COMMENT,NOT A REVIEW-The fourth and last (they also appeared in three previous "M Squad" episodes) Whitney Blake/Lee Marvin collaboration is the best. Blake,a pretty woman who rarely had any real chance to show her dramatic acting ability,was given sufficient screen time in this episode to convincingly show her "Laura" (or "Sheba") both loathed and was dangerously attracted to Marvin's "Woody",a slick and deadly admirer. Blake showed she was quite talented and underutilized by Hollywood. Marvin here was an interesting,quirky "bad guy" ala his "Violent Saturday"/"Bad Day at Black Rock" past. It is a shame the two never worked together in a full length "noir" film.
5 Reviews
Nicely Acted by Blake, Marvin, and Ohmart
aimless-4626 May 2008
Although most of this Season One episode takes place inside the Hilton Inn outside El Paso, Texas; the title character "Sheba" (Whitney Blake) is a biblical reference. It is a modern (1960-ish anyway) version of the old "David and Bathsheba" story in which King David falls in love with a married woman (Bathsheba). David arranges for Bathsheba's husband (Uriah) to be killed during a battle. He marries Bathsheba but the Lord is displeased and things do not go well for the couple.
Lee Marvin has the David role in this production (rich cattleman Woody Biggs) and when the widowed Laura Church (Blake-who he calls Sheba) continues to reject him, he has her framed for embezzlement and sent to prison. Then he pulls some strings and gets her paroled, intending to pressure her to marry him. Woody's female bookkeeper is the third side of the triangle; she is played by "House on Haunted Hill's" (1959) hot bad girl; Carol Ohmart, a former Miss Utah.
This was the "to die for" female role of the whole series and Blake (best know as Mrs. Baxter on "Hazel") is very impressive. The story is nothing that great but the episode is worth seeing just for Blake's performance.
Tod and Buz get themselves pretty deeply involved in this episode's story, at one point Marvin punches them both out; later Buz returns the favor. With their recurring concussions is it safe for these guys to keep operating a motor vehicle on the public highways?
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
Lee Marvin has the David role in this production (rich cattleman Woody Biggs) and when the widowed Laura Church (Blake-who he calls Sheba) continues to reject him, he has her framed for embezzlement and sent to prison. Then he pulls some strings and gets her paroled, intending to pressure her to marry him. Woody's female bookkeeper is the third side of the triangle; she is played by "House on Haunted Hill's" (1959) hot bad girl; Carol Ohmart, a former Miss Utah.
This was the "to die for" female role of the whole series and Blake (best know as Mrs. Baxter on "Hazel") is very impressive. The story is nothing that great but the episode is worth seeing just for Blake's performance.
Tod and Buz get themselves pretty deeply involved in this episode's story, at one point Marvin punches them both out; later Buz returns the favor. With their recurring concussions is it safe for these guys to keep operating a motor vehicle on the public highways?
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
The First Episode
aa5626 December 2017
I've been watching the first season of Route 66 on DVD, and this is the first episode I could not endure to the end, because it is so boring. I suspect I neared the 30-minute mark when I shut it down. It is mainly about a beautiful, whiney alcoholic who was being harassed by Lee Marvin. Plot development is glacier slow, beyond my patience.
1/6/61: "Sheba"
schappe18 April 2015
This is based on the biblical tale of David and Bathsheba. Lee Marvin is a rich cattleman with his eye on Whitney Blake, who was married to a cowboy who died in a stampede. He lent her money then had her convicted of stealing it. He testified on her behalf at a parole hearing so he feels she now "owes him". Tod and Buz befriend the lady, who is being treated as a crook by everybody who was there when she was convicted. They eventually arrange a little stampede of their own to force Marvin to confess to his sins.
This is the first of two appearances by Lee Marvin on the show and he's a domineering character who mistreats women in both of them. Whitney Blake is of course, the mother of Meredith Baxter but she deserves to be remembered as a beauty and good actress in her own right.
This is the first of two appearances by Lee Marvin on the show and he's a domineering character who mistreats women in both of them. Whitney Blake is of course, the mother of Meredith Baxter but she deserves to be remembered as a beauty and good actress in her own right.
