[profh0011]

HEC RAMSEY  /  The Century Turns
A "Western" Sherlock Holmes   (8 of 10)

Retired US Marshal "Hec" Ramsey has taken a job in New Prospect, Oklahoma, at a point where "the old west" is becoming a whole new era. But his new boss, a former school teacher, takes an immediate dislike to the man he THINKS Hec is, before ever taking the trouble to get to know him. En route, the stagecoach is robbed, and on arrival, an apparent murder-suicide turns out to be a double-murder. So Hec has to not only solve two crimes at once, using "modern" techniques, and get to know the people of his new town, but wage a quiet "war" with the man who doesn't even want him on his new Police Force!

HEC RAMSEY was the 4th "NBC Mystery Movie" series on Sundays, along with COLUMBO, McCLOUD and McMILLAN & WIFE. It stood out from the others as being the only "period piece", set in the year 1901, which made it not only an unusual mystery show but also an unusual western. While many have expressed belief that "Hec" and "Palladin" of HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL may be the same character in all but name, it appears this film in particular may have been inspired in part by DEATH OF A GUNFIGHTER with Richard Widmark. As I'm a big fan of his, and I love tracking down "influences" (and it's always seemed to me that near every NBC Mystery Movie series was inspired by something that came before it), I clearly need to track that down.

The show was a "Mark VII Limited" series, Jack Webb's company, and this aired during the same era as ADAM-12 and EMERGENCY. The show having an ongoing narrator (in the presence of Harry Morgan) made it similar to DRAGNET, the 1958 MIKE HAMMER and several other series.

Richard Boone (HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, THE BIG SLEEP) is "Hector 'Hec' Ramsey", a man who used to be a tough gunfighter but who has studied modern police techniques that include such things as ballistics, fingerprints, plaster of Paris casts. He's still quick on the draw and dangerous when he needs to be, but prefers using his wits these days.

Rick Lenz (CACTUS FLOWER) is "Police Chief Oliver Stamp", a former school teacher who was somehow voted into his job and spends too much time arguing with both the town council and his new Chief Deputy. He slowly begins to learn that Hec is someone who KNOWS what he's doing and is worth listening to, but, as Hec says, "I think he's starting to like me, and it's causing him lots of pain."

Perry Lopez (KELLY'S HEROES) is "Sgt. Juan Mendoza", a calm, low-key officer who clearly likes that Hec speaks Spanish as well as English. I don't understand why he only appeared in 4 episodes instead of all 10.

Harry Morgan (THE GLENN MILLER STORY, DRAGNET) is "Doc Amos B. Coogan", a doctor-turned-barber who becomes fast friends with Hec, is eventually recruited as the town's coroner, and serves as the story's narrator. In effect, he is "Dr. Watson" to Hec's "Sherlock Holmes". When the show was first-run, I recall the novelty that Morgan was appearing as a regular on 2 TV series at the same time-- HEC RAMSEY and M*A*S*H. I never liked "Colonel Potter" ONE-TENTH as much as I did "Doc Coogan".

R. G. Armstrong (LONE WOLF McQUADE) is "Ben Ritt", a hot-headed, loud-mouthed, short-tempered, arrogant rich guy who becomes the chief suspect in the double-murder when it comes out the dead couple's land had oil on it, and he's the only one in the area who's actively searching for oil.

Sharon Acker (STAR TREK: "The Mark Of Gideon") is "Nora Muldoon", a widowed professional pharmacist whose husband died a year earlier, is on the same stage as Hec that's held up, and slowly comes to care for him (and vice-versa). A stunningly-beautiful lady, I am still shocked that the characters of her and her young son only appeared in TWO episode of this show, especially given what happens to both of them in their 2nd appearance. (WHAT were the producers & writers thinking?) I also have this strong suspicion that her 2nd appearance was actually the 2nd episode, but was held back to the end of the season because someone at NBC thought it was too depressing.

I didn't see this show until its 2nd season, but I hooked fast, and was sad when it, like pretty much every other late-comer NBC Mystery Movie, didn't last long.

When originally broadcast, the pilot was titled HEC RAMSEY. In later syndication, it was retitled THE CENTURY TURNS.

