A Lance of Straw

The guys hook on with a shrimp boat in southern Louisiana. Trouble is the trawler is captained by a woman, Janice Rule, out to prove she's just as good as any man. And, by golly, she is, especially when bossing our two heroes or handling the boat in a storm. It's a bravura performance from that fine actress combining both grit and appeal. And catch movie vet Tomas Gomez as the wise man of the fleet. He's big as a barn but also lends a ton of color.

The dramatic highlight is the storm. Whether it was stock footage or done in a studio tank, I couldn't tell, but it's both well done and well edited. On the downside are the sometimes talky scenes, always a pitfall for a weekly, hour-long series. Also, the 1950's kicks in when Rule has to abandon her independent ways and capitulate to a man, Minardos. Okay, write it off to the time period. But what really bugged me is having her ocean dump the books of feminist wisdom from Susan B. Anthony, Virginia Woolf, et al. Come on Mr. Silliphant, you can up-end one woman's feminism, but dumping an entire literary lineage is unworthy of a screenwriter whose own R66 work shows a respect for deeper thought.

Except for the latter, the hour's a solid entry, both colorful and entertaining.

The boys' Corvette rolls into Grand Isle, Louisiana for their second adventure; destination of Biloxi, Mississippi turned out to be a misnomer, as they found their friend's boat named the Biloxi Queen in Grand Isle where he had relocated in search of shrimp.

Now the boat is owned by Janice Rule, a feisty, utterly independent young beauty who fancies herself a female rebel, before the Feminist movement had taken hold. She's well-read and admires Joan of Arc, whose lance in battle gives rise, alongside the more direct Shakespeare referene, to one of screenwriter Stirling Silliphant's always often enigmatic story titles.

Various themes of this segment begin with the show's most basic Free Spirit motif, as the local culture they encounter here, with Creole accents, is far removed from the insular town of last week's show. Fine location photography builds a real sense of the place. These people are fishermen, prizing their freedom while lamenting the fact that they're at the mercy of nature, in this case recent absence of a decent shrimp catch, threatening their loss of boats and livelihood. Thomas Gomez, immediately recognizable from his role in the classic "Key Largo" with its similar Florida setting, does a fine job as the patriarch of the village.

Rule has a friendly rivalry with handsome young fisherman Nico Minardos, and while she has no use for romance with men and settling down to being a subsidiary housewife, events unfold including a deadly storm that upend her flans for complete independence. As the heroes depart in the 'vette at epiisode's end, Nico and Janice are set to settle down, becoming co-captains of her boat after the loss at ea of his. A logical accommodation for them, while our two stars continue their wanderlust journey.

"A Lance of Straw" is an episode which, I am sure, would turn a few heads today...and perhaps make a few of these heads explode! It' because feminism has come a long way since this particular episode!

The story picks up right after episode one. The pair are now on the Louisiana Gulf coast....about to sign aboard a shrimp boat for work. However, their new captain is an odd one. Charlotte Duval (Janice Rule) is the skipper...and she is determined to be every bit as good as the male captains...perhaps even better. But fortunately, she has Buz (George Maharis) there to remind her that she's a woman...and a woman NEEDS a man!

According to the show, Duval is a mess because she admires various female icons, such as Susan B. Anthony. And, if she just gave up on trying to fit in to a man's world...she'll be much happier in the long run! Wow. Just a few years later, and this show would have resulted in angry mobs picketing the network! Now it's not a terrible episode...but it sure has a stupid message and does not age well.

Good enjoyable adventure friendship tale, with nothing special, only the atmosphere counts and Janice Rule steals the show. I repeat, nothing special, the characters are all predictable without providing any really poignant, gripping scene. I admit though that Janice Rule's character relationship with our two leads is interesting, rather unusual, but that's it. The sequences with three of them aboard the fish boat reminded me - no relation, I admit - JAWS, the three folks aboard a fish boat on the sea, all alone.... And this strong woman character shown during the early sixties was rather daring for this period. Yes good episode, but not more.

Buzz and Todd come upon a very feisty lady (Rule) who is determined to show up her very macho and possessive boyfriend by proving to him, and everyone else, that she can run a shrimp fishery just as well as he can. To do this she takes Buzz and Todd out with her on a fishing boat while being chased by her boyfriend and coming straight into an on coming hurricane.

This episode has a few good lines of dialogue, but is otherwise pretty weak especially when compared to the others. Rule though is quite impressive, playing a role that is completely different from anything that she has done before or after. She even puts on a very thick Spanish accent! However everything else in the episode fails. The approaching hurricane looks like nothing more than your average rain storm and the actual scenes during the hurricane look like the same ones that were used during the opening credits of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND.

The message is also quite dated. It conveys the philosophy that every woman needs a man in order to be 'complete' and that strong willed women need to behave in more feminine ways in order to be 'attractive'. Any feminist who sees this episode will most assuredly be offended.

Grade: B-