Tomorrow's (August 27) star in TCM's Summer Under the Stars is Ossie Davis, who was generally more of a supporting player as well as the husband of actress Ruby Dee. One of the movies that I hadn't seen before is Sam Whiskey. But since it's available to stream from Pluto TV, I decided to watch that (granted, with commercials) in order to be able to do a post here for the TCM showing tomorrow at 2:00 PM.
Once again, it's not Davis who is the star here, although he has a fairly large role playing one of the second bananas to the star. The star here his Burt Reynolds, playing Sam Whiskey. Some time not overly long after the Civil War (the movie plays fast and loose with time and geography) Sam rides into a small town that's been around long enough to have fences and a full range of services. He walks into a bar where he runs into the local blacksmith Jed Hooker (that's Ossie Davis) and getting into a fight with Hooker. Sam is really there to meet a woman, however, Laura Breckenridge (Angie Dickinson).
Laura has a job for Sam. Laura is a widow, but the Breckenridges have a positive reputation. What the people don't know, however, is that her late husband did something that runs the risk of sullying that family name. To wit, he stole a whole bunch of gold bars from the US Mint in Denver, replacing them with gold-plated lead bars. Now, you'd think that Laura might be happy with those gold bars. But she never got them, as the riverboat her husband was on sank in the Platte River, with the bars still aboard. Worse, an inspector from the Treasury Department is supposed to visit the Denver mint soon, whereupon he'll find out about the heist and destroy the Breckenridge name. So Laura wants Sam to find the gold bars, but instead of bringing them to her, put them back in the mint in Denver!
As with any good heist movie, Sam sets out to look for help to carry out the heist-in-reverse. As you might have guessed, Jed Hooker is going to be one of his partners. But he's got a third for the scheme, an inventor named O.W. Bandy (Clint Walker) who can fashion all sorts of devices to help them get the gold bars and then put them back where they belong.
There are several catches, of course. Even before you try to figure out how to get the gold into the vault, there's the issue of getting it off the bottom of the river. The three men are also being followed by another gang of crooks, a gang of whom Laura was aware but never informed poor Sam. They, unsurprisingly, want the gold, but have no intention of putting it back in the vault. And they're willing to kill to get it.
However, Sam and his two friends do get the gold bars out of the boat and then to Denver. But how are they going to get it back into the mint? And surely, even though there's no longer a pesky Production Code to deal with, something's bound to go wrong, isn't it?
As I was watching Sam Whiskey, I couldn't help but find myself thinking of another Burt Reynolds movie, W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings. Now, I happened to like that later movie, even though I realize it's not a particularly great movie. The reason for liking it comes down to Burt Reynolds' easygoing charm. The same holds true for Sam Whiskey. It's full of plot holes that you'll spot if you pay too close attention. But Reynolds again shows what a charming little rascal he can be, elevating not terribly good or original material into a film that entertains. Just don't think too hard about it.
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