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1. Incident of the Tumbleweed [TOP]
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Philip Lindley, England:
A prison wagon lumbers its way towards the drovers' noon camp. It contains murderer Tom Conway and female outlaw Dallas, played by "Mighty Joe Young" star Teri Moore, among others. An escape attempt leaves the deputy dead and the sheriff badly wounded. Favor and Rowdy take on responsibility for getting the prisoners to court. There are two further escape attempts, one at a river crossing, at which Dallas' partner and their gang are waiting. Less a few dead, the wagon reaches the jail. All the main characters, including Wishbone, Mushy and Pete, are well established in this first ever episode of "Rawhide". The mood is sombre - even eerie - until the shoot-out at the river-crossing. This is one of the best action sequences of any "Rawhide" episode. Tom Conway is interesting casting. This normally wooden actor - brother of fellow-actor George Sanders - makes the most of his impassive features to create a truly sinister character. Some one must have had the classic western "Stagecoach" in mind to call the female lead "Dallas," which was, of course, the name of the outcast character played in that movie by Claire Trevor.
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Myron King, Waco, Texas:
The drovers encounter a tumbleweed wagon of prisoners, including a beautful woman. When the marshal is wounded and the deputy killed, Gil and Rowdy are forced to take the wagon and the wounded marshal on to Fort Greg.
Why CBS chose this as the premiere, I don't know. It doesn't center around the drive or the drovers. It does contain excellent performances by all, especially Terry Moore, John Larch and Tom Conway.
Watch for a couple of bloopers. In one scene, Scarlet is asking for someone to help him take up a collection to bail Dallas out, and yet he doesn't talk until the film cuts to Joe saying, "Who's with me?" Also, in the scene where the marshal asks Wishbone and Quince to secure the wagon, it appears the lens cap is visible at the bottom of the screen.
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2. Incident at Alabaster Plain [TOP]
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Philip Lindley, England:
A vicious gunman is encountered by the drovers after they themselves have managed to disrupt a wedding. Trouble is narrowly avoided but still threatens the wedding feast to which the drovers have been invited. When the gunman bludgeons his stepfather, Favor feels powerless to intervene, but the man's subsequent death sends Rowdy and Favor back. A dramatic gunfight ensues at the church, ended by the gunman's fall from the bell-tower after Favor has pulled the rope. A barely-credited Troy Donahue - a teen heart-throb of the day - appears as an old friend of Rowdy and the groom at the wedding. Martin Balsam, a year or two before his memorable appearance as Arboghast in Hitchcock's "Psycho", is impressive as a Catholic priest. Paul Brinegar's comic moments work well, particularly his unsuccessful efforts at a dance. The Spanish mission is most effectively employed, described from the first by the drovers as being out of this world. There are no credits in the title sequence -a sore point with the cast later - and Favor's "Head 'em up, move 'em out" is not the closing line of the episode.
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Timothy Booher, Bristol, TN:
Side note: This episode is the first time that Rowdy's snake-handled pistol turns up in the series, rather than in "Incident of the Music Maker" as I had previously noted. In this episode, the gun is carried by actor Mark Richman, starring in one of the episode's finest performances as the gunfigher Mastrick.In the end, when Mastrick is killed, Rowdy apparently takes the gun from the dead man's body, an act much more suited to Eastwood's Man with no Name character than Rowdy Yates. One great scene here showcases the classic weapon when Rowdy and Mastrick almost have a shootout and Mastrick utters the line "Look out boy, there's a snake, only he ain't crawlin' around on the ground, he's packed in oil and faster'n anything you ever seen."
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3. Incident with an Executioner [TOP]
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Philip Lindley, England:
A mysterious horseman shadows a group of stagecoach passengers. They are rescued by the drovers when the stagecoach overturns in a bid to lose him. Each passenger fears the stranger's intent. Favor again feels powerless to intervene until several drovers desert the drive when they begin to think they are the quarry. Favor unmasks the stranger as no avenging angel but a hired killer whose mind has been twisted by personal tragedy. Dan Duryea - one of America's great character actors - guest-stars. James Drury - some while later to star in his own series, "The Virginians" - appears briefly as a young gunslinger.
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Myron King, of Waco, Texas:
Favor, Rowdy and Pete rescue stagecoach passengers who were in an accident. They are running in fear of a man--an executioner who carries a black satchel on his horse--who has been hired to kill someone.
This is a suspenseful episode with excellent performances by the cast, especially Dan Duryea, who plays executioner Jardin. Filmed at Universal-International Studios, "Incident With An Executioner" is one of the best.
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Corbin, USA:
This was a pretty interesting episode to say the least. The characters were played very well. My favorite part of the show was when Rowdy confronted Jardin, telling the hitman if he was after the Boss he'd have to go through Rowdy first. There are other things too that I liked about this one, but not enough time in the day to go through them all. Overall this episode was very entertaining.
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4. Incident of the Widowed Dove [TOP]
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Philip Lindley, England:
An abused young wife seeks escape from her psychotic husband, a local sheriff. Her eye lights on Rowdy, whose determination to help her puts him at odds not just with the husband but with Favor. Rowdy quits for the first but by no means last time and ends up trading punches with Favor. Unaware that his damsel in distress is the sheriff's wife, he rides back into town. Favor also rides back to pay for damages to the saloon caused by his men. He persuades the sheriff to lock up the ramrod, unaware that the sheriff intends to take Rowdy out of the town to kill him. Favor catches up in the nick of time to save Rowdy and dispatch the maddened lawman. This early episode is an example of the dark, menacing style often adopted later in the series. Jay C. Flippen is moody and impressive as the sheriff.
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Timothy Booher, Bristol, TN:
Synopsis: The drovers go to town to whoop it up and wind up in trouble with the local authority, an aging but brutal marshal named Lindstrom. One of the drovers is killed in a shootout with a local card sharp and the rest of the boys are forced to leave town abruptly, with Favor promising to return to pay for damages and see that his boy gets a decent burial.
Rowdy also wants to return as he has just met a very pretty young girl named Clovis who wants to borrow some money so she can leave town. Thinking that Rowdy is about to be taken in by a saloon tramp, Favor refuses to pay his ramrod money that is owed him until they reach Sedalia. An embittered Rowdy takes his frustration out by punching Wishbone, angering everyone nearby, and all the drovers want to fight him. Favor winds up getting the honor of knocking some sense into him. After being whipped by Favor, Rowdy quits the drive for the first but not last time. Later, both arrive in town at the same time and Favor asks Rowdy to rejoin the drive and is turned down.
When Favor goes to marshal Lindstrom to pay for the damages, he talks him into locking Rowdy up on a trumped-up horse stealing charge to teach the boy a valuable lesson. What Favor doesn't know is that Clovis is the marshal's wife and that she has good reason for wanting to leave town. Marshal Lindstrom takes Rowdy out of jail, making him think they are going to the herd to investigate the horse theft charge when in reality the jealous marshal intends to shoot unarmed Rowdy.
Review: Riveting early episode directed by Ted Post, a man who would become well acquainted with Eastwood over the years. The script by David Lang is first rate and well thought out. The performances are all excellent, especially Jay C. Flippen as the elderly marshal whose kindly face hides a murderous rage. This character actor who made a career out of playing hard nosed authority figures for once gets his chance to play his chosen type in the wrong. Sally Forest is effective as Clovis. However, a true standout with only a minute part is veteran western heavy Vic Perrin, who plays Lindstrom's jail keeper and informant, a despicable trouble maker who brown noses the marshal to get what he wants and hides behind his protection. Almost a sort of Arthurian/Camelot court spy. Prior to doing this epsiode, Ted Post had come straight from directing Gunsmoke. With little experience under his belt, a few scenes do come out pretty ragged around the edges, particularly the clumsy fist fight between Rowdy and Favor and the scene where one-shot drover Billy Grant is killed. Grant himself is played by Harry Lauter, an actor who would return to Rawhide occasionally and had previously starred in his own western series, the largely forgotten "Tales of the Texas Rangers".
As a side note, the scenes in which the drovers ride into town firing off their pistols was later to be reused in the opening credits of season four. Also another important note is that the first ten episodes (which were shot at Universal International Studios rather than MGM, where it would spend most of its run) were co-produced by A.C. Lyles, one of Hollywood's most notorious schlock meisters, who was particularly adept at grinding out some of the worst z-grade westerns you'd never want to see. Most of Lyles' films of the 50's and 60's were every bit as primitive and far less forgivably so as any Tom Mix oater from the 1920's. Thankfully, however, Lyles' association didn't hurt Rawhide in any way, and fortunately for the fans he left the series after only ten memorable episodes. Had he remained, the association of Lyles and the talented but tyrannical Charles Marquis Warren (who had been fired from Gunsmoke because all the actors refused to work with him) would probably have run Mr. Favor's drive into the ground somewhere halfway between San Antone and Sedalia.
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5. Incident on the Edge of Madness [TOP] |
Philip Lindley, England:
A deranged ex-Confederate officer attempts to establish a new Southern empire by recruiting Favor's drovers and promising the good life. When a young drover is lost at a river-crossing, which Favor is keen to undertake in order to leave temptation behind, Jim Quince and others decide to take up the offer. Lon Chaney Junior guest-stars as a simple-witted drover who takes the would-be "Emperor of Panama" at his word and whose disillusionment and personal darkness drive him to murder. Another brooding and menacing episode, perfectly expressed in Lon Chaney's powerful guest performance. A particular moment to note is Favor's open admission after the failed river-crossing that he can be wrong. Another interesting aspect of the episode is the appearance of Jester Hairston as a manservant whose song of death is used as a theme.
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6. Incident of the Power and the Plow [TOP] |
Philip Lindley, England:
Favor and Rowdy meet an egotistical land baron who nearly causes an Indian uprising just to teach his son a lesson in manliness. An intelligent Comanche tries the white man's way but meets opposition from the townsfolk under the rancher's sway. Veteran actor Brian Donlevy guest-stars as the land baron. Rawhide "occasional" Michael Pate appears as the warrior-turned-farmer he tries to destroy. The tolerance Favor and Rowdy represent here is historically most unlikely as is the open-heartedness of the Comanche tribesmen. The story is well told, however, and the downbeat conclusion is a refreshing change from the usual clash of arms. This episode contains an odd moment in which Mushy refers to Wishbone without the usual respectful "Mr." Were the characters still being evolved at this time in the show's run?
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7. Incident at Barker Springs [TOP] |
Philip Lindley, England:
After a drover is shot to death by the man who has hired him as a gunslinger, his brother, also a gunman with a past, seeks revenge. It was this episode which Charles Marquis Warren intended to be the piot for the series but later cosidered to be too slow and ponderous. It's certainly a little stilted with generally wooden performances. Another actor, Robert Carricart, appeared in the role of Wishbone but was quickly replaced and his scenes refilmed with Paul Brinegar. The network wanted an actor with greater comic ability than Cathcart appears to have had. Paul Brinegar, who had previously been a regular in the western series, "Wyatt Earp", went on to triumph as Wishbone. Both versions of the episode still exist and my information is that they are both commercially available. DeForest Kelley, later to achieve popularity as Dr. McCoy in the original "Star Trek" T. V. series, appears to great effect as the suave and cynical villain.
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Myron King, Waco, Texas:
Gil hires a new drover in the person of Brazo, whose brother Lance wears a scarf. Lance later joins up with outlaw Slate Prell, who owns the town of Barker Springs. When Lance is killed, ex-gunfighter Brazo goes after Slate.
Although written by the brilliant Les Crutchfield (who contributed numerous episodes of Gunsmoke), this pilot episode leaves much to be desired. Number 1, it doesn't center around Rowdy and Gil, nor on the drive. Number 2, the western street as well as the interiors look very drab. It does have some good drama and fine performances. Watch for a blooper in the scene where Prell and Brazo confront each other. Prell turns around to shoot Brazo and starts to fall, cut to Brazo, who lifts up his rifle and fires, then cut to Prell falling.
CBS was very wise in not using this as the premiere, although it was the episode that impressed the network enough to give Charles Marquis Warren to go ahead to start filming the first season episodes.
Note: Barker Springs was filmed by TCF Television Productions, a division of the 20th Century Fox studio. Perry Mason in its first two seasons was filmed by TCF for the CBS network.
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Timothy Booher, of Bristol, TN:
Synopsis: The drovers are wary of a young man named Lance who wears a bandana bandito style at all times. Lance claims to have a bad cough and says he wears the scarf to protect himself from the dust, but since nobody has ever heard him cough, the drovers become suspicious. The drive is joined by a second mystery man, this one named Brazo, short for Brazleton, a known gunfighter. Lance and Brazo are brothers and after an argument Lance takes off his mask to show that he has a hideously scarred face, which makes him sensitive and makes him feel like an outcast. Lance leaves the drive to go to Barker Springs and join up with a gang of cut-throat ranchers led by a man named Slate Prell. It is Lance's attempt to prove that he is every bit the dangerous gunman his brother is. Brazo had previously turned down a job with Prell because he dislikes him personally, and when Prell murders Lance, Brazo rides into Barker Springs to settle the score. He is aided by Rowdy and Favor.
Review: The real first episode of Rawhide is not as bad as its reputation has suggested thru the years, while still not being one of the best by any means. While the general consensus amongst critics and fans alike has scorned the acting as wooden, it is no more so here than many early episodes of Rawhide. The star players of the series didn't really hit their stride as actors until the second season, when they really got their characters down. What really hampers this one is the dialogue, not the acting. The three distinguished guest stars here are June Lockhart, famous for playing in the Lassie series, DeForest Kelley, the future Star Trek doctor and a not unfamiliar face to western fans, and Paul Richards, the villain from the first episode of Gunsmoke--also written and directed by Charles Marquis Warren--as Brazo. Richards would return to the series in season four in the episode "The Boss's Daughters."
