This was my first time watching an ep of "Wagon Train" of which I found several uploaded on YouTube. In this one, Keenan Wynn guest stars as Luke O'Malley, a card shark who disguises himself as a preacher when a Mexican bandit who was about to be hanged escapes and wants to get back at O'Malley for all the money he thinks he owes him. So O'Malley finds Major Adams' (Ward Bond) herd and manages to hook up with them, bringing his two kids with them. I'll stop there and just say that Wynn does a balancing act of being both crafty and charismatic when he does the things he does here. And when he feels perhaps some regrets, Wynn also conveys that believably. Perhaps the way the ep ended wasn't the most logical, but it was heartfelt just the same. So on that note, "The Luke O'Malley Story" ep of "Wagon Train" was entertaining to me.
3 Reviews
Wagon Train - Season 1 Disc 4
schappe124 February 2024
Warning: Spoilers
The Clara Beauchamp Story Dec 11, 1957
The Julie Gage Story Dec 18, 1957
The Cliff Grundy Story Dec 25, 1957
The Luke O'Malley Story Jan 1, 1958
The Clara Beauchamp Story is as over-wrought as the title character, played by Nina Foch, who is the ambitious, bigoted, alcoholic wife of the commandant of a fort, who has contempt for her husband's lack of ambition and policy of fairness toward the Native Americans under his control and protection. She starts a war by insulting and slapping the local chief, then, overwhelmed by guilt, rides alone to ask his forgiveness. She gets shot and dies asking him not to go on the warpath.
The Julie Gage Story is a nice break from that level of melodrama Anne Jeffries is the title character and she is traveling alone with the train, her father having just died. Major Adams thinks she should have a man and assigns a series of men to help her out, over her protests. She finally falls for one, played by Jeffries' real-life husband, Robert Sterling, (they'd played the two ghosts in 'Topper' a few years before this). It's as simple as that. No bad guys. Nobody dies, (after the father, off-screen). Just a sweet little story, well, played by Jeffries and Sterling, who have great chemistry on screen and off, (they were married for 55 years until his death.
The Cliff Grundy Story is a gritty story but with a charm of its own. Dan Duryea plays a legendary mountain man and old friend of Flint McCullough's who joins the train and brags about all the difficult circumstances he has survived and about a gold mine he's found. Flint warns Major Adams that his friend is always bragging about mines he has found but never seems to have any money. Russell Johnson, (later the Professor on Gilligan's Island - he often played bad guys in TV westerns before that), didn't hear that and would like to know where Duryea's gold mine is. Duryea becomes injured in a Buffalo hunt. He's expected to die and Flint decides to stay with him until he does while the wagon train moves on. Johnson falsely expresses affection for "the old man" and decides to stay with him as well. He really wants to pump him for information about the gold mine. Flint overhears this and orders him off. But Johnson knocks him out, steals the horses and deprives them of water. Flint and his friend have to find a way to walk for help. Their loyalty to each other is repeatedly tested but the old friends come through, driven by their mutual affection and disaffection with Johnson.
The Luke O'Malley Story is similar to the 'The Riley Gratton Story' in that it's about a charming rogue you would think the Wagon Train, (and Seth Adams in particular), would have little tolerance for but come to like him. I like the Gratton story a bit better, perhaps because I'd seen it first. Luke O'Malley is played by Keenan Wynn, who, strangely, is the foster father of two children and a pal of a notorious bandit, who he convinces not to attack the wagon train "because the people are so poor they aren't worth robbing".
Per the notes, "Ward Bond is on crutches in this story due to a hip injury suffered when two horses collided on set." The crutches first appear in The Clara Beauchamp Story. Bond already had a bad left leg from getting hit by a car in 1944.
The Clara Beauchamp Story is as over-wrought as the title character, played by Nina Foch, who is the ambitious, bigoted, alcoholic wife of the commandant of a fort, who has contempt for her husband's lack of ambition and policy of fairness toward the Native Americans under his control and protection. She starts a war by insulting and slapping the local chief, then, overwhelmed by guilt, rides alone to ask his forgiveness. She gets shot and dies asking him not to go on the warpath.
The Julie Gage Story is a nice break from that level of melodrama Anne Jeffries is the title character and she is traveling alone with the train, her father having just died. Major Adams thinks she should have a man and assigns a series of men to help her out, over her protests. She finally falls for one, played by Jeffries' real-life husband, Robert Sterling, (they'd played the two ghosts in 'Topper' a few years before this). It's as simple as that. No bad guys. Nobody dies, (after the father, off-screen). Just a sweet little story, well, played by Jeffries and Sterling, who have great chemistry on screen and off, (they were married for 55 years until his death.
The Cliff Grundy Story is a gritty story but with a charm of its own. Dan Duryea plays a legendary mountain man and old friend of Flint McCullough's who joins the train and brags about all the difficult circumstances he has survived and about a gold mine he's found. Flint warns Major Adams that his friend is always bragging about mines he has found but never seems to have any money. Russell Johnson, (later the Professor on Gilligan's Island - he often played bad guys in TV westerns before that), didn't hear that and would like to know where Duryea's gold mine is. Duryea becomes injured in a Buffalo hunt. He's expected to die and Flint decides to stay with him until he does while the wagon train moves on. Johnson falsely expresses affection for "the old man" and decides to stay with him as well. He really wants to pump him for information about the gold mine. Flint overhears this and orders him off. But Johnson knocks him out, steals the horses and deprives them of water. Flint and his friend have to find a way to walk for help. Their loyalty to each other is repeatedly tested but the old friends come through, driven by their mutual affection and disaffection with Johnson.
The Luke O'Malley Story is similar to the 'The Riley Gratton Story' in that it's about a charming rogue you would think the Wagon Train, (and Seth Adams in particular), would have little tolerance for but come to like him. I like the Gratton story a bit better, perhaps because I'd seen it first. Luke O'Malley is played by Keenan Wynn, who, strangely, is the foster father of two children and a pal of a notorious bandit, who he convinces not to attack the wagon train "because the people are so poor they aren't worth robbing".
Per the notes, "Ward Bond is on crutches in this story due to a hip injury suffered when two horses collided on set." The crutches first appear in The Clara Beauchamp Story. Bond already had a bad left leg from getting hit by a car in 1944.
Child Saves Keenan Wynn
bkoganbing21 September 2008
In this Wagon Train episode the guest star is Keenan Wynn playing the title role, a no good gambler and conman who has to beat it out of town real quick because Mexican bandit Carlos Romero has decided he's been cheating him.
Grabbing his two children from his sister he assumes the disguise of a preacher, getting a haircut and shaving off his mustache. He meets the Wagon Train on the trail riding a mule with the two kids and says that bandits robbed him. Ward Bond lets him join the wagon train.
But even before Robert Horton who saw him in town as a gambler rejoins the train, Bond gets real suspicious when he asks the 'preacher' to do a sermon.
Of course Romero and his men do catch up, but the children manage to save Wynn and the train. I won't say how, but it was one of the more ridiculous endings I've seen in any of the episodes which were usually of better quality than this.
Grabbing his two children from his sister he assumes the disguise of a preacher, getting a haircut and shaving off his mustache. He meets the Wagon Train on the trail riding a mule with the two kids and says that bandits robbed him. Ward Bond lets him join the wagon train.
But even before Robert Horton who saw him in town as a gambler rejoins the train, Bond gets real suspicious when he asks the 'preacher' to do a sermon.
Of course Romero and his men do catch up, but the children manage to save Wynn and the train. I won't say how, but it was one of the more ridiculous endings I've seen in any of the episodes which were usually of better quality than this.
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