What a joy this episode was! The humor is dialed up at a max, and it's very well played, courtesy of writers, Ricardo's portrayal of Mr. Roarke (and let's face it: it's truly the only reason I keep watching, in spite of mediocre fantasies) and, surprisingly, Roddy McDowall too, whom I tend to dislike because he is such a ham who tends to hog the spotlight. But not here: both actors played very well off each other, and they were a joy to watch in their tour de force denouement.
At first, I thought they were going to try to cram too much in it, but they did it just right. Perfect balance of all 3 stories. I wasn't sure which one I was going to like best. I was disappointed when I saw the addition of Julie (I've watched the last 2 seasons first on GET TV, so... I know!) but her acting in rather on par here. (She was awful in her "country western" episode of several "weeks" prior!) So I was really surprised but I guess it's because her character goes thru a whole range of emotions, so she didn't have to wonder about character motivation.
The less interesting story, for me, was the Ziegfeld showgirls (even though earlier this week, I watched parts of a 3 hr movie about Flo, starring William Powell, and the week prior I caught a couple of actual musicals by him). Still: I can't stand Barbi Benton in the least and Audrey Landers "deer in the headlights" stare grates on my nerves. However, I was surprised that Barbi nailed the "old woman voice" and she was passable here, Audrey's character was rather insufferable. No surprise here: it's now playing on GET TV and they cut their entire storyline, LOL! (Without this one, I might have given it a 10!)
Finally, we have a cool "Vasquez Rocks" Western, and the story is quite amusing as well. None of the actors in either story plays it for laughs, and that's the cool part: they all play it very straight and that's what's incredibly funny about it. Jack Elam is just a delight in it and quite funny and kooky throughout. The guy having the fantasy (Ned Plummer? I think...) is pretty good too. When I saw him climb the stairs as his fantasy was ending, I knew exactly what was gonna happen. And I was right!
I'd like to here point out what an incredibly talented actor Herve Villechaize was! I know he gets a lot of hate in these here pages, because he has a quadruple whammy against him and someone will dislike him for either one or all 4! (His pronounced French accent; his character being a somewhat arrogant womanizer; and, let face him, some have a problem with his dwarfism and/or his Filipino looks. Plus add his private life to the equation, and some people will get caught in a tangled web of prejudice where they can't see the man and his talent. Their loss! All this to say: he brought a lot of humor to his part and he was a delight to watch. (I think it's a pity they didn't get his salary demands met, because he surely deserved them!)
Few more details: there is a woman photographer taking herself for Mae West and I found her aggravating. Watch for the gorgeous Hawaiian girl in the quicksand, she's a beauty! Oh and how could I forget Cameron Mitchell!? I quite liked him here. Is he good? Is he bad? He neither plays good nor bad... or does he play both? A recurring actor in this show, and one of the better ones, plus he always seems to be changing his look. He's quite handsome here.
Highlights of the show: all the humor; the face off between Roarke and Roddy (yeah, I'm watching Roarke the character but seeing Roddy the ham!) and, of course, Tattoo's mischief throughout his Western scenes.
I strongly suggest you catch this episode on Tubi, as I just did, or on DVD, to watch the complete episode. Though you're not missing much minus Barbi and Landers, a few scenes have been cut from the other stories as well. A solid 9/10, this episode makes watching the duds very well worth it to find the few gems like this. (And there are others!) And now I have one more thing to do, and that is to look up the names of the writers, because they wrote 2 solid storylines here, and wishing they'd written more. (I suspect they might have written the other little gems like this.) Don't miss this one, fans, it's well worth your time.
