Kenny Rogers as The Gambler: The Adventure Continues

• Directed by Dick Lowry
• November 28, 1983 (US)
• CBS

Main Cast

• Kenny Rogers-Brady Hawkes
• Billy Montana-Bruce Boxleitner
• Kate Muldoon-Linda Evans
• Pete Masket-Johnny Crawford
• Jeremiah-Charles Fields
• Carson-David Hedison
• Juno-Bob Hoy
• Reece-Brion James
• Holt-Paul Koslo
• Col. Greeley-Cameron Mitchell
• Charlie McCourt-Mitchell Ryan
• Silvera-Gregory Sierra
• Wichita Pike-Ken Swofford

On a train to a gambling event, Brady Hawkes’s son is kidnapped by a gang of outlaws and now he and Billy Montana must race to save him.

In Hollywood success generally breeds sequels and after the success of the first film a sequel was all but inevitable. Kenny Rogers as The Gambler: The Adventure Continues (I assume the use of the singer’s name in the title is to avoid issues with the mid-70s film) is a TV miniseries rather than a TV film that takes place shortly after the original. Brady now has some level of custody of his son Jeremiah (Charles Fields). Despite the mother’s poor life choices that seem to be still affecting things, Jeremiah is eventually headed back to her.

Kenny Rogers was no great thespian. While Kenny Rogers may be the star of the miniseries, he is certainly not the one with the most lines. Dick Lowry and company pulled a Schwarzenegger in Conan the Barbarian and kept Rogers’s delivery of dialogue to a minimum. Loyal sidekick Billy Montana (Bruce Boxleitner) says much more than the star does.

We get a little bit of background on Brady where we learn that he is a Civil War veteran giving this a vague place in history but nothing too specific. Hawkes was a capable Union officer and earned himself the respect of his fellow soldiers as well as the enemy. They kinda gloss over the whole slavery thing of the South when he meets and gets along rather cordially with a man he once took prisoner.

Linda Evans joins the cast as Kate Muldoon first appearing to be a travelling singer but is really a bounty hunter using being a singer as a cover. Interesting but seems like a great many extra steps. Her bounty hunting is a means to pay an army of Pinkertons she has looking for her missing son. That element never gets resolved here or put in a way that says it might be. It’s only important for a connection to the main villain of the story who is a dangerous outlaw feared by everyone in the West. Linda Evans was rather good in her bounty hunter role. She could communicate bad ass by doing very little. And when it came time to do bad ass, she could really sell it. Evans was no stranger to Westerns having come to prominence in The Big Valley, so I am sure that experience helped.

Our bad hombre of Charlie McCourt (Mitchell Ryan) crosses paths with Brady on that opening train ride when McCourt attempts to rob it of money that’s not there but rather sitting in a flyspeck of a town that all parties become desperate to reach first. Ryan was no strong tough guy. A fine actor but he certainly could not bring the level of menace to equal what the character was supposed to be. Paul Koslo who plays his henchman Holt would have been a better choice. This is a little like what happened with Clu Gulager and Lance LeGault in the previous movie. Good actor. Wrong part.

Kenny Rogers as The Gambler: The Adventure Continues goal is to as family friendly as possible and it certainly accomplishes that, but I think if they had softened things less then this could’ve been something that was not only family friendly but mature. To be family friendly you don’t need to talk down to the audience and you don’t need to hide the harder details, but it often does that here.

Having said that it is just nice to see an old fashion western. The characters are not dark. There are clear delineations between good and evil with the occasional character losing their way before they find it back to the side of right. There’s no attempt at being ironic. That’s a bit refreshing in this day and age where every most every Western has some heavy-handed message or everybody’s just terrible with little separating the good from the bad other than reasons.

I think as a two-part miniseries Kenny Rogers as The Gambler: The Adventure Continues is a bit much. There is some unnecessary stuff such as Kate’s cover or even her connection to McCourt. The child element of Kate’s somewhat connects to Hawkes but as said earlier got nothing close to a resolution.

And there were a few too many characters. Col. Greeley (Cameron Mitchell) is in cahoots with McCourt but exactly why he needs Greeley or Greeley needs McCourt is never shown. Greeley is a disgraced lawyer but that does not tell you how he knew about the loot on the train. Carson (David Hedison) shows up and then gets taken out. Were they going with for some type of The Magnificent Seven feel with Brady getting a gang together? It just felt like too much and dragged it all out. Strip those out and you would have had a much tighter narrative that fit in a movie of the week. This is not a long slog, but it’s not as tight as it should’ve been.

Yet Kenny Rogers as The Gambler: The Adventure Continues is something enjoyable and ultimately re-watchable. It’s fun Western comfort food that you want to go back and have again.