As promised or threatened, depending on your perspective, we begin covering Wild Wild West for the next several months. The series isa childhood favorite. Let us see if it stands up as well when I am 33 as it did when I was ten. The first thing I note about the ilot is the tone of the show, from over the top villains with high concept schemes, elaborate gadgetry, and James West, suave Secret Service agent, always getting the femme fatale I the ed no matter how many times she has attempted to kill him are all present right off the bat.
The lovely lady in “The Night of the Inferno” is Suzanne Pleshette, better known for her role in The Bob Newhart Show:
While it is clear Jim and Artemus Gordon have been partners for a time before, this episode is when they are first given the high tech train in order to make it to the western territories in a hurry. A Mexican revolutionary named Juan Manolo has been taking advantage of post-Civil War conditions to launch raids against American settlements out west with the hopes of reclaiming territory lost in the Mexican War. Our heroes are to find Manolo and his cache of weapons, supposedly enough to wage full scale war.Jim finds his way with the help of a fat Chinese who leads him to Lydia, one of many old flames Jim will run into over the course of the series. The arsenal is hidden in her wine cellar. It does not look all that impressive, honestly. I guess it did not take much to run off American settlers. Frazzled from the Civil War, perhaps?
Jim is captured by whom he suspects is Manolo, but escapes the jail cell in the wine cellar--does not everyone have one of those?--through the use of lock picks and a smoke bomb that miraculously was not discovered when he was searched even though two knives and a wrist gun were. Lots of gadgets right off the bat.
The Mexican general turns out to not be the big man. Instead, Manolo is Wing Fat, the Chinese informant from the beginning of the episode, in disguise. Manolo disguised himself as a Chinese merchant because no one would suspect him o being a Mexican revolutionary. Except Jim, of course, who knew all along because Wing Fat was too tall and fat to be a Chinese.
Do I really need to elaborate on how uncomfortable that whole plot twist sounds these days? The great Victor Buono, who will later play the recurring villain Count Manzeppi, portrays Wing Fat with less than subtle hints of Charlie Chan. The mid-60’s were a whole other world, no?
“The Night of the Inferno” is not one of the more popular episodes in the series, but it does a good job of setting the tone. Far better episodes will come along down the line. But it is a good start.
Rating: *** (ut of 5)
