The most famous gamblers in the US converged on the Western town of Sweetwater for a high-stakes poker game at that august establishment, the Red Ox Saloon.
Joe Dakota was there. Monte Ralston. The Delta Fox. But the main attraction at the game was Bret Maverick, with James Garner back in the role he made famous.
The jaunty, silver-haired gambler was “20-years older, 40-years wiser” and still had a few tricks up his sleeve, along with a four-barrel derringer.
Not that he liked to use it. In fact, Maverick was thinking of settling down in Sweetwater. Maybe.
That prospect seemed to appeal to Mary Lou Springer (Darleen Carr), the pretty reporter-photographer who ran the local newspaper, the Territorian, and who kept trying to get a good shot of Maverick with her unwieldy camera.
Richard Hamilton co-starred as Cy Whittaker, Brett’s ranch hand at the “Lazy Ace”; Ramon Bieri was snooty bank president Elijah Crow, who was not above stretching the law to his advantage; and Garner’s Rockford Files colleague Stuart Margolin appeared as half-Indian con-man, Philo Sandeen.
Country singer Ed Bruce played former sheriff Tom Guthrie, Maverick’s taciturn partner in the Red Ox Saloon, and lent his writing and singing talents to the delightful theme song, Maverick Didn’t Come Here to Lose.
Bret Maverick
James Garner Tom Guthrie
Ed Bruce Elijah Crow
Ramon Bieri Cy Whittaker
Richard Hamilton Sheriff Mitchel Dowd
John Shearin Rodney Catlow
David Knell Mary Lou ‘M.L.’ Springer
Darleen Carr Jack the Bartender
Jack Garner Shifty Delgado
Luis Delgado Philo Sandeen
Stuart Margolin
