It ended with a
gunfight between The Man With No Name and the Kid. The Kid may have drawn
first, but The Man With No Name fired first! And there the Kid lay dead in the
dirt of the street, He needed a drink after that, so he went into the Silver
Dollar Saloon to be congratulated by the Judge. But The Man With No Name wanted
out, he quit. But no-one quits on the Judge, he pulled a Derringer and shot The
Man With No Name. After a while Number 6 wakes up lying in the dirt and the
dust on the Saloon floor. He quickly gets up, divests himself of the radio microphone
and head set, then seeing the Judge standing there instinctively goes for the
Judge’s throat. Only to discover that the Judge is a life-sized cardboard
cut-out! So what was going on here?
Confused, Number 6 dashed out into the street, into the
Sheriff’s office, then back out into the street where he discovered the Kid had
also been a cardboard cut-out. The Man With No Name had planned to escape
Harmony, but things didn’t go according to plan. However it would appear that
Both The Judge and the Kid had managed to escape the town of Harmony themselves, by substituting themselves
with the life-sized cardboard cut-outs! Seeing as Number 6 is such a clever
man, capable of turning his hand to most anything, it’s a wonder he never
thought of that himself. To make a life-sized cardboard cut out of himself,
stand it in a strategic part of his cottage, by the window perhaps so that he’s
looking out, in order to fool the Observers. Then to disappear into the night,
just as he did on the night of ‘Dance of the Dead,’ but to keep running and not
look back!
It would have been worth a try, eh Number 6? Is it possible to overlay the cut out onto a picture then print it off and scan it in?
Be seeing you
Hi David,
ReplyDeleteI watched the shoot out scene closely, and smoke came from The Man with No Name's gun BEFORE the Kid's gun...even though Alexis Kanner told the story that they had to go frame by frame to be able to tell who actually fired first. Of course, maybe the scene was edited, but it sure didn't look like it.
There was the sound of only one shot though...very cool !
BCNU
Karen
Hello Karen,
DeleteAlexis Kanner told the story at a gathering at which I was present, that bets had been put on who would fire his Colt 45 peacemaker the quickest. Although in the scene The Man with No Name is seen to fire his gun first, in fact when the crew went through the scene frame by frame, it was seen that Kanner had taken lesser frames between drawing and firing his gun than McGoohan had.
Best regards
David
Hi David . .
ReplyDeleteIn watching the shoot out...I see smoke coming from The Man with NO Name's gun FIRST...May be an illusion ? ?
I too read Alexis Kanner's version of the shoot-out. I wonder if the trigger being wired made the difference ?
I always thought that the absence of "blood" made that scene a little unrealistic . ..maybe it was censored out?
BCNU
Karen
Hello Karen,
DeleteAh yes you’ve spotted that. yes The Man With No Name’s gun does fire first even though the Kid beats him to the draw. But because The Man With No Name has to kill the Kid, Alexis Kanner had to pause so that McGoohan could fire first. This flies in the face of the story told by Alexis. If we are to believe Alexis story, which I don’t doubt is true, it makes me think the scene was shot a second time for the episode. Perhaps because Alexis beat Patrick to the draw, when The Man With No Name was to have beaten the Kid to the draw!
Yes I quite agree, the lack of blood makes ‘Living In Harmony’ unrealistic, but then isn’t it supposed to? Because all the action is taking place in Number 6’s sub-conscious. He is all alone in Harmony, save for a few cardboard cut-outs!
Best regards
David
Be seeing you
Hi David ,
ReplyDeleteAHHHH so!!!!
It hadn't occurred to me to correlate the lack of blood with the "dream" aspect of Living in Harmony.
However , I plead the 5th...because The man with NO Name ended up bruised and with a bloody cheek and hand before the shoot-out. I thought perhaps there was a continuity issue...however I really LIKE your explanation of why the Kid didn't bleed after getting shot.
Just imagine how fast the shoot-out would have been if Patrick McGoohan had ALSO wired the trigger on the 6 shooter HE was using!
6 shooter....HA !!!
BCNU
Karen
Hello Karen,
DeleteThere could be a simple explanation for how The man With No Name received those bruises, he might not have actually been fighting with Zeke and the rest of the Judge’s boys, but he did throw himself about during an imagined fight.
The graze on The Man With No Name’s cheek and hand can only be explained as visual effects for the television viewer. Had there been no grazes after the Kid fired his gun, then the television viewer would have suddenly realized that all was not at it first appeared.
Alexis Kanner was a fool to have the trigger of his cold 45 wired back, if he had accidentally caught the hammer it would have gone off in its holster and burned his leg! That actually happened actor Robert Mitchum who also wired back the trigger of his gun for a film, he received a very badly burned leg.
Be seeing you
David
Hi David ,
ReplyDeleteYes...those stunt guns could be pretty dangerous . ..I remember when Peter Dell put one of the stunt gun to his head and "jokingly " pulled the trigger...he died of his injuries .
There was quite a lag in time between when The Man with NO Name's gun fired and smoke puffed up and when the Kid fired.
You're right that if Alexis Kanner's version of the shoot-out is correct . .then they had to have filmed the scene twice. BUT...did Kanner REALLY delay the second time ?
Best wishes ,
Karen
Hallo Karen,
DeleteThat’s terrible, and just goes to prove all guns are dangerous when put into a human’s hands!
Yes there is quite a delay between The Man With No Name firing his hand gun to that of the Kid firing his gun. Yes he did, you watch him doing so in the scene we see in the episode. Its strange, but when ever Alexis Kanner told the story about himself and McGoohan seeing who was quickest on the draw, he always referred to the Colt 45 as a “pacemaker,” {a small device that's placed in the chest or abdomen to help control abnormal heart rhythms} and not a “peacemaker” {The gun being so loud when fired, that afterwards there was nothing by peace} as the hand gun became known. The thing is no-one ever bothered to correct Kanner about the mistake he made each time! He’s even quoted using that in one of ‘the Prisoner’ companion books!!!!
Best wishes
David
Hi David,
ReplyDeleteI have wondered when and where Pat McGoohan met Sammy Davis Jr and Steve McQueen...as I don't think that he ever co-starred with either one of them in any of his projects.
Perhaps either Rock Hudson or Ernest Borgnine knew them, as Pat was in Hollywood making Ice Station Zebra at the time...?
I saw where Kenneth Griffith said that Pat liked to "push" people, and I get the impression that in his desire to make some of the scenes as realistic as possible, he liked to "challenge" his co-stars to go the extra mile...or SIX !!!
If you enjoy a challenge, I would imagine that it could have been fun to work on a set with him...but if you don't enjoy a challenge it was probably rather exasperating!!
BCNU
Karen