Johnny Ringo: The Raffertys (1960)
Season 1, Episode 22
7/10
Lon Chaney guest stars
16 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
JOHNNY RINGO "The Raffertys" 1960

JOHNNY RINGO was a western series that ran for 38 episodes during 1959-60. The series starred Don Durant as the title character with Karen Sharpe, Mark Goddard and Terence De Marney as series regulars. The series follows Durant, (Ringo) a former gunfighter who decides to go straight. He becomes the Sheriff in the small town of Velardi in the Arizona Territory. The series was one of several (Rifleman, Wanted Dead or Alive, Shotgun Slade etc) with a "gimmick gun". Durant carries a special LeMat revolver equipped with a shotgun barrel under the six gun barrel.

This episode is the 22nd episode of the series.

This one has Sheriff Durant getting mixed up with a murder case from years before he came to town. A local man, Lon Chaney is suspected of killing a man who was thought to have killed Chaney's wife. The other locals refuse to help the law collar Chaney as they feel the man was justified in killing the other man.

Matters come to a head however when a bounty hunter hits town looking to collect on a 2500 dollar bounty out on Chaney. The bounty man, Charles Cooper, does not take kindly to Durant when he runs him out of town.

Durant now heads for the hills to hunt down Chaney before Cooper can find and kill him. Also in play here are Chaney's daughter, Roxane Berard and son, Richard Bakalyan. Everyone ends up taking pot shots at each other before Sheriff Durant gets a grip on bounty man, Cooper as well as Chaney. Cooper is locked up while Chaney is given a chance in front of a judge and jury.

A much better episode than my slipshod write-up suggests. The director, actor turned helmsman, Paul Henreid does some nice work here. Most will recall Henreid from films like, ROPE OF SAND, NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH, HOLLOW TRIUMPH and CASABLANCA. Henreid is helped with the look of the episode by director of photography, Carl Guthrie. Guthrie was well known as a film noir specialist. His work in that genre included, CRY WOLF, FLAXY MARTIN, BACKFIRE, CAGED, THIS SIDE OF THE LAW, UNDERCOVER GIRL, STORM WARNING, HELL BOUND and the superb, HIGHWAY 301.
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