Checkmate The Heart Is a Handout (1960–1962) Online

Myron McCormick guest starred in this Checkmate episode and plays the unusual and highly philosophical role of a gentleman tramp who is a client without knowing it. He's a man who was born to great wealth and turned his back on it. When he was younger he gave himself cheerfully to hedonism and ran away after stealing from the family fortune to satisfy his indulgences.

Now his father is dying and dies after seeing his son and the thought of coming into so much money terrifies him. Doug McClure goes undercover as a young hobo to keep an eye on him.

The Checkmate services are really needed. McCormick needs protection from himself and from a lot of greedy relatives.

Some highly unusual characters are at the camp like Dabbs Greer as a holy roller reverend, new arrival Sean McClory and Harry Dean Stanton a young minstrel type who keeps them entertained.

In one of his last performances the episode really belongs to Myron McCormick.

Checkmate trended toward oddity during its second season and this episode is certainly in that vein. In a nut-shell the story revolves around the head hobo of a dingy shantytown under the tracks who in reality is the son of a wealthy and dying man. Jed Sills goes undercover to protect the son from an assassin. The plot is a bit sparse and hard to believe but all the while it is also satisfactorily entertaining. A highlight is a young Harry Dean Stanton playing a strolling guitar player and crooner. Don Cory is largely peripheral and Doctor Hyatt is also limited but does get a memorable scene as a rotund hobo passing through camp. Dabbs Greer, in a foreshadowing of his role as Rev. Alden on Little House on the Prairie, is quite good as an unlikely holy roller hobo. Good episode from a series ahead of its time.