I thought this was one of the best episodes in the series. A big plus is that it starred the beautiful Martha Hyer. The story was very good.
Westerns are known, correctly, as morality tales and character studies. You often need heaps of "suspension of disbelief" to enjoy them. Here I'd like to comment on a number of implausibilities: (1) I never believed that the two sides couldn't come to peaceful terms on which one would cross the river first. The freighters said they could cross that day; Favor groused about the water bank being softened and needed 3 days to recuperate for his herd to cross. I didn't believe that, and even if so, they could wait rather than kill each other. (2) it MIGHT have helped the situation if Favor told the freighters the truth -- that their man was killed by Hyer while trying to rape her sister. Nothing to lose by trying the truth. Instead, Favor has the bad guy's body dumped on the other side of the river and refuses to say what happened. Dumb. (3) Favor and Hyer had good chemistry. Favor should have reciprocated her affection. Instead he dumbly says he has to follow the same rules as he gives his men. Dumb. He never pursued her. He could have said or done something, like meeting up later. Anything. (4) Equally dumb for Hyer to announce, after the killing and her announced affection for Favor, that she was leaving the trail drive and going off alone with her "sisters." Especially dumb and implausible that Favor would acquiesce. (5) One other thing, I don't like it when when the plot is solved by the hero simply outdrawing the bad guy. It happens too often in "Rawhide." And here Favor is just a trail boss, and the bad guy here was a professional gunslinger, at least by reputation.
Westerns are known, correctly, as morality tales and character studies. You often need heaps of "suspension of disbelief" to enjoy them. Here I'd like to comment on a number of implausibilities: (1) I never believed that the two sides couldn't come to peaceful terms on which one would cross the river first. The freighters said they could cross that day; Favor groused about the water bank being softened and needed 3 days to recuperate for his herd to cross. I didn't believe that, and even if so, they could wait rather than kill each other. (2) it MIGHT have helped the situation if Favor told the freighters the truth -- that their man was killed by Hyer while trying to rape her sister. Nothing to lose by trying the truth. Instead, Favor has the bad guy's body dumped on the other side of the river and refuses to say what happened. Dumb. (3) Favor and Hyer had good chemistry. Favor should have reciprocated her affection. Instead he dumbly says he has to follow the same rules as he gives his men. Dumb. He never pursued her. He could have said or done something, like meeting up later. Anything. (4) Equally dumb for Hyer to announce, after the killing and her announced affection for Favor, that she was leaving the trail drive and going off alone with her "sisters." Especially dumb and implausible that Favor would acquiesce. (5) One other thing, I don't like it when when the plot is solved by the hero simply outdrawing the bad guy. It happens too often in "Rawhide." And here Favor is just a trail boss, and the bad guy here was a professional gunslinger, at least by reputation.