Overall, the whole range war theme and the revenge for my bothers killing subplot are all too typical of the western genre. Perhaps that helps add to the episode's ponderous reputation. But it does have many fine moments, and the characters of Lance, the pitiful younger brother who hides his face from the world while trying to interact in society, and his lonely and weary gunfighter brother Brazo, who is a bit "Shane"-inspired, are very well drawn. The scene in which Rowdy and Lance square off by taking turns shooting at a tree branch in mid-air is taken directly from the classic western "Red River".
This episode was filmed by a company called TFI productions rather than Universal or MGM, like the rest of the episodes, and this contributes to the fact that it has a different look than most Rawhide episodes. I have no information about TFI, but I'm sure that they were most likely affiliated with one of the major studios. Anyway, this explains the mystery of where several well publicized photos of Rowdy and Favor wearing very slightly different costumes and hats came from. Also, Favor wears some very unflattering eye makeup in this one. Not really a good first episode as it does nothing to introduce the main characters, but then again neither did "Incident of the Tumbleweed (Wagon)". As we would learn, the drovers would slowly reveal little bits of background info on themselves thru the years as their characters filled themselves out and grew.
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Philip Lindley, England:
The drovers find four sisters, a troupe of sharpshooters and trick-ropers, on the trail with their broken-down wagon. There is romance for Favor when he falls for the oldest sister Hannah, played by the beautiful Martha Hyer. Trouble brews with another cattle drive over a river crossing and lives are lost, including that of Hannah. This was the first episode to be partly filmed on location.
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9. Incident of the Town in Terror [TOP] |
Philip Lindley, England:
Rowdy falls ill after reporting a sick steer and anthrax is suspected. Favor must get the herd through a narrow pass but the townspeople beyond threaten to shoot if he tries. With no doctor for miles, Favor accepts the services of a dedicated young nurse and her father, a local apothecary.
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Philip Lindley, England:
Rawhide enthusiasts may wish to note that Charles Gray appears briefly in this episode as the drover Flagg, a role he reprises in one or two other episodes before making his mark as Clay Forester.
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Timothy W. Booher, of Bristol, Tennesee:
Synopsis: The drovers stumble upon a wrecked carriage at the bottom of a ravine. It is driven by a preacher who tells them that he is on the run from the citizens of a decidedly unchristian township, who have banished him. The preacher carries a pocket full of gold, but when questioned about it by the drovers he replies with a sermon about the evils of chasing the elusive golden calf.
A rival trail gang that has lost its herd tries to ambush Favor and his men, but the trap turns on them and they try to buy the herd for a cut-rate price. Gil refuses to sell, causing bad feeling. One of the men had previously worked for Gil Favor's outfit and holds a grudge because he was fired.
Back in camp the drovers are so intrigued by the thought of gold that it's of little consequence to them if the preacher has begun to indulge in alcohol and gambling. He wins all their money in a poker game but reveals to them the whereabouts of his gold. Gil Favor goes to the nearest town to get supplies. There he has a run-in with his former employee, who is now working for the rival trail boss. He returns to find that all of his drovers, with the exception of Rowdy, Wishbone, and Mushy, have deserted him to search the hills for gold.
With no other choice Gil Favor sells his herd to the rival trail boss at about one third what it is worth. Later that night as the drovers are sleeping, someone sneaks into their camp and steals the saddlebag with all the money from the sale. Left with nothing, the drovers follow the trail of the robber to an abandoned town. But instead of finding the robber they find the former crew members who had deserted them returning empty handed from their fools gold strike.
Mr. Favor hires them back, and having figured out that they were tricked, they ride into the rival trail boss's camp intent on getting their herd back. There they find the preacher, who is actually a drover for the other outfit: he had been duped into tricking the drovers for a cut of the money.
When Gil Favor informs the rival trail boss that they want their herd back, the other boss reluctantly agrees, seeing that his crew is outnumbered by Favor's men. The decision, however, doesn't sit well with Gil's nemesis and former employee, who gets the drop on Mr. Favor and tries to shoot him. He is stopped by the former preacher, who kills him to save Favor's life, saying that he had a sudden conversion and that after playing a preacher he now wants to be a real one.
