Greenbacks, Unlimited

Maverick's third season ended on a funny note when James Garner is asked by Denver's bankers to find a noted safecracker who is known to take a hand at the poker tables. It turns out to be John Dehner who considers himself the slickest fellow around.

One who doesn't consider himself clever is Four Square Farley a friend of old Pappy who is a meek and mild soul who has now taken up the Maverick trade of gambling. He's running a blackjack game out of his hotel and his 'house' never seems to go broke.

I can't say more other than Gage Clarke as Farley has developed a way to get into the bank vault at leisure. Between that and Garner's hunt for the safecracker you have a very funny Maverick story.

One of the best episodes.

Bret's old friend and former bricklayer Foursquare Farley is taking money out of the Denver State Bank to deal blackjack. John Dehner is a safecracker come to Denver, and Bret and Foursquare team up to foil his plans. It is amusing stuff when Bret and Foursquare move money back and forth from the bank vault. Bret says, "You have to prove you don't need money to borrow money from a bank." When Bret loses to a player with four tens, it made me think of a cheater I used to play poker with. He would call tens wild and deal from the bottom of the deck. The Hollywood Reporter named "Greenbacks, Unlimited" the funniest show of the year. It was directed by Arthur Lubin.

Unusual premise that warrants a comment. Meekly honest Foursquare Farley (Gage Clark) has used his brick-laying skills to open a secret passage into a Denver bank. He's used the reserves to finance his house 21 game, but always repays his "loans" (what about interest?) in a conscientious manner. Then, along comes arrogant safe-cracker Big Ed Murphy (John Dehner) and his two hapless helpers who plan to crack the bank's safe. But if they do that, the secret passage will be discovered and Foursquare's banking privilege will be kaput. So Foursquare and his buddy Bret decide to thwart the gang by using the secret access into the vault.

The resulting game of now-you-see-the-greenbacks-and- now-you-don't is a hoot, made more delicious by bringing down the smugly superior Big Ed, in one of the versatile Dehner's customarily fine performances. I'm not sure what the "wrap-around" con game with Tamblyn (John Holland) is supposed to accomplish, even though seeing Bret get conned in the opening sequence is pretty funny. It's almost like this was a sequence edited out of an unused episode and inserted here. This may not be classic Maverick (no artfully seductive con-woman), but it's still a clever premise that remains highly entertaining.