Come back, little Sheba
lor_29 September 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Give Stirling Silliphant and his "Route 66" team credit: they gave Whitney Blake the role of her career as "Laura" in this episode, titled "Sheba" after villain Lee Marvin's nickname for her character.
Laura is just out of jail and returns to her job in El Paso, Texas, but can't take the kindness of everyone around her wanting to forgive her embezzlement conviction. Marvin is the total creep who put her there, and he's ready to harass her completely once she's paroled, even giving her a bottle of whiskey to encourage her to fall off the wagon, all in hopes of making her "his girl". He's even wangled appointment as her supervisor by the parole board!
To the rescue come Maharis and Milner, working at menial $1.25 per hour jobs at the same company Laura's employed at. Though tough guy Marvin beats both of them up (via just two punches!), they emerge as her knights in shining armor.
The case seems as clear-cut as can be, yet Silliphant writes an extremely flowery monologue for Regal, Laura's Chicano parole officer (well-played by RIco Alaniz), that philosophizes about how personalities are shaped and how easily deceived one can be about people based on surface impressions, re: Laura. This gives M & M pause in their instinctive siding with her against Marvin.
The plot thickens when Laura tells Maharis how she stabbed Marvin once she figured out that he was responsible for the death of her husband Jerry. At this point in the story things seem hopeless,
But Carol Ohmart (years away from her own career highlight starring in Jack Hill's "Spider Baby"), is solid casting as the second lead femme, ready to turn against Marvin who she's been crushing on to no avail for years, and help save the day in a wildly improbable climax -replete with fisticuffs for Maharis) and rushed happy ending for Laura.
Lee Marvin's performance as an ultimate male chauvinist seems at first to be overdone, but look at real-life role models Epstein & Trump.
Carla got a second chance, but Epstein died in jail and Trump, as of this writing in September 2023, is belatedly but surely headed for Hell in a handbasket.
One amusing sidelight: M & M are staying for a week at a lush Hilton Inn rather than their local $15 a week boarding house residence. I couldn't figure out why (as it doesn't pertain to the story), but the end credits have a big thank you to Hilton - I immediately realized that if this were a contemporary reboot of "Route 66" then Paris Hilton would have been a guest star!
Laura is just out of jail and returns to her job in El Paso, Texas, but can't take the kindness of everyone around her wanting to forgive her embezzlement conviction. Marvin is the total creep who put her there, and he's ready to harass her completely once she's paroled, even giving her a bottle of whiskey to encourage her to fall off the wagon, all in hopes of making her "his girl". He's even wangled appointment as her supervisor by the parole board!
To the rescue come Maharis and Milner, working at menial $1.25 per hour jobs at the same company Laura's employed at. Though tough guy Marvin beats both of them up (via just two punches!), they emerge as her knights in shining armor.
The case seems as clear-cut as can be, yet Silliphant writes an extremely flowery monologue for Regal, Laura's Chicano parole officer (well-played by RIco Alaniz), that philosophizes about how personalities are shaped and how easily deceived one can be about people based on surface impressions, re: Laura. This gives M & M pause in their instinctive siding with her against Marvin.
The plot thickens when Laura tells Maharis how she stabbed Marvin once she figured out that he was responsible for the death of her husband Jerry. At this point in the story things seem hopeless,
But Carol Ohmart (years away from her own career highlight starring in Jack Hill's "Spider Baby"), is solid casting as the second lead femme, ready to turn against Marvin who she's been crushing on to no avail for years, and help save the day in a wildly improbable climax -replete with fisticuffs for Maharis) and rushed happy ending for Laura.
Lee Marvin's performance as an ultimate male chauvinist seems at first to be overdone, but look at real-life role models Epstein & Trump.
Carla got a second chance, but Epstein died in jail and Trump, as of this writing in September 2023, is belatedly but surely headed for Hell in a handbasket.
One amusing sidelight: M & M are staying for a week at a lush Hilton Inn rather than their local $15 a week boarding house residence. I couldn't figure out why (as it doesn't pertain to the story), but the end credits have a big thank you to Hilton - I immediately realized that if this were a contemporary reboot of "Route 66" then Paris Hilton would have been a guest star!
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