Review:
Veteran film, television, and radio star MacDonald Carey is the preacher. Carey appeared in hundreds of films and TV shows but is best remembered as Tom Horton, family patriarch on the long-running NBC daytime drama "Days of Our Lives". He was with that show for 29 years, from its inception in 1965 until his death in 1994 at the age of 81. His voice can still be heard every weekday at 1:00 pm year-round, intoning the famous "Sands thru the hour glass" intro for his beloved soap opera.
A charming episode and first class entertainment that is both well written and acted by every one involved. The only disclaimer here is that some folks might not like the fact that the episode's lone killing is performed by a preacher. Putting that aside we have a solid winner. Veteran Carey manages to bring out the best from a cast of young and mostly (at the time) unheralded actors who were new to their show and the business in general. The entire cast and crew really come alive, especially the Jim Quince character played by Steve Raines, who really gets his opportunity to gloat and lust over the thought of forbidden gold from the womb of the golden calf. A darn good episode, so let's chalk up five of them little golden moo moo's.
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Timothy W. Booher, of Bristol, Tennesee:
Synopsis: The crew comes upon a dead man who has obviously been tortured in the Badlands. One of the new drovers, a Mexican named Rivera, tells them this is the work of a man named Sanchez. Later a young drover sees Rivera picking some strange weed from underbrush and imitates the act. In doing so he eats a small portion of it. After questioning Rowdy about the substance, he is told that it is Coyote Weed, that it is poisonous and deadly, and he is warned not to let Mr.Favor catch him with the substance in his posession. Later in the evening the herd stampedes. The young drover is caught in the middle, leaving Gil Favor a difficult choice, the life of the young man or the herd. Favor chooses the latter and in doing so costs the young man his life. This action causes a disagreement with Rowdy, who questions his boss's actions and wonders how a herd of cattle can be more important than a man's life. Gil tells Rowdy he had a choice to make and he feels he made the right decision.
A bit later some of the drovers begin to come up sick after eating a meal prepared by Wishbone, and Gil notices the symptoms of poisoning. Rowdy remembers that the young drover had mentioned something about seeing Rivera loading his saddlebags with Coyote Weed and confronts him about it. Rivera turns out to be the culprit and is captured after losing a fistfight with Rowdy. It is revealed that he is working for Sanchez and his band of cutthroats. Gil promises to see Rivera hang. In the meantime, Pete and Wishbone prepare a medicine (actually a less deadly poison) to counteract the Coyote Weed poison in the men. However some men refuse to take the medicine because of its terrible taste and die. When Sanchez's men finally attack they are duped into a trap by the now healed drovers who pretend to still be sick. Rivera, however, escapes and threatens to give away the cover the drovers have taken. Gil chases him and shoots him down but in the process leaves himself open to fire from Rivera and
his men. Rowdy in turn is faced with the difficult decision of whether to save Gil Favor's life by giving away the position of the ambushing drovers and risk losing the herd, or protect his intersts. Faced with a situation simmilar to the position his boss had been put into earlier, Rowdy choses to hold fast and leave Favor to die. Sanchez and his men are defeated and the herd is saved, but the decision made by Rowdy turns out to be an unpopular one among the drovers, who are loyal to Mr.Favor. Now Rowdy understands exactly how it feels to be trail boss and make life or death decisions(perhaps he is preparing himself for that day not too long down the road when he will be trail boss). When Gil Favor turns out to be very much alive and only wounded, the animosity the men felt toward Rowdy turns to welcome relief that their boss is alive to give the "Head Em Up, Move Em Out" command another day. Gil and Rowdy come away with a better understanding of one another and each man now has greater respect for the other.
Review: Anyone who loves classic 60's television should recognize that Rivera, the oily Mexican bandito, is played by Rick Jason, who went on to greater fame playing the character of Leuitenant Hanley on the television series Combat. By coincidence Lt.Hanley's charachter is a leader of men and has the first name Gil. This episode is a first rate adult western yarn where the main charachters turn out to be less than likeable, almost egotistical in their desire of business interst over human life. With this thought in mind were Sanchez and Rivera the true villians. It presents a clear picture of a confusing situation in a time and place when there were no clear cut lines of good and evil. In many later episodes Gil and Rowdy become do-gooders who go out of the way risking life and limb to help complete strangers and protect their friends. This episode makes a clear case that men who live in a savage wilderness themselves become half animal. It makes one believe that perhaps the entire episode, not just the introduction, were lifted from the pages of Gil Favor's diary. A classic!
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Myron King, of Waco, TX:
Tom Bryan joins the drive and brings along his girlfriend Sally, who is married to rancher Jefferson Devereaux. Sally never loved Jefferson, but her guardians made a monetary offer to Jefferson for her hand in marriage. This sets the scene for a battle between the drovers and Devereaux.
