First of all, I would like to point out one thing, this topic where an ordinary man impersonates a sea captain - which he is absolutely not - this scheme reminds me a little Jean Gabin's character in LE DRAPEAU NOIR FLOTTE SUR LA MARMITE. But for the rest,I admit that Richard Boone may not have plenty in common with Jean Gabin...Here Richard Boone is excellent, and I also want emphasize on the fact that, in this show, where all the same actors play in nearly every episode, in all kind of characters, Richard Boone is excellent in every character he plays: good or evil, cold or touching, he is outstanding. This story is not a drama but nor a comedy either. I particularly love the scene when we see Boone driving home, a miserable cabin, where his old man lives with him, and when we realize that he is NOT a captain; and the sequence just after when the audience see that he is only a docker, this moment is so exquisite... In summary, enjoy the Richard Boone performance. That's worth watching. He is so deeply touching. What a great actor he was...I miss him. He is even greater in this show than he was in classic big screen movies.
2 Reviews
Phony script
lor_29 September 2023
The cast has more fun than the audience in this rather hokey edition of "The Richard Boone Show". I was disappointed overall, expecting a whole lot more from a segment written by John Fante, the noted novelist whose work includes "Ask the Dust" and "Wait Until Spring, Bandini" (both made into fine pictures).
The tale of an ordinary Chicano guy who puts on airs pretending to be a big-shot yacht captain is an excuse for Boone's repertory company to put on silly makeup (especially Lloyd Bochner with prosthetic fake teeth looking as fake (and quasi-racist) as those novelty shop choppers Jerry Lewis used to wear playing Asian characters), and worse, try phony accents. It's hard to get past these impediments.
Underneath the hokum is an affecting romantic story as poor Mexican flower girl in Tijuana (Laura Devon, unrecognizable as a brunette with heavy makeup) falls for the phony big shot played by Boone, and dreams of him taking her back to Los Angeles.
WIth a big phony nose, Warren Stevens is Boone's dad. While Harry Morgan doesn't need any fakery playing Boone's foreman, working on the docks. Jeanette Nolan brings a bit more sincerity portraying Devon's mom, while Guy Stockwell gets to beat up Boone as Devon's insightful and protective brother who forces our hero to marry his sister. Bethel Leslie plays her landlady in L. A. While Devon is affecting as the forlorn young woman who can't seem to get a break, Fante has failed to create any real characters, in this morass of stereotypes of "little people", with a horrible Macho ending. It's hard to watch a story that is so antiquated it would have been rejected for a late Silent Era vehicle for a Wallace Beery type.
The tale of an ordinary Chicano guy who puts on airs pretending to be a big-shot yacht captain is an excuse for Boone's repertory company to put on silly makeup (especially Lloyd Bochner with prosthetic fake teeth looking as fake (and quasi-racist) as those novelty shop choppers Jerry Lewis used to wear playing Asian characters), and worse, try phony accents. It's hard to get past these impediments.
Underneath the hokum is an affecting romantic story as poor Mexican flower girl in Tijuana (Laura Devon, unrecognizable as a brunette with heavy makeup) falls for the phony big shot played by Boone, and dreams of him taking her back to Los Angeles.
WIth a big phony nose, Warren Stevens is Boone's dad. While Harry Morgan doesn't need any fakery playing Boone's foreman, working on the docks. Jeanette Nolan brings a bit more sincerity portraying Devon's mom, while Guy Stockwell gets to beat up Boone as Devon's insightful and protective brother who forces our hero to marry his sister. Bethel Leslie plays her landlady in L. A. While Devon is affecting as the forlorn young woman who can't seem to get a break, Fante has failed to create any real characters, in this morass of stereotypes of "little people", with a horrible Macho ending. It's hard to watch a story that is so antiquated it would have been rejected for a late Silent Era vehicle for a Wallace Beery type.
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