Jim Hardie has been assigned to deliver a travelling bag from San Francisco to Virginia City, Nevada. When he arrives by Wells Fargo stage, he is told by the Wells Fargo agent that the item in the bag is worth $100,000. It's a statue of an owl, fashioned from solid gold in China, and is an anniversary gift to wealthy Sam Bancroft's wife, as some years earlier Bancroft had inadvertantly killed an owl that was a personal pet of a woman that eventually became his wife. Both Hardie and Wells Fargo are relieved to deliver the valuable property, but there are some who have other plans for the owl, including a beautiful woman Hardie meets on the stage, who is travelling to her wedding.
During the transfer of the package from the stage to the office, Hardie's sideman, Benson is murdered. Hardie was also knocked unconscious, and the statue was replaced by the murderer with a gold-plated lead copy, of which Hardie is unaware. He delivers the package to Bancroft, who believes the copy the be genuine. There are further complications when a member of a Chinese religious order, one Mr. Soo, arrives and claims the owl was stolen from his brotherhood, and he wants badly to recover the owl. However, Bancroft refuses to sell, and Hardie must disarm Mr. Soo when he attempts to take the owl at gunpoint. The owl is proven to be a copy, and Hardie asks Bancroft to give it to his wife anyway, and he'll replace it with the genuine article once it's found. Hardie is told he has one day to find the stolen statue before the anniversary party.
One of the better outings here, with a great script from writers Berkeley, Giles, and Reynolds. Veteran director Earl Bellamy helms the outing expertly, as with most all his episodes.
The Golden Owl is ToWF's homage to The Maltese Falcon in ways, and does contain a few nods to the picture. For one, the original picture opens with Bogart's partner being killed, which is similar to Hardie's sideman, Benson being killed when they are delivering the statue. The beautiful woman Hardie meets on the stage has told Hardie a number of lies, similar to Mary Astor's character in the original. And the owl is found later to be a copy made of lead, also as in the original picture. Not a bad story to emulate.
As I mentioned, this is one of the better scripts in the series, offering a more involved plot than many of the episodes. There are considerable twists in the story, and Hardie must use his honed skill as an investigator to uncover the truth. While Mr. Soo says he is from a religious order, he is prepared to obtain the owl by any means necessary, and viewers weren't sure which way this would lead. The thread continues throughout the episode, and is resolved eventually in the final scene. Interestingly, Hardie uses a karate chop to subdue a man holding him at gunpoint, which as far as I know was the only time he used that particular move in the series. I find this quite interesting, as martial arts were not mainstream on camera in the era, and Hardie was extremely adept as a pugilist. Nevertheless, Dale Robertson uses the move for his first and only time in this episode. I can't help but surmise that it was related to the fact that the cast contains several actors of Asian descent who may have had training in the martial arts. Perhaps not, but it's a good topic for discussion.
As to the cast, a number of them I have never seen, with a couple having only a very small number of credits, such as Barne Williams (Cliff Matthews) and Jack Bartell (Benson), each with just 2 credits, David Dwight (Hotel Clerk) with 9, and James Winslow (Sherrif) with 13 credits. Elaine Edwards appeared as the beautiful but dishonest Mary Farnum, and I have not seen her in any other production. However, Willis Bouchey (Sam Bankcroft), Clarence Lung (Mr. Soo), Harold Fong (Wong), and Weaver Levy (Chinese Gang Member) are quite familiar to me, and each had much longer careers and had appeared in many great motion pictures as well as extensive credits in TV. Examples include The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (Bouchey), Operation Petticoat (Lung, as Sgt. Ramon Gillardo), No Time for Sargents (Levy), and Fong in one of my most favorite episodes of Wagon Train, Around the Horn. Unfortunately, many of the roles portrayed by Messrs. Lung, Fong, and Levy were dictated by the times, and they appeared in numerous roles as butlers, cooks, and waiters. And in another unfortunate situation they endured, during early 40s all three appeared in war pictures in roles that were also dictated by the times, as enemy soldiers. The magnificent Phillip Ahn also experienced this in his long career. It's undeniable, times were different.
I have to say this was a great episode, but Jim Hardie is always a good watch! Don't miss this one.
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