Stories of the Century

Stories Of The Century casts Jim Davis and Mary Castle as a pair of railroad detectives who seem to have aided in the apprehension or demise of every outlaw in the west. The years of their operations range all the way from the Civil War to the Theodore Roosevelt era and yet they aged not a day. This is in the tradition of the B western and it was the soon to be extinct Republic Pictures who produced this for television. William Witney, veteran contract director for Republic seems to have done most of the episodes.

I guess the fact that they ran out of name bandits was the cause of Stories Of The Century met its demise. A studio like Republic that had small scale operations should have been the first ones into television. Probably Herbert J. Yates regretted he didn't move earlier into the small screen.

The episodes I saw of the show had not one hint of any romance between Davis and Castle. They were all business every week and while Castle's considerable beauty and charm caused the fall of many an outlaw, she and Davis never got personal. In fact they were as impersonal as any Dragnet Show that Jack Webb did. Davis and Castle dealt only in facts.

Stories Of The Century with all the disclaimers about the impossibility of Davis and Castle being Zelig like at the scene of every outlaw's fall was not a bad series. It was a beginning of the TV trend to more adult westerns.

'Big' Jim Davis, as Matt Clark, Railroad Detective, traveled west each week to aid in the capture of one of history's notable badmen(or women). At times, Clark's appearance at the scene seems somewhat contrived, as in just "happening" to be in town when Ford shoots Jesse James. The stories do have some limited educational value, as each one sticks to the basic facts, although production values for the series were decidedly low budget. One thing I could never figure out...one week Clark would chase Quantrill in 1863, the next Tom Horn in 1903...30 years apart...yet he never aged!

This unassuming, fairly routine series deserves credit in the TV history books for two reasons: it was the first to win an Emmy award for best syndicated series, and it was the very first show to come from the fabled studios of Republic Pictures, known for its low-budget but high-powered shoot-em-ups in the 30's and 40's.

Republic was one of the first Hollywood studios to make a leap into the small screen, which was still in its infancy. But the studios' tenure as producer of TV pulp fiction would be brief. After this show, they would later dabble with the other format that they were known for, the adventure serial, with "Commando Cody", as well as other series, but like this one, they didn't last longer than 39 episodes. Also, Republic was in its last stages as a studio; it would finish out its tenure in Hollywood as rental stages for several Revue Studio series such as "Soldiers of Fortune", the original "Dragnet", and "Kit Carson", before finally shutting its doors in 1959.

Anyway, "Stories of the Century" wasn't that bad of an oater, its calling card was tales based on authentic figures in Western history, mainly outlaws like Black Bart, Johnny Ringo, John Wesley Hardin, The Dalton Bros. and the like. The late Jim Davis, best known for his role as the Ewing patriarch in "Dallas", put in an amiable job in the lead role as Matt Clark, a fictional railroad detective who has to contend with said outlaws, played by veteran and soon-to-be veteran character actors.

Two amazing facts here: The incidents would take place in different time lines, some in the 1880's, some at the turn of the century, but Clark never ages. And also, Matt has the good luck to saddle himself with two lovely female detectives as sidekicks, Frankie Adams, played by Mary Castle, and her replacement, Margaret "Jonesy" Jones, by Kristine Miller. The Lone Ranger could only wish for lady companionship. You can only spend such time with Tonto for so long.

"Stories Of The Century" is a Studio City TV production from Republic Pictures Corp. 39 episodes were made during 1954, all 39 of which are in public domain and on DVD.

In spite of an awful and even misleading title, this adventure series disguised as a detective show does provide some interesting history of the latter part of the nineteenth century. The narration works well, though maybe not in the voice of its star, Jim Davis. The editing, mixing in stock footage from Republic Pictures, is pretty good, and this show provides more action sequences of stampedes (horse and cattle) and stagecoach and wagon disasters than any western I know.

The stories are pretty good, examining the rampages and ends of some of the most notorious outlaws in western history (all supposedly based on true facts). The sets are very good--though as with much of early TV in the mid-1950s, you can see the abrupt change from location shooting to the studio set. And continuity problems are not uncommon.

The acting is okay, especially from some of the guest stars, many of whom were just starting out in television.

Overall, it works, and I wish they had continued--but, as another reviewer pointed out, I guess they ran out of true-to-life bad guys whose stories they could tell. I rated the series a 9 because it's better than an 8. And the location landscape shots (lots of well-filmed chance sequences) are wonderful.

Nobody in Hollywood could sit a horse like Jim Davis. That's a fact, and I've seen 'em all. Like champion racetrack jockeys he is one with his horse, seamless. At a full gallop, he's perfectly straight and still, an ice man. If you like horses and large scale horse action, you've come to the right place. Republic Pictures had a lock on that kind of film making, nobody else came close. Check out the best large scale horse stampede in BELLE STARR. Jim Davis also had real star quality---he made the other guy look good. For the last 30-40 years what passes for "westerns" come unglued when it comes to horse action. Give yourself a break and check out SOTC on youtube.