Much of Sam Dann's writing for RMT takes familiar plot elements and adds a new twist or perspective to them (or, in his lesser scripts, adds nothing at all). In the case of the entertaining "Ton of Gold," the listener can hardly help but think of THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (Bogart film or B. Traven novel)--the same desert setting, the same kind of greedy-people-turning-on-each-other plot. At a further remove, it's also reminiscent of the great silent film GREED (and the novel on which it's based, Frank Norris's MCTEAGUE). But in general the story is of a piece with any number of "thieves fall out" tales (or, more specifically, "thieves fall out over a woman").

But this episode added the element of Joe Raincloud, who plays a very interesting role here. It's obvious by the end that, whether or not the curse is real, Crazy Joe is something of a master at manipulating our evil characters' emotions. Telling the tale from his perspective helped make the rather familiar story elements seem fresh--something Dann often does. Sam Dann was not the most original writer in the world, but he was often able to find ways to make old stories seem new.

I do wish there had been some sort of final twist to this tale--the ultimate fate of the characters is telegraphed early on, and while it's fun to follow the twists and turns near the end, everything does indeed end up where we all knew it would, which, at least for me, is slightly disappointing. Still, a very solid, thoroughly engrossing episode!