Incident at Sulphur Creek Mar 11, 1960
Incident of the Champagne Bottles Mar 18, 1960
Incident of the Stargazer Apr 1, 1960
Incident of the Dancing Death Apr 8, 1960
This was a group of weird but not uninteresting episodes with little to do with a trail drive.
The incident at Sulfur Creek is an encounter with horse thieves who steal from Favor's drive and also the local Indians. The head thief, (John Dehner), is a rancher who is christening his baby son and wants any retribution or deal-making to be postponed until afterward. The drovers are reluctantly agreeable but the Indians are not. The 'soap opera' aspects of this episode stem from the fact that his wife is in lover with his brother, who actually led the raids and sacrifices himself to save the rest. (Was that Sheb Wooley's 'Private Wilhelm' scream?). This is by far the most normal of these four episodes.
The drovers see a wagon coming toward their camp very very slowly with a man out front, carefully leading the way. The lead guy, (Lane Bradford, being given a more substantial role than he normally gets), asks for directions to a ford where they will be meeting someone. They have been traveling east and the ford is south, so they really don't seem to know where they are going. The other 'they' are Patricia Berry, who carries a shotgun and Hugh Marlowe who seems to be in charge, (but isn't). They ask to stay with the camp, on nice level ground, for the night. What are they doing? They say they are transporting champagne bottles. That's all they say. It turns out that some of the bottles contain nitro glycerin, which Wishbone, Mushy and a couple of the drovers find out when they want to try the champagne. Favor orders his men to get the herd far away so that an explosion won't cause a stampede. When they leave, Berry points her shotgun and orders Favor and Rowdy Yates to accompany them to the ford, where the people who will buy the nitro, which they've stolen from the army), from them will be waiting. Favor and Yates are to join Bradford in clearing the way. The episode is obviously inspired by the 1953 French Classic, "The Wages of Fear" but is a very tepid version of that film. At one point they encounter a large rock and try to guide the wagon over it with great difficulty when it looks as if they could just have gone around it.
In The Stargazer, Pete Nolan is scouting for the drive and observes a very nervous woman, (Dorothy Green) getting off a stagecoach in the middle of nowhere. She says she's waiting for her husband to meet her. But then faints. Pete takes her to the ranch they own. It turns out that he's been released from a mental institution. Her husband, (Richard Webb, who ironically 'Captain Midnight') is a noted astronomer and he is preparing to sell their ranch, with the help of his foreman, (Buddy Ebsen). One problem: Green insists that Webb is not her husband. Webb tells Pete about her mental problems and he leaves to rejoin the herd. But what if she's right? Pete and Wishbone come up with a cockamamie plan to have Wishbone pose as an astronomer to force Webb to use his observatory and thus prove he's a real astronomer. They only prove that Wishbone isn't one. Webb turns out to be a student of the now deceased ex-husband. (Why would they assume he knew nothing about astronomy?) Ebsen is the one really behind the whole thing and the good guys manage to get the better of him in the end.
The Dancing Death is about Gypsies. Representations of native Americans and Gypsies in these old western shows make me cringe because, while I know little about each I'm pretty certain they are consistently inauthentic and cliche-ridden. Here a gypsy, (played by, of all people, Warren Oates), steals Favor's horse and the horse later saunters back into camp with the gypsy lying dead over him, a knife in the back. The local Gypsy queen, played surprisingly well by Mabel Albertson, who usually plays modern matrons, such as Darrin's mother on Bewitched - here's she's the witch, vowing revenge unless the murderer of her son is presented to them for punishment. Anthony Caruso plays a nervous drover who is also a Gypsy with a death threat against him for a previous incident. He wants Favor's protection. Albertson puts on a carnival but makes a speech predicting a series of misfortunes the drive will face if they don't produce the killer. Then things happen that could be what she was referring to.
This was a group of weird but not uninteresting episodes with little to do with a trail drive.
The incident at Sulfur Creek is an encounter with horse thieves who steal from Favor's drive and also the local Indians. The head thief, (John Dehner), is a rancher who is christening his baby son and wants any retribution or deal-making to be postponed until afterward. The drovers are reluctantly agreeable but the Indians are not. The 'soap opera' aspects of this episode stem from the fact that his wife is in lover with his brother, who actually led the raids and sacrifices himself to save the rest. (Was that Sheb Wooley's 'Private Wilhelm' scream?). This is by far the most normal of these four episodes.
The drovers see a wagon coming toward their camp very very slowly with a man out front, carefully leading the way. The lead guy, (Lane Bradford, being given a more substantial role than he normally gets), asks for directions to a ford where they will be meeting someone. They have been traveling east and the ford is south, so they really don't seem to know where they are going. The other 'they' are Patricia Berry, who carries a shotgun and Hugh Marlowe who seems to be in charge, (but isn't). They ask to stay with the camp, on nice level ground, for the night. What are they doing? They say they are transporting champagne bottles. That's all they say. It turns out that some of the bottles contain nitro glycerin, which Wishbone, Mushy and a couple of the drovers find out when they want to try the champagne. Favor orders his men to get the herd far away so that an explosion won't cause a stampede. When they leave, Berry points her shotgun and orders Favor and Rowdy Yates to accompany them to the ford, where the people who will buy the nitro, which they've stolen from the army), from them will be waiting. Favor and Yates are to join Bradford in clearing the way. The episode is obviously inspired by the 1953 French Classic, "The Wages of Fear" but is a very tepid version of that film. At one point they encounter a large rock and try to guide the wagon over it with great difficulty when it looks as if they could just have gone around it.
In The Stargazer, Pete Nolan is scouting for the drive and observes a very nervous woman, (Dorothy Green) getting off a stagecoach in the middle of nowhere. She says she's waiting for her husband to meet her. But then faints. Pete takes her to the ranch they own. It turns out that he's been released from a mental institution. Her husband, (Richard Webb, who ironically 'Captain Midnight') is a noted astronomer and he is preparing to sell their ranch, with the help of his foreman, (Buddy Ebsen). One problem: Green insists that Webb is not her husband. Webb tells Pete about her mental problems and he leaves to rejoin the herd. But what if she's right? Pete and Wishbone come up with a cockamamie plan to have Wishbone pose as an astronomer to force Webb to use his observatory and thus prove he's a real astronomer. They only prove that Wishbone isn't one. Webb turns out to be a student of the now deceased ex-husband. (Why would they assume he knew nothing about astronomy?) Ebsen is the one really behind the whole thing and the good guys manage to get the better of him in the end.
The Dancing Death is about Gypsies. Representations of native Americans and Gypsies in these old western shows make me cringe because, while I know little about each I'm pretty certain they are consistently inauthentic and cliche-ridden. Here a gypsy, (played by, of all people, Warren Oates), steals Favor's horse and the horse later saunters back into camp with the gypsy lying dead over him, a knife in the back. The local Gypsy queen, played surprisingly well by Mabel Albertson, who usually plays modern matrons, such as Darrin's mother on Bewitched - here's she's the witch, vowing revenge unless the murderer of her son is presented to them for punishment. Anthony Caruso plays a nervous drover who is also a Gypsy with a death threat against him for a previous incident. He wants Favor's protection. Albertson puts on a carnival but makes a speech predicting a series of misfortunes the drive will face if they don't produce the killer. Then things happen that could be what she was referring to.
