Mjeteconer
Just perfect...
PiraBit
if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.
Sammy-Jo Cervantes
There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
stellarstar2310
This is the first time I've written a review, and it's for a show 40+ years old - talk about 'timely'! I was 11 when Pete Duel killed himself and cried myself to sleep for a week at least. I have such a clear memory of coming downstairs and seeing the paper that my father read each morning with a picture of Pete and the horrible news. This show is obviously nostalgic and sentimental for me - a comfort food if you will - however, after repeated viewings of every episode of the Pete Duel version I think it is amazing that the chemistry of the two leads shines through regardless of whether the episode is one of the great ones, or one of the silly - Ben & Pete rose above their material week after week. What an amazing legacy to leave behind - along with countless others I marvel at how much Pete Duel is still missed and thought of by his fans. I am thrilled to have the series available on DVD anytime I need it to brighten my life. My other 'go to' series from the 70s whose leads also had a chemistry that defies explanation - especially since neither of the 2 pairs of actors in either show were close friends or socialized in real life - is the UK series The Professionals. I highly recommend that series to anyone not already familiar with it!
happipuppi13
I just finished viewing all 11 DVD's of the "Alias Smith & Jones" Complete series set and ...wow! What a great show. I was only 4 & 1/2 when the series ended and even though it was still in reruns in the early 80s,I had no interest then. (Typical teen). My local library got in 2 copies of this set and I just had to watch it. Some Westerns take liberty & license with how things were and looked back then but the detail given to the 1ook of the 1880s period in the west is great! Right down to the money they used,the clothes, the music,as well as factual details about events that happened. The pilot show is great,setting off the story of Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry and how they decide to try and go straight and "get out of this business" of train robbing.The shows are engaging,funny,clever and at times even dramatic & serious. You gotta love Kid Curry's unbelievable "fast draw".Season 2 (aside from Pete Duel's untimely end) is just about as good. Loved the episode "The Bounty Hunter" with Louis Gosset Jr.However a few shows get a little silly in some parts though. (Like that "boing!" sound effect used twice in 2 shows.) The remaining shows after Duel's parting are a bit shaky. Ben still looks lost kind of lost without Pete but according to the interview on the special features disc. Not even 2 or 3 days after Pete's suicide did they recast his role!Season 3? Awesome! The opener "The Long Chase" almost feels like a movie in a theater. Roger Davis does his best acting in that one too. Just wish there'd been more shows and a finale.(Either "The Day The Amnesty Came Through" or "The Strange Fate of Conrad Meyer Zulick" would have made great endings to the series. The only other thing I can say is (like others) I wish they could restore these shows somehow. 3 of the shows looked even older than they are. Despite these little nagging things,I loved it. 9 Stars. (END)
Gadfium
In the UK this gentle, unassuming western series stormed straight into viewers' hearts; garnered enormous audiences, and generated many fond memories... how many among us still recall the 'five pat-hand' poker trick? Lots and lots, I'd wager.What made it so successful, in retrospect, was the thoroughness of the script preparation and the subsequent chemistry between the two leads. Roy Huggins' (aka John Thomas James) thoughtful and professional approach was everywhere. Many of the most memorable moments within the series were based upon fact and/or documented historical incidents e.g. soap selling dodges, poker escapades, safe-cracking attempts, and - although I was unaware of this as a child - it explains why so much of the series' background 'hung true'. Toss in the amiable, laconic tit-tat verbal interplay between Hannibal Heyes (Pete Duel) and Kid Curry (Ben Murphy)... and you ended up with small-screen magic.Heyes followed the silver-tongued, 'I can talk us out of this calamity' approach, with endless undinted confidence and zest, but varying success; Curry, meanwhile, was content to watch him 'wing-it', then stepped in when catastrophe threatened - as it often did.It was the 'little things' that made this series soar, the consistency of character, the fallibility, the kicks of fate that tweaked Heyes and Curry into two magnetically likable 'pretty good bad men'. The delicate interplays between two men who would 'do to ride the river'.It was often the smallest stories that were the most successful, the ones where technically 'not a lot was happening'. For example, in one episode they got snowed-in, for the whole winter, in a remote mountain cabin... all very static? nope, just the opposite... what you got, was a heck of a lot of Heyes and Curry getting on with the business of making the best of a bad deal. Fantastic.This is the 'less is more' approach; so often lauded - but oh so rarely allowed onto the screen. The actors gelled with their characters; the characters enthralled; the writing created an environment within which the ensemble could thrive.So okay... some episodes were better than others, a couple were great, and a couple were not-so great; but through it all Smith & Jones bantered and bickered, won, lost, and kept on trying. It was joyous entertainment. Joyous.What's that, you said? Naw... can't be... d'you mean, you really don't know the 'five pat-hand' poker trick?! Watch and Enjoy!
Brian W. Fairbanks
"Alias Smith and Jones" debuted on ABC in January 1971, little more than a year after the release of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," and that's hardly coincidental. The series was undoubtedly an attempt by Universal to cash-in on the success of the Paul Newman-Robert Redford megahit. The resemblance series co-star Ben Murphy had to the man with the blue eyes wasn't coincidental either. But "Alias Smith and Jones" was created by Roy Huggins, the man who gave us "Maverick," which one could say inspired "Butch..." so if anyone had the right to pattern a series on that movie, it was Huggins. Besides, this series achieved what the overrated "Butch" only aspired to. It had wit and style, was well-written, and had a first-rate cast. There was a solid chemisty between Pete Duel and Murphy, and the guest stars were also well chosen. I have fond memories of this show, although its quality deteriorated somewhat in February 1972 when Roger Davis took over for Duel (who died on New Year's Eve 1971 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound). It would be nice to see it released on video or at least added to the lineup on TV Land.