This is another excellent episode with fine performances by Noah Berry, Jr. and Olive Sturgess. Conincidentally, the two later appeared together in a Bonanza episode, "Lothario Larkin."
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13. Incident of the Curious Street [TOP]
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Philip Lindley, England:
Favor and Rowdy are rounding up strays when they enter a ghost town to find a woman and her daughter being held captive by two disgruntled ex-stagecoach employees. The drovers are ready to help the women but the daughter seems sympathetic to the men threatening them. As Favor and Rowdy stalk the two villians through the dead streets, mother and daughter reach a better understanding. Veteran actress Mercedes McCambridge appears as the mother.
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Philip Lindley, England:
Favor takes the herd over a barren plain, risking both the herd and his own reputation. Rowdy, Pete, Wishbone and all the regulars are at each other's throats as Favor piles on the pressure. At the same time a camp thief must be identified before trouble erupts and the tension between two drovers, one of whom blames the other for his daughter's death, must be resolved.
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Philip Lindley, England:
The drovers see a cabin in flames and find a young woman survivor. Favor provides the protection of the drive but the woman proves to be a source of jealousy among the men, especially Rowdy. When her partners show up to rob the men of their wages, they know for certain that they have been duped. Jack Lord, better known for his own long-running series "Hawaii Five-O", guest stars as the gang leader.
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16. Incident of the Misplaced Indians [TOP]
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Myron King, Waco, Texas:
Rowdy comes upon a cabin with a number of dead Indians. There is a white woman inside the cabin who hums, apparently oblivious to the corpses around her. She is taken to the drovers' camp.
This is an excellent mystery with a fine performance by Kim Hunter, one of the great actresses of motion pictures and television.
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17. Incident of Fear in the Streets [TOP]
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Myron King, of Waco, Texas:
Pete is injured by a steer, so Rowdy and Gil go to a town to get a doctor. They are soon held hostage, as is the whole town, by a family trying to find the man who killed their kin.
This good story from season one falls down in the end when the father really kills one of his sons. When that happens, the family goes home and the town is released. I think the family should have been in jail for taking the town hostage.
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Philip Lindley, England:
The drovers encounter a group of angry and defiant farmers whose leader is played by Leslie Nielsen. When a sudden thunderstorm stampedes the ramuda and a farmer is killed, the herd is forced to hold up. Favor is conscience-racked but Rowdy suspects the farmers' leader is more interested in the dead man's wife. She urges on the impending violence. When Favor decides the herd has waited long enough he orders Rowdy to take it over the river and himself remains to face the farmers' wrath. They are about to hang him when the wife repents of her anger and Rowdy makes a timely return. The trouble is defused and the farmers' leader is left a saddened man. Martin Landau also appears as a more conciliatory local leader. We are treated to Steve Rains as Jim Quince singing "Skip to m'Lou". There are some good outdoor scenes. This is one of two episodes available to be seen at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City by visitors to their extensive archive.
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Philip Lindley, England:
With the herd likely to die of thirst, Favor has to deal with aging farmer and domestic tyrant Jess Hode who harbours a resentment against the drive. Help comes unexpectedly from Hode's son though he in turn has to weather the hostility of Favor's men. An armed stand-off between the two sides ensues. Victor Jory guest stars.
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Philip Lindley, England:
Wolves stalk the herd and help is sought from a woman rancher. Her foreman is a skilled wolver who does not endear himself to Favor and his men. He also proves to be a ladykiller in more ways than one. Among his victim is an old flame of Pete Nolan's. This is a dark episode in look and feel, let down by a weak ending.
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Myron King, of Waco, Texas:
Explosions are causing the cattle to stampede. Gil and Rowdy go to a town full of women in an attempt to find out what the source is. They locate a camp of prisoners who are serving time for crimes. The prisoners escape and demand horses from the drive.
This is an excellent episode directed by Jack Arnold, and has outstanding performances by Brian Keith, Reed Hadley, and Adam Williams. One of my all-time favorites as well as one of Rawhide's best.
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Timothy W. Booher, of Bristol, Tennesee:
Synopsis: This episode begins, as do countless episodes, with Gil Favor's dry, raspy narration. In this case he makes a statement about the boredom of drovers during the incessantly long drive. At a time like this any little incident would serve to excite the weary men. So when some of the men begin to talk about seeing a wild man following the herd, the men begin plotting to capture the strange menace. Pete believes the story is either concocted or immagined and scolds the men for foolishly wasting time and resources in an attempt to capture something that probably doesn't exist, but Gil tells him to leave them alone and let them have their excitement. Later in the evening, the wild man is captured and turns out to be in very bad shape physically, having been tortured and apparenlty left to die. He mumbles something about being attacked by a large force that seem to come out of nowhere from every direction at the same time, then passes out to be moved to the chuck wagon for immediate care.
