The New Maverick (1978)

James Garner took time off from The Rockford Files to star in the "retro" TV movie The New Maverick, written by Rockford stalwart Juanita Bartlett. Garner steps into the role of western gambler Brett Maverick as though the 20 years since the original TV series had never passed; he is costarred, as ever, with Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick. Charles Frank is introduced as the Maverick boys' young nephew Ben, a Harvard dropout and gambler-in-training who would carry the action when this film graduated into a brief TV series titled Young Maverick. The plot involves a train holdup, stolen gatling guns, a stupid politico (Eugene Roche), and a gang of Eastern gangsters led by horse-hating George Loros. Susan Sullivan costars in The New Maverick as Poker Alice, a character who was later given a pilot film of her own. The New Maverick is in its own modest way just as much fun as Mel Gibson's expensive Maverick feature film of 1994--which also costarred the evergreen James Garner. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi