kingsgo4th

Lloyd Bridges plays an ex-Union officer who was forced to kill a teenage Confederate during a skirmish. Adding to his self reproach and soul searching is the news that arrives moments later the same day that Lee surrendered. Disillusioned, his post-war journeys in the West brings him to a variety of situations, many quite original. Rod Serling created The Loner and wrote many scripts. The dialogue is excellent and if Bridges sounds smooth, he plays a West Point officer with 12 years in the cavalry. This is one of those great shows the network programmers were afraid to relocate and probably had little interest in saving. It's amazing what NBC did for Star Trek to keep it going for 3 seasons because of.... letter-writing from fans? If a show like The Loner is a ratings loser, the head honchos have the power to try and save it. Regrettably, no one wanted to see this great show by Rod Serling succeed. It's now on DVD and the stories hold up and prints are crystal clear.

The title didn't/doesn't have much oomph to it, but this is a great 70's no-comedy crime thriller with the title character deftly played by Walter Matthau. In this film, robbers discover after cleaning out a small town bank's vault that the amount of money they've stolen is way above the expected take and must have mob ties. Andy Robinson (the psycho in Dirty Harry) plays Varrick's naive partner; Joe Don Baker (Walking Tall) is the hit man the mob recruits to get back the money. In smaller roles, John Vernon is a nervous mobster responsible for having picked that particular bank as a mob drop, Felicia Farr and Sheree North (both looking good, both smooth and smart), veteran character actor Tom Tully and Jacqueline Scott (sister of TV's Fugitive) are all superb. Director Don Siegel keeps the story nicely paced and Matthau's dry, thoughtful gum-chewing Varrick trying to stay alive, keeping a step ahead of the mob is really superb. Also pay attention to his small talk...it matters as the story develops.