Gil senses that something is amiss and that perhaps he had been used by someone as part of a trap. The next day Rowdy is off on an errand and runs into a beautiful Mexican woman near a bed of water. After questioning her, neither she nor Rowdy seem to make any sense of her predicament (funny as it may sound on paper, the scene actually has a very well executed, almost surreal feel about it). She takes Rowdy back to her camp, which is inhabited by another, much older woman and a small boy. Rowdy notices that the boy is preparing to cook a lizard and determines to go back to the herd and bring back some real food to the starving, stranded trio.
Upon hi return, the young lady offers Rowdy a valuable silver hand mirror as repayment. When he refuses she waits until his back is turned and slips it in his saddlebag. She reveals that she had once been a lady in waiting to Emperer Maximillian and his Empress until rebel forces had overthrown the kingdom and sold her into slavery.While the two are continuing their conversation, they are confronted by the returning owner, a man named Joshua, and his band of henchmen. When Joshua begins manhandling the young lady, Rowdy tries to put a stop to the proceedings but is held at gunpoint by one of Joshua's men. Seeing that there is nothing more he can do for the time being, he leaves to return to the herd. Rowdy tells Gil that he wants to go back again but Gil orders him to go into a nearby town with him for supplies.
As they are leaving, the captured 'wild man' awakens and reveals to Pete that his attackers were comancheros. When Gil,Rowdy and Wishbone arrive in town for their supplies, Rowdy shows off the silver hand mirror to some townspeople, only to discover that it had belonged to a neighboring family that had been murdered by Comancheros. The angry townspeople make threats and become violent, and the three drovers are forced to shoot their way out of town. Back at the herd the drovers, who realize they are in danger of being attacked by Joshua and his band of comancheros, prepare their defense. Rowdy decides to go back and rescue the three captives, but in doing so he himself is captured. He escapes and gets back to the herd in time to join Gil and his men for a skirmish with the comancheros. The comancheros are defeated, and Gil and Rowdy return to the neighboring town to finish getting their supplies and make peace with the now more agreeable townfolk.
Review: Movie and television actress Linda Cristal, who is best remembered for her role as Victoria Cannon on "The High Chapparal" television series, plays the captive Mexican girl. Legendary character actor Elisha Cook Jr. plays the 'wild man', and well known television veteran H.M. Wynant plays Joshua.
Despite a few awkward scenes between Rowdy and the intriguing seniorita, this episode has its potential. While not one of the best, it nonetheless has enough good moments to redeem itself. In spite of the Commancheros with captive white women theme, which seemed to repeatedly pop up on every television western of the 50's, this episode has all the ingredients of a good Rawhide episode (these elements sometimes seem a little repetitive): we have the angry townsfolk, who want to start some trouble with our innocent drovers until they are proven wrong and have a change of heart; we have a spectacular counter attack by the drovers, who always seem to outsmart their attackers; there is a clumsy but charming romance between young Rowdy and a strange but mystical and beautiful woman; and we have Wishbone and Mushy to provide comic releif and bad food. The finer things in life.
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Timothy W. Booher, of Bristol, Tennesee:
Synopsis: This episode begins with a bang. Pete and a fellow drover are tracking an animal and are about to capture it when they are disturbed by fireworks exploding nearby. Investigating, they find a small boy who seems to be very unfriendly and defensive. He warns them not to come closer, and when Pete approaches him he lets off one of the firecrackers. Pete manages to persuade him to come back to the herd and meet the rest of the crew. It is there he reveals his name to be Davy Colby, and he tells of how his family were slaughtered by Comanches. He says he is going to a nearby town to see his only relative, an uncle who makes fireworks.
The boy is charming, and all the crew becomes attached to him. All except for Gil. Young Davy idolizes Gil, but the trailboss doesn't believe his story, thinking him instead to be a runaway. When they arrive in town the sheriff tells them there is no family in town named Colby and no one there makes fireworks. Outside of town Gil threatens to whip the boy with a hickory switch unless he tells him the truth. When this doesn't work he sees the only thing to be done is return him to his home wherever that may be.
