User Reviews

It's Dan Blocker who finds a wounded friend on the road and helps Jaime Sanchez back to the Ponderosa. Jaime is a wanted man in his neighboring community which is bought and paid for by mining tycoon Warren Stevens. Stevens has a pack of gunmen terrorizing the Mexican farmers to get them off their land so he can strip mine.

It's one of those gunmen that Sanchez has killed only it's a question of who started it. The Cartwrights get involved, but the key man is the sheriff Rudolfo Acosta who is Mexican and Stevens made him sheriff the better to intimidate the farmers.

Acosta who has played a lot of villains here is usually not on the side of the law in his roles even as bought and paid for law. This episode belongs to Acosta more than anyone else who shows he's learned a thing or two about the law.

There's also a nice performance from veteran western performer Shug Fisher as a witness to the crime Sanchez is accused of. This is one to check out.

I agree with the poster from Buffalo. This is a wonderful "little movie" and convinced me I was wrong to write off Bonanza as a soap opera with holstered guns. Like the poster says, it belongs to Rodolfo Acosta, who's played more Indians and crooks than many an actor. He had a regular slot as Vaquero on High Chaparral.

The entire cast is perfect, and that's rare. Apart from Acosta, Shug Fisher stands out. He's just magical in a small but important role. I recognised him recently in a Gunsmoke episode. It must be hard to be moving in a series TV western. Somehow Shug pulls it off with so much written on his face. He's a superb actor and deserved wider recognition.

Two more movie names are here; Pepe Hern, who was in The Magnificent Seven, and Jaime Sanchez, whose death in The Wild Bunch kicks off the final, massive gun battle.

The Mexican town set makes a refreshing change to the usual locations. Bonanza improved when it left Paramount's fake western set and moved to Warner's. Good though it was, Gunsmoke suffered from its stuffy stage set with its wooden street. I wonder how many towns in the old west had wooden streets!