Somebody seriously needs to put these 10 episodes out officially on DVD or Blu-Ray. I've found 4 different outfits selling bootlegs, and the one I decided to buy, the quality of the print (copied from a video recording made off a TV station in Denver) was so APPALLINGLY awful, I felt the people who put it out should have been EMBARRASSED to actually be charging money for it.

[The Australian Panther]

hec ramsey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu3fyeaNXro&list=PL6guIm0huWb64YyO8jqBBm99rKt-afASb

Taped from TV - so visuals are not great .
love Richard Boone and harry Morgan.

[profh0011]

This is exactly what I'm talking about.  I've SEEN the pilot episode on Youtube, and the picture was perfectly clear.  The link you posted brought up another episode where the signal is so bad, you're almost watching a BLACK AND WHITE show instead of one in color.

My computer (with Youtube) and my TV are on opposite sides of the room, and there is simply NO WAY I can possibly hook them up to watch Youtube on the TV.  It can't be done.  And I don't want to be sitting in front of my computer to watch these shows.

All my CBS Late Movie videotapes look WAYYY better than this.  Unfortunately, right now, I have a defective VCR, where it's unpredictable which tapes will play fine and which WON'T.

I was re-watching a McCLOUD the other day, and it took 30 minutes before it finally started playing smooth, without the sound fading out and the picture fluttering (NOT the tape's fault).  When it was playing good, the picture & sound quality was VERY CLEAR.  (I had to fast-forward the entire tape all the way to the end and then rewind it to the beginning in order to shake out the tape enough so it would play even that good.  It was maddenning.  In years past, I would have simply bought a brand-new VCR already.)

As it happens, I have every HEC RAMSEY taped off The CBS Late Movie... except the pilot, which they NEVER RAN.  CBS really pissed me off a lot back in those days.

[profh0011]

At the Classic Horror Board, someone said they'd been "burned" by bootlegs.  I agreed, and posted the following reply:

I got a movie from an outfit called "Trash Palace", and it was one of the worst prints I ever saw.  The seller actually apologized, said it was not the usual quality of his stuff, and said I could get my next order for free.

Then there's "Rare Films And More" (formerly "German Films and More").  Though a US outfit, their DVD-Rs appear to be copied from PAL discs, so they run way too fast.

Then there's "Loving The Classics".  While most of their catalog appears to be "factory originals", for out-of-print TV shows, it seems they're running off copies of VIDEOTAPES recorded off the air.  Their copy of the 1972 Stewart Granger HOUND wasn't bad... but yesterday, I got their HEC RAMSEY box set, and the copies are APPALLINGLY bad.  (Seriously, my own self-recorded videotapes look WAY BETTER, and I'm considering mailing them to someone I know who tells me he can copy them to DVD-R-- something I would normally NEVER do.)  So glad that of the 4 different outfits selling those, these guys were by far the cheapest.

But now, OnesMediaFilms, the majority of the prints are really decent (if anything, they look like they might have been copied straight off TCM), except for those prints TCM did not have copies of, because for whatever reason, nobody has decent copies of those specific movies.  Their packaging is also very nice.  So I can vouch for these these guys, I've gotten several items from them.  Also, any discs that are defective are replaced for free.

The best I've run across so far is "j4hi.com" ("Just for the Hell of It!" -- no kidding).  This guy put out a DVD-R of STACEY (1973), and it's genuinely BETTER-looking and sounding than the old official videotape rental was.  Plus, the box and disc both look VERY professional!


But yeah, given a choice, I'd prefer an "official" release.

On the other hand... VEI (Video Entertainment Inc.), who put out McMILLAN & WIFE, THE SNOOP SISTERS, and recently, McCLOUD, really impressed me.  McCLOUD took forever for the entire series to come out, because nobody could find Season 1 INTACT (Universal had butchered those 6 episodes when they turned them into "movies" in 1973, and lost the originals).  I don't know where they found them, but they have the original version of Season 1.  Half the eps look real good, half are slightly dodgy, but all very watchable.  The pilot, and Season 2, are "perfect" (but they'd been issued before).  But when I got to Season 3... the first episode was made from a PAL copy.  HOW THE HELL could they have screwed that up???  And now I'm worried the entire rest of seasons 3-7 might be that way.  (I sure hope not.)


Then again... Warner Archive, Shout Factory and Kino Lorber have all put out Blu-Rays of certain horror movies that are too dark to see what you're looking at.  How do "big" labels manage that?

