Bart's brilliant mind during the scenes where Duggan has an bullet still in him (he outwits the corrupt politician along with Duggan when you think about it).

There's plenty of action in this story. Although Bart initially didn't have to stay & help Duggan, I like how his sense of honor dictates that he do so, especially when he learns who Duggan is running against in the election.

Check it out; I think you'll enjoy it.

[–] cvalance 15 years ago

I've seen the episode which is well-told and acted especially by Duggan who played several larger-than-life characters during the run of the series. But, the episode wasn't peculiar to "Maverick." It could have played on any of a half-dozen Western series of the era. You say that there was "not much emphasis on card playing, which I thought made it better." But that is one of the features that distinguished Maverick from the other oaters. Without gambling, Maverick would have been much more generic, less exciting.

[–] Captain_Augustus_McCrae 15 years ago

mrmime,
+1 for your response.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] cvalance 10 years ago

Nobody got conked from behind more often than Jack Kelly. I guess being concussed all those times had the residual effect of memory loss because he repeated his dumb behavior.

[–] joehrobertsjr 15 years ago

Heresy! You make no mention whatsoever of the great Bruce Gordon who quite frankly stole the episode playing corrupt political boss Rath Lawson. This episode probably should have been titled "Bart Maverick Meets Frank Nitti." Andrew Duggan is just along for the ride. Gordon and Jack Kelly make the episode.

[–] ronaldt49 10 years ago

I logged on to comment on Bruce Gordon and find you said five years ago what I was going to type in.

Too bad Robert Stack wasn't guesting somehow.

[–] vivacious_dan 8 years ago

Great review! I just watched this on Encore Western. Can anyone tell me what happens in the last five minutes of the show? I got a phone call and missed a lot of it.

I know Andrew Duggan had surgery to recover the bullet to prove his innocence. Then I saw that Duggan told the daughter what really happened and that the guy who died was actually her father. Then I saw the housekeeper say something to Bart like, please don't say anything to the daughter as she doesn't know.

Sorry, I know this is jumbled, but I had the TV on soft mute and really missed the end. Can anyone tell me what happened? I basically missed it from the part where Duggan agrees with Bart to get the surgery to recover the bullet.