Stories of the Century

'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!

TV's "Stories Of The Century" (1954-1955) was set in the American "Old West" where Matt Clark was a staunch, no-nonsense Railroad Detective whose territorial boundaries often extended well-beyond that of just the confined restrictions of the railroads.

Working together with either one of his trustworthy female sidekicks, Frankie Adams or Margaret Jones - Matt Clark could always be counted on to bring to justice some of the most notorious badmen (and bad women) whoever dared to challenge the law in this untamed frontier of America.

For the most part - "Stories Of The Century" was a fairly entertaining TV Western (from yesteryear) that certainly contained plenty of violence and gun-play in order to move its fast-paced stories about rough'n'rugged cowboys along.

This is an interesting series that takes real life people (Jesse James, John Wesley Hardin, etc)...and dramatizes part of their real story with a continuing series character taking part in that story. Railroad Detective "Matt Clark" -- takes a role in tracking down famous outlaws from the Old West in stories that are at least partly based on the true accounts. In that sense, it's almost an anthology series, and as someone else pointed out, this odd structure poses some timeline conflicts with the real events, but it's a fun series with plenty of action to satisfy a western-hungry 1950's audience -- and it still holds up pretty well 55 years later. Clark cuts a powerful figure in his western gear as he goes up against some of history's baddest baddies. And his girl-sidekick Frankie is quite a dish. If you're a western fan, be sure to check it out if you have a chance.

I'll be up front here; I can't discern great, oscar winning acting from just plain good acting. So I'm not claiming to be an expert on the craft, but I CAN tell terrible acting from the decent stuff. Now, I grew up watching this show, and so was excited to find it on youtube to recapture some of milk, and sat down to watch a few episodes. I should have watched some Maverick episodes instead. Ugh. Just like the marionettes, claymation, and puppets, it hasn't aged well. Perhaps Chuck Norris grew up watching these, too, and that's what he patterned his acting after, because some of these actors are terrible. Still, it's worth a watch, if just to remember what fun it was when we were kids, to watch the westerns that we wanted to believe, were realistic examples of what life was long ago. But don't expect too much; enjoy it for what it is. Five out of ten stars.

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.