Soldiers of Fortune

Oh boy, do I ever remember this show! For many years, I tried my best to be just like the stars, traveling the world on a shoestring & getting into trouble while saving the girl. Sigh, oh well, instead I became an actor & got to do Hollywood heroics instead. A wonderful show in my memory. I got to know John Russell & even worked with him a couple of times. Unfortunately, I never got to meet Chick Chandler. Maybe someday, some smart person will start up a "nostalgia" channel & resurrect all those great old B/W TV shows from the 1950's. Remember Broderick Crawford in "Highway Patrol"? John Bromfield as "The Sheriff of Cochise"? "The Texan" with Rory Calhoun? and what about "Shotgun Slade" with Scott Brady? Sigh...those were the days!

The only good thing about this episode is that the outdoor scenes were filmed outdoors, as opposed to, say, in a leaf-strewn cardboard jungle like the set where they filmed "Ramar of the Jungle". And John Russell plays the hero very well. Otherwise, it's just a curiosity piece- with psychological overtones, no less.

The script is the usual stuff- an American couple hires the two "soldiers"- Tim and Tebow- I mean Toubo- to take them through the jungles of Burma. They soon meet up with the local headhunters. This is where credibility exits, stage left. First of all, this is Burma, not Africa. There were no headhunters in Burma back then. Secondly, the Burmese men look mysteriously like Apaches, as if they wandered in from a John Ford western. They look to be dressed for winter on the prairie, wearing long-sleeved tops and buckskins. It's about 90 there, and our American entourage is sweating like pigs, yet here are some local natives who look like they live inside an icehouse. The viewer will have to watch to find out about the psychological drama previously referred to, which has to do with the husband's unfounded insecurity about his wife.

Speaking of curiosity, I, myself, am curious- about how this show lasted two years on the network. Presumably, the scripts got better.

Russell was in chess game with a Latin American dictator. He had help from a refugee European doctor. He won the game because the doctor was also "helping" the dictator. For a 10 yr old, the was a way cool plot twist.

I agree with the previous poster that the series was an example of the "White man's burden". Can't believe that it only ran a year. It was a period piece in a lull for mercenaries. Then again, with the Congo in 1960, the concept of mercenaries was revived and it was not an American dominated area.

Probably would have done better if they were CIA.

When I was six years old this show was my idea of high adventure in exotic places! I still think that I became an avid reader of adventure fiction because of the mental stimulation I derived from the globe trotting exploits of Tim Kelly and Tubo smith. If memory serves the writing was first rate for a syndicated half hour show and the acting was enough to convince me that the show meant business. I've always had an irrational attachment to 7-Up as a soft drink because it was the sponsor for the show. Even the theme music was calculated to tickle the adrenal gland. I first learned about volcanic eruptions from one episode ; in another the two heroes hunted whales in open rowboats. In still another episode they brought a Latin American bandit on horseback to justice. Today I teach Global Studies in a High School because "Soldiers of Fortune" I wish it was available in syndication today.

This syndicated series was a particular favorite of mine as a lad. I well remember looking forward every week to the further adventures of Tim Kelly and Toubo Smith. They were played by John Russell and Chick Chandler respectively.

When you think about it these two guys weren't anything less than 20th Century cowboys selling their gun-hands or in some cases giving their services away to people in need. The plots of Soldiers of Fortune were probably reworked from any number of westerns.

Still I liked the idea of these two guys turning up in all kinds of exotic places in the world and getting in every manner of adventure there was. I don't recall any romances for the lead John Russell. And Chandler as the sidekick? When did Smiley Burnette ever get involved with a woman?

John Russell later did another series for which he's more well known, Lawman. I would venture that his best remembered film role is in Rio Bravo as the wealthy rancher trying to free his no good brother from John Wayne's jail. He played good and bad guys equally well. Chick Chandler has a ton of movie credits going all the way back to silent days. A fair number of musicals are included, he started out in vaudeville as a song and dance man. You might remember him with Jack Haley supporting Alice Faye singing The International Rag in Alexander's Ragtime Band.

Though it lasted for only two seasons in first run syndication, WPIX in New York ran it for years after. It was a small boy's fantasy.