The 42^nd Street Cavalry

McCloud’s lackluster assignments make him grouse, so Chief Clifford sends him to the Mounted Unit. A fence sets up a munitions theft at a National Guard Armory (USMC) for a revolutionary group, and the cavalry is on its way.

Field Training

McCloud is sent to the City of New York’s Remount School of Horsemanship, where he is mistaken for another visitor, Sheriff Ben Thornton of Tempe, Arizona (who wears a suit and smokes a pipe). “We don’t have a mounted unit in Taos,” McCloud points out.

The robbery is carried out by street thugs wearing Hudson Power Company uniforms. As he already knows how to ride, McCloud is left in charge as acting instructor, and takes his class of tyros to Manhattan for “field training.”

Curious details abound in a lively script. Chief Clifford says, “Someone’s out there sitting on enough firepower to turn this whole city into another My Lai.” The revolutionary leader reveals his motivation to Packy, the fence, by handing him a book about “the martyrs of the Spanish Inquisition” (“maybe it’ll give you some insight into what’s happening today,” he says). Packy drops it in a garbage can.

McCloud and Sgt. Cross go undercover to trace arms being sold off willy-nilly, while negotiations continue for the block sale. Their revolutionists’ pad has posters of Lenin, Marx & Engels, etc.

Frank follows McCloud home to blow him up with a hand grenade. McCloud slips out on the fire escape, and you get a nice view of how high up he lives.

The finale is a shootout with the revolutionaries, while the Mounted Unit charges out after the gang. The bravura of this scene inspires Stu Phillips to his score’s best moments.

The actor who plays Chief Clifford in the pilot, Peter Mark Richman, is seen as Capt. Dettmer. Even for John Finnegan, this is unusually brilliant work, but the script brings out the best in everybody, notably Victor Campos as Hector, who claims he found his brand-new sidearm “in a garbage can on 114^th Street.” Capt. Dettmer interrogates him: “We’re going to trace the serial number, and that’ll take us to the Armory robbery, and you know where that’s going to take us?” Hector replies, “To 114^th Street!” And then, the show is full of actors (Julie Sommars, Michael Parks, Bert Freed, George Murdock, Rafael Campos, etc.).

Julie Sommars Sergeant Mildred Cross Peter Mark Richman Captain Dettmer Michael Parks Frank Rafael Campos Manny Victor Campos Hector Ramirez Bert Freed Packy Keefe George Murdock Sergeant Rosovitch John Finnegan Desk Sergeant Steve Bond Mark

Story by Arthur Deutsch Written by Michael Gleason Directed by Jerry Jameson

40507, 11.17.74

John Finnegan is incorrectly billed as playing a Mounted Sergeant.

Arthur Deutsch’s name is misspelled in the credits.

McCLOUD: I’m here to learn big-city police techniques, and you learn by doin’! Not by sittin’ on your can in Central Files!

McCLOUD: I just didn’t come to New York to learn how to ride a horse.

(First day in the Mounted Unit. Mounting up.)
McCLOUD: What’s the matter?
SGT. CROSS: Nothing.
McCLOUD: What are ya waitin’ for?
SGT. CROSS: I don’t like to be rushed.
McCLOUD: Ever been on a horse before? (She struggles to mount.) There’s nothin’ personal about this, ma’am. (Heaves her up by the haunches.)
SGT. CROSS: (Indignant.) McCloud, you’ll get yours!
McCLOUD: A very friendly thought there, Sergeant.

McCLOUD: Just ‘cause my nose is out o’ joint, no need for the rest o’ my body to suffer.

FRANK: (Aiming his shotgun.) Hang up the phone, General.
MARINE LIEUTENANT: What do you want?
FRANK: I want you to put the phone down.

McCLOUD: (To Sgt. Cross, after her first ride.) That’s all right, Sergeant. I’ll get a bottle o’ liniment ‘n rub it in all the right places ‘n you’ll feel like a new man. So will I.

SGT. CROSS: It started at the Academy. I was the one they all wanted to frisk.

SGT. CROSS: (In hospital, lightly wounded.) Maybe I belong behind a typewriter after all.
McCLOUD: I’d hate for you to waste all that determination. Come on, let’s—let’s try ‘n get up.

CHIEF CLIFFORD: Well, let’s start with the obvious. Maybe we can get creative later on.

McCLOUD: Chief, I know you’re up to your ears with this thing—
CHIEF CLIFFORD: It’s higher than that!

(Hector has rights.)
CAPT. DETTMER: I have a right to know where you got that piece!
HECTOR: I told you.
CAPT. DETTMER: Tell me again.
HECTOR: I found it.
CAPT. DETTMER: Where?
HECTOR: On 114^th Street.
CAPT. DETTMER: Where on 114^th Street?
HECTOR: In a garbage can under a bunch of crud.
CAPT. DETTMER: That’s the worst story I ever heard. Why would somebody want to dump a beautiful piece like that in a garbage can?
HECTOR: I don’t know why! Maybe it was hot!
CAPT. DETTMER: We’re going to trace the serial number, and that’ll take us to the Armory robbery, and you know where that’s going to take us?
HECTOR: Yeah! To 114^th Street!

CAPT. DETTMER: You making any progress?
McCLOUD: Sounds like they got a bunch of dead ends to me!

CAPT. DETTMER: (McCloud is itching to join the investigation.) McCloud, I need you here. You’re acting instructor. Instruct!

HECTOR: What are you, Commies or something?

SGT. CROSS: Everything I own is quivering.
McCLOUD: This’s the easy part.
SGT. CROSS: You think there’ll be any shooting?
McCLOUD: Might.

(Making the arms deal.)
FRANK: Well... I do have a small sample with me.
McCLOUD: (Undercover.) Well, sometimes the runt of the litter’ll tell you a whole lot about the rest of the breed. You show me yours, I’ll show ya mine.

FRANK: I’m gonna kill me a hillbilly cop.

CAPT. DETTMER: We had to take a chance.
CHIEF CLIFFORD: And you had to send this backwoods Barrymore undercover.

PACKY: You’re a devious little—
MANNY: Hey, we sell the guns to somebody else, somebody gives us a commission as fat as—as fat as you are!
PACKY: Hey, Manny... You wouldn’t do that to old Packy, you wouldn’t do that to me.
MANNY: Tomorrow morning, Packy, or that little cash register in your head is going to go tch-tch, clink—No Sale!

SGT. CROSS: (After a long day undercover.) Well, I just want to jump into bed.
McCLOUD: That’s a very friendly thought, Sergeant.

REVOLUTIONARY: But if anything goes wrong...
PACKY: I hope you’re the first one to get it. Let’s go.
REVOLUTIONARY: You’re funny! You’re funny! All right, come on.

McCLOUD: Just happened to be in the vicinity, Chief, when the call came in.
CHIEF CLIFFORD: As long as you’re here, make yourself useful. Work your way downtown.
McCLOUD: Right.
CHIEF CLIFFORD: No, make it uptown!

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