Butch Cassidy Rides Again

The NYPD demonstrates a bank robbery on live closed-circuit TV, and is bushwhacked by a gang of antiquated outlaws.

Harvey’s Electric Construction Co.

The purpose of the demonstration is to educate bank officials nationwide and the press on the proper way to behave during a robbery, and also show a masterful police response. McCloud does the deed, abetted by Sgt. Broadhurst in the getaway van.

This exemplary script is very closely related to Ken Russell’s Billion Dollar Brain, and is in some ways an archetypal McCloud episode. Shear does all he can, going flat out, and gets some New York shots early on like a deep breath before the dense script and complicated action demand his energies.

The two main themes are computers and nostalgia, with a vital theme of journalism (print and television) in counterpoint.

It isn’t “the road that he’s traveled, but the trail up ahead” that ought to concern a man, says McCloud in one of those aphorisms which Chief Clifford here calls “hickory-smoked scriptures.”

Two wrong uses of the computer are shown: statistical dreams and pre-programmed alibis, but McCloud is wise to them. “Programmed—that’s computer talk, I picked it up in New York—seems like you can program people and things to think anything you want them to think.” He uses the Brinkman Security computer for information, and solves the case.

There’s an interesting side note, among many, of the “give and take” of privacy and security.

McCloud’s girlfriend Geri is a columnist, and has an enchanting fight in her apartment with Samantha Johnson, a television reporter, over a false lead.

“You can’t stop an armored car with a shotgun,” observes McCloud. No, says the leader of the gang, surprise is what you need, “something so outlandish they put their guard down” in a moment of hesitation.

The detail work is quite extensive and well thought out. For example, the gang’s van belongs to “Harvey’s Electric Construction Co.”

Pat O’Brien Mac Ferguson Stefanie Powers Samantha Johnson William Daniels Clayton Gillis Roger Davis Virgil Linda Evans Geri Marsh Lloyd Nolan Elroy Jenkins James Millhollin 1^st Executive Herb Voland 2^nd Executive William Bryant Courier Robert F. Simon Tobey Harris Clete Roberts Charles Price Buddy Lester Hotel Clerk Rick Weaver 2^nd Gang Member Artie Shaw Fire Chief Larry Carroll Helicopter Pilot

Written by Glen A. Larson Directed by Barry Shear

38004, 10.14.73

CLAYTON GILLIS: Heuristics is the science of hunches, of making educated guesses.
CHIEF CLIFFORD: It may interest your boys to know that the police have been doing that for years.

CHARLES PRICE: You were always a strange girl, Sam, even when you did the weather.
SAMANTHA JOHNSON: Thank you.

(The gang robs their commuter train.)
2^ND EXECUTIVE: I told you Westerns are coming back.
1^ST EXECUTIVE: Sit down you idiot!

(The fight begins.)
GERI MARSH: He did all that to you? How sweet!
SAMANTHA JOHNSON: Sweet? I’ll show you sweet! I’ll show you sweet!

CHIEF CLIFFORD: Tell me it isn’t happening, Joe.

McCLOUD: (To Virgil.) By the time you get back out on the streets, these whiskers’ll be real.

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