Bill Davis (Burt Reynolds) and his father Andy are rolling through the middle of nowhere in an old truck with Max Bell Oil Co. on the side.  Around the spot where the 10,000th condo has now blighted the area, they come to a stop with the engine overheating.

While they wait for the truck to cool down, they drink from a couple of giant bags of mostly water.  This does not cool down Bill, who is belly-aching constantly but maybe the water keeps his father from committing filicide.  Bill complains about the heat, the crummy truck, and his father not even painting over the previous owner’s logo.  He also admits he has a new job beginning Monday.

Andy says, “Looks like dust back there on the road” which is not exactly a revelation on a dirt road.  A car appears through the dust and runs off the road where their truck stopped.   34 year old Harry Dean Stanton jumps out appearing pretty much like he would 19 years later in Alien — looking 53 years old.  Other similarities to future HDS: sweaty, wearing a Hawaiian shirt with a dopey hat, submissive to another man, and dumb as a rock.  His fast-talking partner Murray Hamilton (Marsh) is wearing a black suit & tie in the blazing desert, and still is the brains of the gang.

The Davises generously offer them some water while Bill checks out their car.  He sees two problems — the driveshaft is broken and there is a woman tied up in the backseat.  Andy recognizes her as Stephanie Thomas, a kidnap victim he heard about.  Now Marsh pulls out his pistol.  Andy asks why they don’t just take the $100,000 ransom and leave the girl.  They got the ransom and kept the girl?  Well, these kidnappers are just bad eggs.

As Stephanie begs for water, Lemon teases her with the bag.  Bill is disgusted by his cruelty and lunges for him.  That is when Marsh reveals that he and Lemon have only three bullets between them.  So maybe this gang has no brains.

Marsh tells Lemon to get the $100,000 out of the car and put it in the truck.  Lemon suggests they take the truck and trade it in for a car.  Yeah, you have $850k in 2018 dollars — take a stolen truck you don’t have the title to and try to trade it in.  It’s 1960, just go buy a new Thunderbird for $4k, dumbass!

The truck has cooled down enough to drive, so Marsh and Lemon (is it a joke that they both have such moist names?) take it, leaving Andy, Bill and Stephanie to die in the desert.  Andy says he lied to them, it is only 25 miles back to town.  The two guys suddenly become McGyvers as they drink the water from the radiator ^[3], convert a spare tire inner-tube into a water-bag, and create a signal fire by using gas from the tank to set the backseat cushions on fire.  Unlike the previous dumbbells would have done, I suspect, they remove the cushions from the car first.

The dilapidated truck is soon found by the cops.  This thing makes the truck in Duel look like the Snowman’s Kenworth.  Stephanie is taken to the hospital and the Davis boys pursue the gangstas with the cops.  Happily, they find the kidnappers have died — Lemon by a gunshot, and Marsh somehow died of thirst in about an hour.  Thus the state of California has saved millions of dollars, and Stephanie’s family will get back, ummmm — let’s take a look at these cops — about $60,000.

There is a twist and, in a completely arbitrary editorial choice, I will not spoil it. Maybe because I didn’t see it coming.  But it is refreshing.

Burt Reynolds, in his 3rd year of TV, did not seem like an inevitable movie star yet, but was perfectly fine.  James Bell had an easier role as his father and sold it well, seeming oddly familiar to me as a calm dad dealing with his hothead son.  Harry Dean Stanton was born 80 years old and mumbling.  I don’t think he was a good actor; we just needed a Harry Dean Stanton and he filled in for 60 years.  I like Murray Hamilton more every time I see him.  Before started this project, I only knew him as the mayor in Jaws, but he is always fun.

So a fine story, interesting complete lack of indoor sets, real locations, good performances and a fun twist.  It is easy to take AHP for granted, but one day it will be gone.  And if the Season 6 box set doesn’t get a lot cheaper, it will be soon. ^[2]

Footnotes:

• Venetia Stevenson (Stephanie) went on to be a script reader for Burt Reynolds’ production company, presumably guiding him to such triumphs as Navajo Joe and Operation CIA. ^[1]  She was also Axl Rose’s mother-in-law.  Wait, what?
• AHP Deathwatch:  Burt Reynolds died last year.  Veneta Stevenson, 22 in this episode, is still with us.
• [1] That’s a cheap shot as those were among his first films.  Later, though, he did have a Chevy Chasian instinct for choosing the wrong movie nearly every time.
• [2] What the hell?  Season 6 is twice the cost of the earlier seasons.  Season 7 is not even available in the US.  The Alfred Hitchcock Hour seems similarly inaccessible.  Clearly Hollywood is tired of people asking why TV can’t be this good again and are disappearing AHP from existence.
• [3] Do not try this at home; it may kill or blind you.  Plus, you have a sink right there!