Route 66 (TV Series) Eleven, the Hard Way (1961) User Reviews

4/7/61: "Eleven the Hard Way"

[schappe1 · 17 April 2015]

We go from one of my least favorite episodes, ("Effigy in Snow") to one of my favorites. One of the themes of Route 66 is the survival of the small American towns that they find along the road. Economic downturns, diaspora of young people and other forces often threaten their existence and the boys from time to time find themselves involved in doing something to keep them going. The mining town of Broken Knee, Nevada, is on its last legs. The burghers of the city feel their only chance to avoid becoming a ghost town, (the mine is finally played out), is to turn the place into an "Old West" fantasyland. But that will take more money than they can scrape up from contributions from all it's its citizens, (including children who break their piggy banks).

Mr. Oliver, the treasurer, is deputized against his will to meet with the community's most disreputable citizen Sam Keep, who runs the local pool hall and is always bragging about all the money he's won gambling in Reno. The town wants Sam to go to Reno and use the remaining money they collected to gamble and win enough money for them to do the conversion they envision. Sam agrees but the prudish Mr. Oliver insists on accompanying him to make sure they get their money back. Along the way, they meet up with Tod and Buz and Oliver hires them to help him look after Sam and the money. Sam starts gambling and is winning. Mr. Oliver wants him to stop but he can't- he's on a winning streak! He starts losing and eventually loses all their money. He psychologically collapses and admits he's never won very much money- he was just bragging.

Tod and Buz can't just let everybody's dreams die. They refund the money Mr. Oliver paid them and Tod mysteriously comes up with some more money, (he sells the hubcaps from their car). They convince Mr. Oliver, who is a math whiz, that he could win the money they need. He gives it a try and starts winning. He finds he can't stop, either, until Sam shows up and convinces him to stop. Mr. Oliver can go home with the money the town needs and the knowledge that he's not so different from Sam Keep, after all.

The two guest stars, Walter Matthau as Sam Keep and Edward Andrews as Mr. Oliver, couldn't have been more perfectly cast.

One of their best, and its influence

[ronaldlevao · 10/10 · 4 December 2020]

I agree heartily that the Matthau-Andrews team is the highlight of this piece, even as Sylvia Sidney was the central attraction of another episode of that season. The series was apparently quite generous in sharing the spotlight, which no doubt helped in attracting guest stars.

It seems to me (though somebody must have noticed this before) how important the comic tension between the guests here prefigures the scruffy vs. prissy comedy of Neil Simon's Odd Couple, whose film version came out seven years later, also starring Walter Matthau as the former. It would have been a great showcase for Andrews, but that was not to be.

Gambling Always Makes Money

[dranthonykstevens · 1/10 · 26 February 2023]

One would think that Reno paid to make this episode. The theme is if you lose all your money then go borrow some more and keep gambling as that is the way to win a lot of money. Doesn't Hollywood know that one of the worst sicknesses in the world is gambling, but this episode says that anyone can win a bunch if they only keep gambling. The idea that you gamble with other people's money is ok. Can you imagine borrowing some money from a friend or a family member and they you lose it all gambling, then expecting them to all say it is ok because you should have won. The worst thing was that the episode implies you will always win if you keep gambling. Very Sick.

Matthau-Andrews Showcase

[dougdoepke · 4 March 2016]

That visual opening is a grabber, unlike anything of that time or maybe this. The majestic ore house is framed imposingly against the snow-covered mountains of Nevada. Even for 1961, the wooden monolith amounts to a relic from gold mining's earlier heyday. So how will the dying mining town get the money to transform into a tourist town and stay alive. Can they trust Sam Keep (Matthau) to gamble the town's grubstake into the thousands needed. Besides, he's not too trustworthy which is why fussbudget Oliver (Andrews) goes along to keep him honest. Meanwhile the boys are along for the ride.

It's really a Matthau-Andrews showcase as they take turns mugging it up at the craps table in Reno. Watch the versatile Andrews transform from scowling skeptic to sweating player once gambling fever takes hold. Of course, the Runyonesque Matthau is perfectly cast and comes through in spades. On the downside, the boys have little to do, especially Tod. Plus, there're no shapely girls to ease the eyes. Nonetheless, there's enough plot and character color to hold interest in typical 66 fashion.

Terrific acting duo

[lor_ · 13 November 2023]

Walter Matthau and Edward Andrews team up to make this an effective and memorable little human drama, as they go to Reno, Nevada to gamble at the craps table in order to save their little nearby town of Broken Knee.

This segment, written by George Clayton Johnson (best known for the original "Ocean's Eleven" caper film). Has a different structure, beginning with a 12-minute prologue setting the wintry scene of Broken Knee, as the mine is shut down and folks facing ruin decide to tap Sam Keep (skilfully played by Walter Matthau) as a local tavern owner assigned to take $2,700 raised by locals to gamble into a $35,000 stake in Reno. The money will be used to build a highway to connect the town to the highway and attract tourists to this authentically historic mining attraction.

That's when the boys arrive in their Corvette, overhear the plans at a diner and get into a fight with thieves to save Matthau and Andrews' stake. Matthau quickly loses all the money and admits he's a fake, not the successful gambler he's boasted to be. Maharis comes up with the bright idea of their teaching stuffy banker Andrews the rules of playing craps and hoping he'll save the day. Everybody learns a lesson, and M & M decide to go with them back to Broken Knee to work on building the new highway.

There's heart in this story and director William Graham's staging of the play at the craps table is excellent in maintaining suspense. Matthau and Andrews' acting is on the money.