Episode 7: The Princess and the Paupers
Previous: Episode Six: Whatever Lola Wants.... Next: Episode Eight: In the Bag
We open with a scene in a go-go club.
Suddenly, "Honey West" is in the 1960s after so many episodes that could have been set in the 1950s. While the go-go girls (a little too dressed) gyrate, a long-haired band plays guitars on stage and sings a forgettable pop song.
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| Left to right, Nino Candido, Bobby Sherman, and Michael J. Pollard |
These are The Paupers. This is the first episode in which any men on "Honey West" wear their hair in the longish style of the mid-to late '60s. The band members are Nicky Van (Bobby Sherman), Marv (Nino Candido), and Jingles (Michael J. Pollard). They are the focus of the plot. At least Nicky and Jingles are. After the band leaves the stage, two thugs enter their dressing room, unceremoniously give each of them a beating, and then kidnap Nicky, leaving a ransom note.
Nicky's wealthy but estranged father, J.J. Vanderhyden (Philip Ober) hires Honey and Sam to help get his son back, but he keeps ignoring their advice. The private eyes stake out a beach where Mr. Vanderhyden has been told to drop off a $100,000 ransom in a "jug." (I think it is a thermos.)
A frogman appears (again!) and snatches the jug from under the noses of the P.I.s.
Honey is left holding the empty jug.
There is plenty of blame to go around: The P.I.s lost track of the ransom, but Mr. V. refused to let them set a real trap for the kidnappers.
A phone call from the kidnappers informs Mr. V. that they are displeased about Honey and Sam's involvement, but they give an address where Mr. V. can pick up "the package." However, the package turns out to be Jingles, not Nicky.
Honey and Sam have trouble believing Jingle's slippery account of how he got substituted for Nicky. The kidnappers now want $250,000 for Nicky. This worries everybody because the kidnappers have never assured Mr. V. that his son is even alive.
Honey spills face powder from her compact on the money before Mr. V. closes his briefcase. Since neither we nor Honey are stupid, we know that this was no accident and is going to come up again later.
All along, Honey has suspected that the band's shady business manager, Tobias Quinn (Stanley Adams), is in on the kidnapping. She has bugged his office and has Aunt Meg (Irene Hervey) monitoring the bug (while babysitting Bruce at the same time). Quinn calls a "Fred" who is presumably one of the kidnappers. From listening to Quinn's end of the call, Meg gets an address: the old Appleby Ranch.
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This is hard to see in a still image, but Honey is doing a modified circular leg throw (tomoe-nage). While lying on her back, she pushes with her leg to make her opponent sail heels-over-head. |
Honey goes there and successfully defeats one of the thugs in a fight, but the other thug slugs her from behind.
Honey comes to and finds herself tied to a chair with Nicky tied to a couch next to her. She manages to produce a hidden knife, and Nicky is able to cut her ropes. The two are about to escape when they hear gunshots. They discover the two thugs dead in the next room. A car screeches away. They go to the door and recognize the driver.
Next, Honey gathers most of the still living principals, including Nicky, his father, and the rest of Nicky's band. Honey reveals the real mastermind of the kidnapping. And she can prove it because the powder she dumped on the money was treated with something that is detectable under a black light. He pulls a gun and tries to escape, but Honey literally pulls the rug out from under him.
In the epilogue, we see that Nicky has a new act: Just him and his girlfriend, whom we have not seen before. On the stage, he sings, and she dances. Mr. V., having forged a rapprochement with his son, has a table in the corner.
Notes:
Honey uses a device disguised as a bottle of sunscreen to pick up signals from the jug containing the ransom money, and she communicates with Sam over a two-way transistor radio,
while Sam replies to her with a radio in his hat. So I guess that means that Sam is "talking through his hat." (Does anybody use that expression anymore?)
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| I'm not going to have to call HR, am I? Am I?! (Left to right, Stanley Adams and Anne Francis.) |
Honey is sexually harassed by not one but two middle-aged men in this episode, and deals with each of them in her own way.
Guest stars include Bobby Sherman and Michael J. Pollard, who became stars in the '60s.
Sherman was a popular singer on the TV variety series "Shindig" (1964) and after his appearance on "Honey West," went on to star in the series "Here Come the Brides" (1968). Thereafter, he acted in many TV series and frequently sang on variety shows. In 1997, he last appeared on an episode of the series, "Frazier," playing himself. (It is almost certain that Sherman is the last living cast member of this episode, having turned 79 in July 2022.)
Pollard had appeared in movies and had already been a supporting actor on television for years before he appeared on "Honey West," but his biggest role was yet to come in the movie "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) for which he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Over the next forty years, he had a few starring roles but mainly numerous supporting roles in movies such as "Scrooged" (1988) as well as TV guest parts such as Mr. Mxyzptlk on the TV series "Superboy" (1989).
Nino Candido, has the thankless role of the third band member, but he is credited on IMDb almost twice as often as an art director rather than as an actor. Acting was clearly not his main talent.
Don Gazzaniga plays one of the kidnappers. He was in two previous episodes and will appear in two upcoming ones. His casting here as "First Man" is a step up of sorts since he was cast as "Second Man" in "The Swingin' Mrs. Jones" and as the butler in "Whatever Lola Wants...."
Monty O'Grady appears as a go-go club patron but is not credited. He was an extra who had been a child actor in the 1920s and was best known for the "Our Gang" comedies. He worked fairly steadily as an extra for decades afterward. (The Hollywood term for extras is "background.")
Overall rating: 4/5
Martial Arts rating 4/5
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