Rawhide - Season 1 Disc 4 (labelled as Disc #3 in the entire series package)
Incident of the Coyote Weed 3/20/59
Incident of the Chubasco 4/3/59
Incident of the Curious Street 4/10/59
The best episodes of Rawhide focus on the trail drive itself and of Gil Favor's difficult job of getting it through all the difficulties they face. The first two episodes on this disc are strong because they stick to that subject. The third is a good story but is another example of something Favor would not have to time to get involved with.
I recall discussing Incident of the Coyote Weed with a now-deceased friend whose favorite all-time show was this one some years back and we agreed how maybe the closest character to Gil Favor in another show of the time was Rick Jason's Lt. Gil Hanley, (note the first name), from Combat! Here Json guests on Rawhide, playing a Mexican drover who is actually an agent of a bandit band that wishes to steal the heard and is ruthless enough to poison the drover's food to make them easy pickin's for the bandit gang. Before that challenge, Favor has to head off a stampede and has to let a young drover die because to try and save him might have cost them the herd, (although I'm not sure why). Rowdy has still another conflict with Favor over this but the roles are reversed when Favor is separated from the men during the final battle and Rowdy had to get the men to face the assault by the bandits rather than go looking for Favor - the herd comes first!
Incident of the Chubasco is initially about ascending through a mountain pass by crossing a windy plateau, the becomes a story of a rich cattleman's young wife trying to escape him with her younger lover. Incongruously, Favor decides to protect them even though the rancher threatens to block their progress across the plateau. If he's willing to sacrifice a young drover to save the herd in the above episode, why is he getting involved in this domestic dispute? Apparently it's because he won't allow anyone to dictate terms to him. There's also a sub-plot about the woman's lover having bene in a prisoner-of-war camp with Rowdy during the Civil War and getting a cushy job by co-operating with the prison commandant, thus causing the drovers to turn against him. The lover is played by John Ericson, supposedly a cultured man who didn't have the toughness to do the right thing. Ericson, a strong athletic type, seems an odd choice for this role. Noah Berry Jr., who had been in the 1948 film "Red River", which was one of the inspirations for "Rawhide".
Incident of the Curious Street has little to do with a trail dive. Gil and Rowdy have left the drive behind and are looking to buy some supplies in a nearby town, which proves to be a ghost town where two women are being held hostage by a character played by veteran character actor James Westerfield and his son. The women witnessed them committing a murder. An older veteran character actor, Ralph Moody, who ahs an old rifle, is their sole protector. Gil and Rowdy decide they have to help the women, (but what about the herd?). It becomes a cat-and-mouse game between Westerfield and his son vs. Favor, Yates and Moddy's character. Complicating things is that Whiteny Blake, playing the younger woman, hates her mother, (Mercedes McCambridge) and loves Westerfield's son.
The best episodes of Rawhide focus on the trail drive itself and of Gil Favor's difficult job of getting it through all the difficulties they face. The first two episodes on this disc are strong because they stick to that subject. The third is a good story but is another example of something Favor would not have to time to get involved with.
I recall discussing Incident of the Coyote Weed with a now-deceased friend whose favorite all-time show was this one some years back and we agreed how maybe the closest character to Gil Favor in another show of the time was Rick Jason's Lt. Gil Hanley, (note the first name), from Combat! Here Json guests on Rawhide, playing a Mexican drover who is actually an agent of a bandit band that wishes to steal the heard and is ruthless enough to poison the drover's food to make them easy pickin's for the bandit gang. Before that challenge, Favor has to head off a stampede and has to let a young drover die because to try and save him might have cost them the herd, (although I'm not sure why). Rowdy has still another conflict with Favor over this but the roles are reversed when Favor is separated from the men during the final battle and Rowdy had to get the men to face the assault by the bandits rather than go looking for Favor - the herd comes first!
Incident of the Chubasco is initially about ascending through a mountain pass by crossing a windy plateau, the becomes a story of a rich cattleman's young wife trying to escape him with her younger lover. Incongruously, Favor decides to protect them even though the rancher threatens to block their progress across the plateau. If he's willing to sacrifice a young drover to save the herd in the above episode, why is he getting involved in this domestic dispute? Apparently it's because he won't allow anyone to dictate terms to him. There's also a sub-plot about the woman's lover having bene in a prisoner-of-war camp with Rowdy during the Civil War and getting a cushy job by co-operating with the prison commandant, thus causing the drovers to turn against him. The lover is played by John Ericson, supposedly a cultured man who didn't have the toughness to do the right thing. Ericson, a strong athletic type, seems an odd choice for this role. Noah Berry Jr., who had been in the 1948 film "Red River", which was one of the inspirations for "Rawhide".
Incident of the Curious Street has little to do with a trail dive. Gil and Rowdy have left the drive behind and are looking to buy some supplies in a nearby town, which proves to be a ghost town where two women are being held hostage by a character played by veteran character actor James Westerfield and his son. The women witnessed them committing a murder. An older veteran character actor, Ralph Moody, who ahs an old rifle, is their sole protector. Gil and Rowdy decide they have to help the women, (but what about the herd?). It becomes a cat-and-mouse game between Westerfield and his son vs. Favor, Yates and Moddy's character. Complicating things is that Whiteny Blake, playing the younger woman, hates her mother, (Mercedes McCambridge) and loves Westerfield's son.
