If you've seen the 1969 Western "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", this Story of the Century is almost comical by comparison. It starts with the casting - Joe Sawyer is no Paul Newman by any stretch, and for some reason, the Sundance Kid is called The Smiling Kid, portrayed by veteran character actor Slim Pickens. The title of the episode doesn't reference Hole in the Wall, Wyoming which is where the gang made their base of operation, and when it comes to the story itself, well I'd never heard of it as part of the gang's accomplishments.
Butch and Smiley lead their outlaw gang in a robbery of a hundred fifty thousand dollars in uncut currency sheets, and besides that, the notes are unsigned. So they decide to get some ink and forge the notes with phony names! If this wasn't laughably absurd enough, Butch puts the move on Railroad Detective Frankie Adams (Mary Castle), working undercover as an Alamo, Texas saloon gal named Rosie O'Grady. When I heard that name it took me all the way back to my childhood watching those old Warner Brothers cartoons with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. There was a Rosie O'Grady episode there too.
With the heat on, Butch decides that he and Smiley have to get out of the country, and with that, Frankie and her partner Matt Clark (Jim Davis) are seen on a steamship heading for South America. Just like in the 1969 movie, Butch and Smiley are taken out by local federales, but this time in Uruguay, not Bolivia, with Matt and Frankie standing by as observers of the action. Watching this story I could only shake my head and wonder what 1954 TV audiences must have thought. Since television was still a relatively new medium of entertainment, they might have considered it pretty good.
Butch and Smiley lead their outlaw gang in a robbery of a hundred fifty thousand dollars in uncut currency sheets, and besides that, the notes are unsigned. So they decide to get some ink and forge the notes with phony names! If this wasn't laughably absurd enough, Butch puts the move on Railroad Detective Frankie Adams (Mary Castle), working undercover as an Alamo, Texas saloon gal named Rosie O'Grady. When I heard that name it took me all the way back to my childhood watching those old Warner Brothers cartoons with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. There was a Rosie O'Grady episode there too.
With the heat on, Butch decides that he and Smiley have to get out of the country, and with that, Frankie and her partner Matt Clark (Jim Davis) are seen on a steamship heading for South America. Just like in the 1969 movie, Butch and Smiley are taken out by local federales, but this time in Uruguay, not Bolivia, with Matt and Frankie standing by as observers of the action. Watching this story I could only shake my head and wonder what 1954 TV audiences must have thought. Since television was still a relatively new medium of entertainment, they might have considered it pretty good.
