Thursday, June 14, 2007

Yancy Derringer


Back in the dawn of time -- 1958 -- there was a television series called Yancy Derringer, starring Jock Mahoney, a former stuntman turned B-movie/TV leading man. Mahoney did a series called Range Rider before Yancy Derringer, then went on to do, among other things, a couple of Tarzan movies -- he was forty-something when he played the ape-man. His last screen appearance, if I recall correctly, was in Hooper, the Burt Reynolds movie about a stuntman, loosely based on Mahoney. Reynolds was dating Sally Fields at the time, and gave Mahoney a bit part. (Jocko was Sally Fields' step-father, and as a boy, I thought he was waaaay cool.)

Yancy Derringer, about a gambler who became a kind of undercover operative in New Orleans after the War Between the States, was a black-and-white series with a lot of shooting and things burning down or blowing up. Derringer's sidekick was Pahoo, played by X Brands, a loyal Indian who had saved Derringer's life, and somehow had to be responsible for him thereafter as a result. Pahoo never spoke, and communicated in a weird sign language.

Pahoo -- aka Wolf Who Stands in Water -- wore a blanket poncho and had a sawed-off double-barreled shotgun under it that he employed frequently. Also carried a knife in a sheath behind his neck and could draw and spin that sucker like a drummer doing stick twirls before he threw it and skewered a bad guy.

This was back in the day when violence on TV was rampant -- the body count in this series was pretty high. Kill 'em all, God will know his own ...

I had fond memories of ole Yancy and Pahoo, and had heard that the prints of the episodes had all been destroyed.

However, it turns out, they had not gone away.. Tonight, my son showed up on my doorstep with the DVDs of the series. I must have mentioned it to him in a good light, because he was quite pleased at being able to present it to me.

As was I pleased that he remembered.

I've watched a couple of them, and they -- naturally -- aren't as good as I recalled. Over-acted and fairly silly, but it was almost fifty years ago, after all. The ten-year-0ld Steve was a tad less sophisticated about such story telling.

Even so, they have a certain ... je ne sais quoi. I plan to watch 'em all ...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I too remember Yancy Derringer fondly. Yancy had sort of under cover connection with the Mayor where they would meet in back alleys and the Mayor would ask for Yancy's help since it would be unseemly for the Mayor to work with Yancy out in the open. And Yancy always helped. I vaguely remember an episode in which New Orleans is threatened with the levy breaking and the panic hiting the city somewhat reminicent of Katrina.
-Bob K

Anonymous said...

Where can I buy the complete 34 episodes of Yancy Derringer on dvd?

Steve Perry said...

My son bought them and I think he got them here:

http://www.robertsvideos.com/

Anonymous said...

You can buy the DVD set at www.dvdsentertainmentonline.com

the link for the 2 dvd set is

http://www.dvdsentertainmentonline.com/product/1958-yancy-derringer-tv-dvd-jock-mahoney-x-brands-2-dvd-set

Anonymous said...

You can purchase the complete series on dvd at www.classicdvdtv.com for 29.95 plus shipping they have mant tv series on dvd....UNCLE BILLY

Unknown said...

The the yancy derringer dvd a this website a bunch of shows. Thanks

http://www.classicmoviesandtvcom.com/product/yancy-derringer-tv-dvd-jock-mahoney-x-brands-2-dvd-set-1958