“The Night of the Fatal Trap” originally aired on Christmas Eve, 1965. The producers must have known there would not be many eyeballs glaring at television screens, because they certainly phoned this one in. The story is a straightforward shoot ’em up between lawmen and outlaws.Jim goes undercover as an outlaw in order to stop a gag of crooks lead by a renegade Mexican colonel from terrorizing border towns. The plan is complicated when the colonel’s girlfriend turns out to be a old flame of Jim’s. She does not blow his cover, but a wanted poster with jim’s alias, but not his face on it, does.
What follows is a battle on top a runaway stagecoach which in spite of Robert Conrad’s instance, was not him doing the stunts in the long shots. Only in the studio shot scenes safe and comfy on a stationary stagecoach with scenery rolling by on a screen behind him is Conrad doing his thing.
The stagecoach crashes off a cliff in a sequence reminiscent of every off a cliff car crash you have ever seen on television or in the movies.
There is really nothing else to see here, though. Jim does not look comfortable taking over Artie’s role to play an disguised character. It is not fun to watch Conrad ham it up the way Ross Martin does. You know, Artie’s disguises would not fool a 99 year old granny with cataracts, but you love the oer the top way he plays it, so you buy into it regardless. Not so when the fake mustache is on the other agent, I am afraid.
Rating: ** (out of 5)