[profh0011]

I saw the 2nd season when it was first run.  Seems most NBC Mystery Movie series, I came in a bit late.

In the early 80s, I taped 9 of them off The CBS Late Movie  This was before they started speeding up the film AND cutting scenes, so, I'm pretty sure my copies of those are uncut, AND clear.  The big question is if they'll play good on my current POS VCR.

Typically, infuriatingly, CBS did not run the pilot, even though, as far as I know, it was run as part of the regular season, NOT 6 months or more earlier.  I finally got to see the pilot several years ago on Youtube. That was a clear print.

The last time I watched the series, probably after seeing the pilot, I noticed something horrible.  In the epsode "The Mystery of the Chalk Hill" (3 of the 5 that year had titles like that, in the style of Holmes stories), Hec and Nora decide to get married.  He's also had it with his boss Oliver, and decided to take a job in another town.  She goes on ahead and he'll meet up with her later.  But when he arrives, she and her young son have both been MURDERED.  I mean, WHO THE HELL does this?  My best friend last night compared it to "Rachel Carruthers" (Ellie Cornell) getting murdered 25 minutes into HALLOWEEN 5, which the producer of those awful films said was "to prove no one is safe", then, years later, admitted was "a mistake".  NO S***.

Nora & her son only appeared in 2 episodes.  They changed producers between the pilot and the 2nd episode (this happens a lot-- too much, I think).  Now, to me, Since Nora and her son only appeared in 2 episodes, I would think that her 2nd episode was THE 2nd episode.  But NBC ran it 5th-- as the season finale.  WTF?  As Hec seemed to be getting along with Oliver in the other 3 episodes, again, I would think the one where he quits-- but then comes back-- should be the 2nd episode-- not the 5th.  I'm gonna watch this time in broadcast order, just to see if it feels right OR WRONG.

I wonder if this had anything at all to do with the alleged "creative differences" between Richard Boone and the network that led to it ending after only 2 seasons?

My guess is, SOMEBODY wanted Hec romancing a different woman in each story, and not romantically involved with just ONE woman (a la "Captain Kirk" on STAR TREK).  Since the relationship was so wonderfully set up in the pilot, I suppose they figured the only way out was a DOUBLE MURDER.  Those BASTARDS.



I didn't see the pilot until recently, so I was unaware of this before then.

[profh0011]

HEC RAMSEY:  Hangman’s Wages
The Electric Chair Murders   (7 of 10)

A famous outlaw who once rode with Hec is about to be executed via a new-fangled piece of modern technology: an electric chair. Naturally, this brings lots of strangers to town, dozens of newspaper reporters, a fire-and-brimstone Bible-thumping preacher, and random interested spectators. But while the town's businessmen begin doubling their rates to take advantage of all this publicity and excitement, someone murders a total stranger outside of town and leaves a note saying they will kill one person each day (shades of DIRTY HARRY) until the convict is freed. Hec and his boss Oliver continue to be violently at odds with each other, and I can only think how lucky it is for those youngsters who no longer have to put up with Oliver's attitude when he was a school-teacher, and now he has someone he's up against who can actually yell back.

Steve Forest (S. W. A. T.) is "Wes Durham", the outlaw who's killed so many in his time, yet plays guitar and sings while awaiting execution, and is a hero to many due to his exploits appearing in a magazine.

Murray Matheson (BANACEK) is "Lionel Harlock", the high-fallutin' author who is Durham's "official biographer", who at one point looks to be a suspect when he denies a gun he carries was recently fired.

Stella Stevens (THE NUTTY PROFESSOR) is "Ivy Turnwright", a newspaper reporter whose name sounds like it came out of an Ian Fleming novel, who get VERY friendly and "romantic" with Hec in order to get permission to be the only reporter in town allowed to interview the condemned man.

G. D. Spradlin (WRONG IS RIGHT, DICK) is "Brother Caxton", the fanatical, loud-mouthed preacher who at one point repeateldy yells, "IT'S IN THE BOOK!"

Walter Burke (THE OUTER LIMITS) is "Amos Mole", half of a pair of bank-robbers who are stupid enough to start shooting at Hec when he's outside of town looking for the murderer.

