“The Night of the Poisonous Posey” is another surreal, but fun episode. Jim and Artie earn yet another vacation, perhaps because their sojourn in New Orleans turned out so badly in ’The Night of the Big Blast,” but this one does not wind up much better. Our heroes enter the tiny town of Justice, Arizona and wid up in the predicament immediately pictured above. Fortunately, it is all the town’s idea of a joke. The place is called Justice, after all. They become the guest of honors for a quick town celebration. The two decide to stay, but would you not know it, te town is playing host to a conference of international criminals.
Each one of them is a caricature of what part of the world he comes from with is own gimmick: the Russian throws knives, the cowboy has a lariat, the Latino assassin leaves tarantulas as hi calling card, the Arab is a crazed pyromaniac, etc. They were all brought here by Lucretia Posey:
She has a plan to organize criminal into one, big network covering the entire planet. Yes, women cannot vote yet, but an international group of criminals are going to follow her orders. How progressive for the 1870's. The actress, Delphi Lawrence, is from the United Kingdom just like Ida Lupino. Apparently, the show had to import all its female mastermind-type villains.Jim is captured right off the bat a placed in an insanely elaborate death trap it takes him one and a half acts to escape from. He must be losing his touch. Meanwhile, Artie poses as a latecomer, Ascot Sam. He plats each criminal’s gimmick on another to make it look like they are betraying one another. It works until the real Ascot Sam shows up. Jim and Artie have to brawl their way out I a particularly exciting action sequence. For a nifty change o pace, Artie is the one to capture Posey. He rarely gets the pretty girl.
“The Night of the Poisoous Posey” is comical, adventurous, and pure fun. There is nothing particularly memorable about it, but it does have goofy entertainment value.
Rating: *** (out of 5)