Since Pete found him Gil feels it should be Pete's responsibility to oversee the boy's journey home. Pete reluctantly agrees to the task. On the trail the boy tells Pete that his father is a bounty hunter who came up missing and he has to follow the Sedalia trail to find him. When they bed down for the night the boy escapes, and the next morning Pete follows his trail to a stagecoach en route. Davy tells the driver that Pete is a bandit who had kidnapped him, but when Pete tells Davy that he had to leave behind the lad's beloved pony Jonathan, Davy admits that he lied and agrees to go with Pete on the stipulation that he'll go back and find Jonathan.
When they finally arrive at the Colby house, Davy's mother tells them that she has never seen the boy and that she wants them to go away. Thinking it's another of the boys lies, Pete pulls him away, but the boy bolts and runs into the house just as an armed man sticks his gun in Pete's back and disarms him. Inside the house it is revealed that the Colby family, Davy's mother and uncle, are being held hostage by a band of outlaws, the leader of whom was crippled by Jonathan's father.
Bounty hunter Tom Colby had shot the bad man in the knee cap. Embittered, he plans to wait for Colby to return home, saying that he intends to kill Colby fair and square because he's too noble to shoot a man in the kneecap the same way a "Judas Bounty Hunter" would. Pete devises a plan to get the elderly Colby uncle to shoot a roman candle out the window in hopes it will bring help. The outlaws are too smart to fall for this trick. Later, when Tom Colby shows up, Davy manages to pour hot soup, which is boiling on the stove, on one of his captors, creating a diversion. Pete secures a gun and kills the two outlaws inside the house but the one outside the house manages to shoot Tom Colby in the kneecap before himself succumbing to a bullet.
Tom Colby's knee is shattered just as that of his outlaw nemesis. But it's a happy ending for Tom, who decides to give up bounty hunting to stay with his family. As he is leaving Pete talks to Davy one last time and realizes why the boy had told all his lies. He leaves promising to set the record straight with Davy's hero, Mr. Favor, so that the trail boss won't think badly of him.
Review: Young Richard Eyer is charming as Davy. Of the main characters this episode belongs to Pete. But the story is seen thru the eyes of young Davy, and the drovers are charming and boyish instead of the hard-bitten heroes they usually are. What would have been a typical episode of any other western series turns out to be a witty, well played drama with the addition of the boy who cried wolf theme and his penchant for Roman Candles. While not quite a classic this episode is worth the admission price just to see the way that Gil Favor's eyes gleam when he sees Davy's hero worship. Its always wonderful to see the softer side of the tough as nails trail boss.
As a side note, this episode is similar in plot and direction to a 1951 western film which starred Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward. While the Roman Candles and the boy who cried wolf are missing in the movie, the title of the film would be reused later for a classic TV western you might have heard of. It's title was "Rawhide".
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Rawhide: 1959-65 (CBS)
Eric Fleming as Gil Favor
Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates
Sheb Wooley as Pete Nolan
Paul Brinegar as Wishbone
James Murdock as Mushy
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Theme performed by Frankie Laine
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Eric Fleming movies
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 The Glass Bottom Boat
Doris Day mistaken as a spy! Sounds like a light-hearted 60's romp to me. In addition to our man Eric Fleming, the movie also features Arthur Godfrey (by the way, am I the only one who can sing about dotting the "i" for the inventors?), Paul Lynde, Dick Martin, and Dom DeLuise.
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 Curse of the Undead
Eric Fleming stars as Preacher Dan Young in this, yes, vampire western. How cool is that?
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 Queen of Outer Space
Eric stars with Zsa Zsa Gabor, dahling, in this hilarious sci-fi flick. A reviewer at the Internet Movie Database says the movie "reeks of cardboard sets, silly dialogue, and more phallic symbols, hot babes, and sexual innuendo than you can wave a stick (or laser gun) at."
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 Conquest of Space
Eric stars as Captain Barney Merritt in this story about the first manned expedition to Mars. A reviewer at amazon.com numbers among the movie's merits its inclusion of: "MST3K ready dialog! The obligitory accidental weightlessness scene! ... The first ever burial in space! The first ever snowfall on Mars!" In other words, you can't lose!
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The Rawhide theme
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 Rockin'/Hell Bent for Leather
Head 'em up, move 'em out! Frankie Laine performed the rousing song played over the opening credits of Rawhide. The Rawhide theme is among the 24 tracks on this CD.
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Sheb Wooley Sings
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 The Purple People Eater
31 tracks including the classic title song
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 Wild and Wooley, Big Unruly Me
29 tracks
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 Rawhide/How the West was Won
24 tracks including Sheb's version of the Rawhide theme (this is not the version performed in the opening credits of the show!)
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 That's My Pa
Four box set totaling 47 tracks
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