In the post-Revolution period, Captain Logan Harris' (Peter Graves) former soldiers turn bad and hatch a plan to blackmail a deceased war hero's widow by threatening to reveal his less-than-heroic death; Harris proposes a more ambitious plan to steal and ransom the decedents' remains en route to burial.
His plan intersects with Daniel's stagecoach trip to deliver Israel to boarding school in Philadelphia, but the story will deliver some twists and turns.
Peter Graves thankfully doesn't attempt to shoehorn his urbane modern leading man persona into a period costume drama; instead, he imports his Mr. Phelps character from the spy-caper "Mission Impossible" (1966-73) to the tricornered hat era. Daniel joins in the intrigue by leaving the rifle and buckskins at home, instead dressing as sleekly as any IMF operative. Unfortunately the action is slow in the making, and several scenes take place in the dark. Longtime Western character actor Arthur Hunnicutt ("The Big Sky," 1952) handles sidekick duties for Daniel.
The 1966 air date of the episode, coinciding with the year MI debuted, indicates that this may have been a cross-promotion devised by Graves and his agent; even the music is eerily similar to the MI soundtrack.
IMDB doesn't give the filming location, but most of the action a section of Southern California ranch road that shows up often in tv shows; the stage station will show up again in the DB series. A set purporting to be colonial-era Salem, North Carolina is the story's starting locale, though its more representative of a 19th-century town with some colonial window dressing; Salem is the go-to setting when DB needs some urban action.
Mainly enjoyable for its joining of Fess Parker and Graves, two mainstays of 1960's prime time.
His plan intersects with Daniel's stagecoach trip to deliver Israel to boarding school in Philadelphia, but the story will deliver some twists and turns.
Peter Graves thankfully doesn't attempt to shoehorn his urbane modern leading man persona into a period costume drama; instead, he imports his Mr. Phelps character from the spy-caper "Mission Impossible" (1966-73) to the tricornered hat era. Daniel joins in the intrigue by leaving the rifle and buckskins at home, instead dressing as sleekly as any IMF operative. Unfortunately the action is slow in the making, and several scenes take place in the dark. Longtime Western character actor Arthur Hunnicutt ("The Big Sky," 1952) handles sidekick duties for Daniel.
The 1966 air date of the episode, coinciding with the year MI debuted, indicates that this may have been a cross-promotion devised by Graves and his agent; even the music is eerily similar to the MI soundtrack.
IMDB doesn't give the filming location, but most of the action a section of Southern California ranch road that shows up often in tv shows; the stage station will show up again in the DB series. A set purporting to be colonial-era Salem, North Carolina is the story's starting locale, though its more representative of a 19th-century town with some colonial window dressing; Salem is the go-to setting when DB needs some urban action.
Mainly enjoyable for its joining of Fess Parker and Graves, two mainstays of 1960's prime time.
