The Resurrection of Joe November

Good twisty mystery with classic Maverick elements. Bret is hired by sinister Prussian nobleman (Maxwell) and his super-coy wife (Barnes) to transport Joe November's casket from a mausoleum to the docks. Seems simple enough, but they're offering him five thousand bucks to do it. Seems suspicious, but the money's too much to resist. Want to bet he's going to be sorry?

First-rate performances from a fine cast of colorful characters. Barnes just oozes seductive charm, while the archly moody Nita Talbot delivers as a wannabe wife. Too bad she can't tell a real diamond from a Walmart special. Good to see old-time cowboy star Don (Red) Barry picking up a payday as bartender Willi. The story's got more twists than a mountain road, so you may need a scorecard. But it's still a fun 60-minutes with an appropriate wind-up.

This Maverick episode concerns brother Bret on the riverboat from Natchez to New Orleans as the theme song says looking for a grubstake and reduced to playing blackjack and losing to pretty and seductive Joanna Barnes. She's a French aristocrat fallen on hard times and she and her German husband Charles Maxwell are making a living on the boat.

For sentimental reasons she'll pay James Garner $5000.00 to exhume the body"of the former Major domo of the family estate so they can transport it to Prussia for reburial.

It's a real shaggy dog story, but we know the Maverick never turn down women in distress, even married women.

The thing to know about this episode is that everything in it is one big lie. It has more twists than a country road. Still enjoyable though.