McCloud (TV Series) A Little Plot at Tranquil Valley (1972) User Reviews

have a close look at the WTC towers

[trashgang · 5/10 · 26 September 2012]

This episode I didn't like at all. And that for just one reason, everybody is , again, typecast but this time the performances go a bit further. Just have a look at the scene in the hospital were we have Ralphie (Allen Garfield) going berserk against his lawyer.

The shoot outs also did look ridiculous but the way they used the camera was much better than in other episodes. Dennis Weaver (McCloud) does his best and is still believable. I can't say that it survived the time and is a bit outdated.

But there's more to see than only overreactions. Just have a close look when McCloud is taken the ferry towards Staten Island. The World Trade Center can be seen in various stages of construction. A completed North Tower and a partially constructed South Tower can be seen in the background. if you just look at episode one, there wasn't even a sight of the two towers.

You can't like all episodes and this is the one I didn't like. But McCloud is still a good series.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 1/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

"The Loved One" -- Part 2

[profh-1 · 6/10 · 28 October 2012]

Some people are just plain greedy. Marvin Sloan run a nation-wide chain of expensive, exclusive funeral parlors and cemeteries called "Tranquil Valley", where, for "surprisingly reasonable rates", you can be buried like a millionaire. You'd think that would be satisfy some people. So why is he ALSO in the business of hijacking medical supplies, watering them down and then shipping them to South America to sell on the black market?

Marvin's also got a problem. His wife Lucy has been nagging him for months to let her half-wit brother Ralphie (the one with the mind of a 5-year-old) join the operation, because he wants to get out of TV repair. And against all his best instincts, he agrees. You just know things are going to go bad when, with childlike glee, Ralphie, on getting a gun (gift-wrapped!) excitedly asks, "Where's the bullets? Where's the bullets?" Sure enough, during a routine hijacking at a warehouse, Ralphie, nervous and over-anxious, accidentally drops his gun in front of a security guard-- who he then proceeds to SHOOT, before being wounded himself. Now, while he's in a hospital under police guard, his sister Lucy is nagging her husband because HE let her brother get shot and beaten and arrested and what's he going to do to get him out of it? You can bet Marvin is wishing he'd gotten a divorce years ago.

So Marvin does two things. His 2 henchmen KIDNAP McCloud (the arresting officer) and demand a trade of prisoners. Meanwhile, Marvin's lawyer goes to visit Ralphie, at first mistaking him for a whiplash case. "I'm here on a MURDER charge!" "I'm sorry, I had the wrong file." After questioning his client (the guard never pulled his gun, Ralphie shot him in front of 7 witnesses, he gave the police the murder weapon), the lawyer makes an unusual proposal. "I'd like to suggest that you might consider saving yourself a lot of hassle by taking your own life." "WHAT? What kind of a lawyer ARE you???? GET OUT OF HERE!!!"

If you haven't figured out by now, this episode is more of a comedy than usual. I found myself laughing so hard at that last scene.

As usual, producer Dean Hargrove has lined up an impressive cast for this low-key loony-show. Joyce Van Patten (THE GOOD GUYS, UNHAPPILY EVER AFTER) is "Lucy", the pushy, bossy, complaining wife and overly-loyal and loving older sister. Moses Gunn (SHAFT, SHAFT'S BIG SCORE, BATES MOTEL) is "Morgan", the Shakespeare-quoting hired thug. Vic Morrow (THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE, COMBAT, THE TWILIGHT ZONE movie) is "Richard", the brutal, hypochondriac sidekick. Alfred Ryder (STAR TREK: "The Man Trap") is Dudley, the chemist who branches out into a little murder on the side. Arlene Martel (STAR TREK: "Amok Time") makes her 2nd appearance in a row on the show, this time as the blonde-haired "Tour Guide" whose long-winded spiels about Tranquil Valley pepper the entire length of the episode. Bruce Kirby (COLUMBO and countless other shows) is the "PR Man" who takes photos of Marvin. Burgess Meredith (BATMAN, ROCKY, CLASH OF THE TITANS) is "Marvin", who probably brings the best performance as the story's main villain. But the kicker is Allen Garfield (THE FRONT PAGE, MOTHER JUGS & SPEED, CONTINENTAL DIVIDE) as "Ralphie", the idiot's idiot who should have stayed in TV repair.

No sign of Joe Broadhurst or Richard Thatcher in this one. I seem to vaguely remember Chris Caughlin, but it must have been a brief cameo. At least Peter B. Clifford got to make an impact, when he solemnly stands on the steps of the Criminal Courts Building and silently shakes his head "NO", knowing that by doing so he's probably sealing McCloud's death sentence.

This is just one really WEIRD story, but considering most of the NBC MYSTERY MOVIES tended to have humor alongside the drama, crime & mystery, and given that I LIKE humor with my dramas, I got a real kick out of it.

Absurd tale filled with creepy and dislikable characters

[rms125a · 6/10 · 9 July 2017]

McCloud was one of the stupidest series ever in network television. The entire notion of a marshal from a Western state working for the NYPD dressed like a Texas Ranger was absurd. This particular episode is interesting the same way a car crash or a six foot hole in the ground draws your attention. You know you shouldn't look but you just have to, especially to catch the occasional glimpse of a New York that largely no longer exists.

The lovely Joyce Van Patten (with her native Queens, NY accent showing) and the very unappealing Allen Garfield as her cold-blooded but incompetent wannabe-made man brother play a pair of seemingly ill-matched but disturbingly twisted siblings. Two criminals -- an alternately Shakespeare-quoting/jive talking Moses Gunn and an absurdly hypochondriacal Vic Morrow -- who work for Van Patten's crime boss husband (played by a scenery-chewing Burgess Meredith, of all people) are the most neurotic criminal duo since Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern.

Not cut out for the criminal life

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 4 May 2016]

This episode of McCloud had a great deal of difficulty deciding whether it was a comedy or a drama. Allen Garfield who can be very funny at times just did not belong here. I can't believe that his sister Joyce Van Patten doesn't realize that her brother just ain't cut out for a life of crime.

Nevertheless she nags at her husband Burgess Meredith who is a high priced funeral director who has a sideline in theft and smuggling. Meredith includes him in on a heist with his two goons Vic Morrow and Moses Gunn. Of course Garfield messes up and is captured which leaves Meredith with a very big problem.

The whole premise is just so dumb. Garfield's character reminded me of Zero Mostel in the Humphrey Bogart classic The Enforcer. Zero didn't belong in Murder, Inc., any more than Garfield was a heist man. Anything to get out of the television repair business.