Wild Wild West

"Night of the Running Death" #6715

Agent James West attempts to rescue a man called Mr. Markham from a masked assailant who flees the scene of the crime. As Markham lays dying, he utters two words - "enzo" and "silver." Meanwhile, Agent Artemus Gordon has joined a troupe of entertainers traveling to Denver under the leadership of casino operator Kohner. Gordon, who is posing as a Shakespearean actor, learns that a man called Enzo has a girl friend, Topaze. She is a dancer with the troupe, probably working under an assumed name, and is on her way to meet Enzo in Denver. Dierdre, a dancer, attempts to pass some information to West but a jealous Kohner interrupts them and engages the agent in a fight with him and El Bardhoom, a huge weight lifter. Later, Artemus hears a strange voice coming from one of the wagons and West thinks it's the voice of Markham's masked killer. When West goes to meet Dierdre at midnight, he discovers that she too has been slain by an unseen assailant.

The Night of the Running Death was not an accident-free episode. Stuntman Red West recalled a stunt that did not go as smoothly as planned. In the scene where West gets information from a drifter, the former helps the latter "improve" his memory by throwing his body into the piano. West said, "It was a mistake, because the piano was a break-away prop that didn't break away. The only thing that was break-away was my head. I was knocked unconscious and split my head open. No one knew, and the scene continued, until Ross looked down and started to panic. He yelled, "Cut! Cut! Red is hurt....stop shooting!"

Directed by Gunnar Hellstrom
Written by Edward J. Lasko
Jeff Smith: Dante D'Paulo
Pete: Dub Taylor
Kohner: Jason Evers
Markham: Don Rizzan
Enzo: T.C. Jones
El Bardhoom: Jerry Laveroni
Gerta: Karen Arthur
Alice: Laurie Burton
Diedre: Maggie Thrett
Joan: Britt Nilsson
* The above information was compiled from The Wild Wild West: The Series by Susan E. Kesler (Arnett Press), "Michael Garrison's Wild Wild West," an article by Robert Alan Crick in Epi-Log Journal #11 and other sources.
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