The Wild Wild West, "The Night of the Murderous Spring"

During the Sixties, both the United Kingdom and the United States were swept up in a spy craze. Starting with shows such as Danger Man and The Avengers in Britain, the first James Bond movie Dr. No (1962) brought the spy craze to the United States. At around the same time the success of the TV shows Bonanza and The Virginian sparked a new cycle of Westerns on American television. It was then perhaps inevitable that someone would think to combine the two. That someone was Michael Garrison, who came up with the idea of a show that would be "James Bond in the Wild West." Of course, that show was The Wild Wild Wild West.

The Wild Wild West followed the adventures of Secret Service agents James West (Robert Conrad) and Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin), who were assigned to the United States west of the Mississippi. West and Gordon were equipped with the latest in gadgets, from James West's sleeve gun to the knife hidden in his shoe.  Artemus Gordon was a master of disguise and even had his own disguise kit. What is more they regularly faced Bondian villains. For the most part West and Gordon's opponents only appeared once, never to return to the show again. There were two exceptions to this rule. One was Count Manzeppi (Victor Buono), who appeared in two episodes of the second season. The more notable exception was Dr. Miguelito Loveless (Michael Dunn), who returned to plague West and Gordon no less than ten times during the show's run. Dr. Loveless was to James West and Artemus Gordon what The Joker is to Batman or Blofeld is to James Bond. Quite simply, he was their archenemy.

Dr. Miguelito Loveless was created by creator Michael Garrison, producer Fred Freiberger, and writer John Kneubuhl and first appeared in the first season episode "The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth." It occurred to them that actor Michael Dunn would make a great villain on the show. Suffering from medical dwarfism, Mr. Dunn was an established actor who had appeared in the movie Ship of Fools (1965), for which he had been nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, as well as several TV shows.

Inspiration for Miguelito Loveless came from a play that John Kneubuhl had seen,  Here Come the Clowns by Phillip Barry. In the play there is a scene in which a dwarf complains to a rather devilish looking magician, "If there is a God, why did he make people like me?" The magician simply looks down at him and smiles, then says, "Would you deny him a sense of humour?" While it was never mentioned on the show, Dr. Loveless's backstory was that hat he was the son of a Mexican woman descended from Spanish dons and an American man who ultimately robbed Miguelito of his rightful inheritance. Robbed of what was rightfully his and diminutive in stature, Dr. Loveless was then angry at the whole world. While Dr. Loveless was filled with existential rage, at the same time he had a lighter side. He had a mischievous sense of humour that often manifested itself in his encounters with West and Gordon. He also had a taste for the finer things in life, particularly music. Many of his early appearances featured scenes of Dr. Loveless and his companion Antoinette (Phoebe Dorin)  singing. Phoebe Dorin was a close friend of Michael Dunn, and together they had a nightclub consisting of singing and light banter. While Dr. Loveless was small in size, he was a skilled combatant, in one episode taking on several men much bigger than himself and winning.

Dr. Loveless also had a brilliant intellect, one capable of developing technology far in advance of the Victorian Era. Of course, rather than using this technology to help humanity, the not-so-good doctor chose to use his technological achievements to take over part of the United States or the entire country. This is the case in "The Night of the Murderous Spring." In "The Night of the Murderous Spring," Dr. Loveless has developed a powerful, hallucinogenic powder that he plans to use to take over the United States. Given when "The Night of the Murderous Spring" was made, some might think that writer John Kneubuhl was inspired by such psychedelic drugs as LSD, but he wasn't. By his own admission, Mr. Kneubuhl was rather naive about drugs at the time, and simply thought of the episode's hallucinogenic powder as one of Dr. Loveless's many inventions.

"The Night of the Murderous Spring" was Miguelito Loveless's fourth appearance on The Wild Wild West and the penultimate episode of the first season. What sets it apart from some of Miguelito's other appearances (as well as other Wild Wild West episodes) is that Jim West is even more at Dr. Loveless's mercy than he ever was or would be. In "The Night of the Murderous Spring," it is fairly clear that Dr. Loveless could have killed James West any time he wanted. As to why he didn't, one can only assume that Dr. Loveless had found no other opponents who had challenged him as much as West and Gordon had. For Miguelito Loveless, it seems likely trying to take over the world was as much a game as it was anything else.

Of course, much of what also sets "The Night of the Murderous Spring" apart from other episodes of The Wild Wild West is its direction. "The Night of the Murderous Spring" features some of the best shots of any episode of the show, with scenes that look as if they could come from some thriller movie or a Victorian film noir. If the direction of "The Night of the Murderous Spring" is superior, it is perhaps because it was directed by Richard Donner. Richard Donner directed three episodes of The Wild Wild West and would go onto direct such movies as The Omen (1976), Superman (1978), Ladyhawke (1985), and Lethal Weapon (1987).

While "The Night of the Murderous Spring" had great direction, much of its success must be chalked up to Michael Dunn. He was an enormously talented actor, and he brought all of his talent to bear in playing Dr. Miguelito Loveless. What is more, he did his own stunts. While his mobility was limited to some degree because of his disability, he was athletic and a very skilled swimmer. In fact, it was during the shooting of "The Night of the Murderous Spring" that Michael Dunn's swimming skill came to good use. A scene shot at what was also used as the lagoon on Gilligan's Island involved the sinking of a boat containing Michael Dunn, Phoebe Dorin, and guest star Jenie Jackson. Unfortunately, Miss Dorin's costume got caught in the machinery used to sink the boat and she was in danger of drowning. Michael Dunn swiftly swam underwater to tear her free.

While Robert Conrad and Michael Dunn played opponents on screen, in reality the two men had great affection for each other. In fact, according to Phoebe Dorin in various interviews, Robert Conrad absolutely adored Michael Dunn. Quite simply, Mr. Conrad treated Mr. Dunn and anyone with him as if they were royalty. He had enormous admiration for Michael Dunn as both an actor and a person, to the point that Mr. Conrad would still talk about Mr. Dunn at length in interviews years after his death. Robert Conrad was not alone in his affection for Michael Dunn. Ross Martin also got along very well with both Michael Dunn and Phoebe Dorin. 

Dr. Miguelito Loveless appeared six more times on The Wild Wild West. Although the show was still getting respectable ratings, it was cancelled in 1969 as a scapegoat in the moral panic over television violence. Michael Dunn continued to appear frequently on television, in such shows as Bonanza and Night Gallery, as well as several TV movies and feature films. Sadly he died on August 30 1973 at the age of 38. An autopsy performed by a physician at St. George's Hospital in London at the time determined the cause of death to be pulmonary heart disease. While Mr. Dunn had a rich career, from appearing on stage in The Ballad of the Sad Café to his performance in Ship of Fools, it is safe to say many still remember him best as Dr. Miguelito Loveless on The Wild Wild West.

American television in the Sixties had no shortage of villains with grandiose plots, from the THRUSH agents faced by Solo and Khuryakin on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. to Batman's rogue's gallery on Batman. Few were as brilliant, as outrageous, or as threatening as Dr. Miguelito Loveless. He was the one villain West and Gordon faced more than twice, and perhaps the villain who came closest to succeeding in his plans. Perhaps no other villain on The Wild Wild West could have conceived a scheme as grand as drugging the entire United States with a hallucinogen. And what made Dr. Loveless so convincing, no matter how outlandish his schemes, was the sheer talent of Michael Dunn. Perhaps no other actor could have ever played him.