A year or so earlier, ABC attempted to create their own competitive "Mystery Movie" cycle using existing old characters in "period" stories (SHERLOCK HOLMES, NICK CARTER), but none of the pilots sold.  Instead, NBC created their own new "period" character in HEC RAMSEY, albeit one who bore a striking resemblence to "Paladin" from HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL. This was certainly the most "different" of the NBC Mystery Movies, absolutely one of the most watchable, and it is criminal that it, like BANACEK, it ended after only 2 short years.

Now, regarding something that has been bothering me for a lot of years... Hec gets romantic with the fake reporter lady; therefore, there is NO WAY that this story takes place between the pilot and "The Mystery Of The Chalk Hill"-- which I believe was actually the 2nd episode filmed, but held back because someone at NBC felt it was "too downbeat", since the young widow and her son (from the pilot) were both MURDERED in that episode. In fact, as there's 3 stories in a row with "Mystery of the..." in the title, I suspect "Hangman's Wages" was actually the 5th story filmed, but SWAPPED with the 2nd one! This was certainly NOT the only some interfering network executive SCREWED with the logical running order of a show. (I've seen blatent examples of it on BATMAN, STAR TREK, NIGHT COURT, and late in its run, DOCTOR WHO.)

HEC RAMSEY is currently available as bootleg DVD-Rs from at least 4 different outfits. I got the cheapest one, partly because it had all 10 episodes (not just 9), and because I have no idea if the pricier ones are any better. This specific episode was taped off The CBS Late Movie (before they started really screwing with the shows), so it's running at the right speed. But it's also missing 3-1/2 minutes, and between the REALLY lousy, faded color, and the FUZZY-AS-HELL picture quality, my guess is it was recorded off a BAD antenna signal, at the SLOW speed, then COPIED at the slow speed, before whoever did those tapes then copied it onto disc. DAMN. I wish somebody would put out an OFFICIAL DVD box set of this show... or better yet, Blu-Ray. That way we could be sure every episode was running at the correct speed, wherever the copies came from, and wherever anyone was watching it. If they could put THE SNOOP SISTERS out, when that series only had 5 episodes, they sure as hec can do the same with HEC RAMSEY.

[profh0011]

HEC RAMSEY:  Mystery Of The Green Feather
Not-Quite Indian Trouble   (7 of 10)

A family is murdered, and the evidence is made to appear as if they were killed by Indians, but Hec has reason not to believe it. Meanwhile, an arrogant rancher is having cattle stolen from him, and doesn't care whose property he has to trespass on to find them; someone is pulling a con-game on the government by falsely claiming Indian heritage in order to accumulate free land being given to the Indians; and a wanted killer Hec & Oliver are chasing down gives them the slip after being on the road for two weeks.

This continues to be a genuinely involving and complex mystery series, though I have to say, this particular episode seems to be rambling all over the place and taking its time getting anywhere. On that score, it seems to have almost, in a very low-key way, predicted the complex, multi-plot "Alamo" episodes of McCLOUD by over a year!

Morgan Woodward (STAR TREK: The Omega Glory) is "Ben Buckley", a rancher who seems to believe he's the law unto himself, and can and will do whatever he wants with nobody to stop him. At the climax, he winds up shooting Hec's hat right off his head at quite a distance, causing Oliver to ask, "Does he always shoot that good?"

Rory Calhoun (longtime western star) is "Jim Patton", who Hec learns is not only stealing from his boss, but also messing around with his boss's girlfriend.

Lorraine Gary (JAWS, 1941) is "Bella Grant", who Hec is really impressed with, but refuses to mess with when he figures out she's already "taken".

Alan Hewitt (MY FAVORITE MARTIAN) and John Fiedler (THE WORLD OF HENRY ORIENT) are "Samuels" and "Pingree", a pair of railroad company men, who first try to push their weight around with Oliver & Hec when they hear there's Indian trouble in the area, then make the mistake of doing the same thing with a man who just happened to have a guilty conscience.

Lloyd Bochner (THE NIGHT WALKER) is "Myles Wingate", a former salesman who once spent time in a territorial prision, and is more terrified of ever going back than anything else.

Much of the plot involves someone deliberately trying to start a war with the local Indians, and Hec repeatedly drives Oliver crazy as he carefully, tediously demonstrates various new-fangled scientific crime-solving tests and methods. I noticed that "Doc Coogan" is mentioned once, but doesn't actually appear in this one. I kinda wish he had; this series could have used more regular, recurring characters.