User Reviews

A Mexican boy gets sold to a pair of cut throats. One of the baddies is Bruce Dern. And Dern is as mean as ever. These guys rob the Cartwrights, and then they look for gold. Little Joe goes looking for them gets the boy, and they end up hostages. The other Cartwrights and Candy go looking for them. All in all, it's a dark episode. Still it works. If you only like whimsical movies, there are plenty of entries from this series to watch. For me, I find this riveting in the tradition of John Ford or Anthony Mann. The action is plentiful. I like how the young man gets another chance to have a good life via the Cartwrights.

This was one weird episode of Bonanza with a pair of two of the biggest low lives ever shown on this series. Bruce Dern and Ross Hagen a pair of trailer park denizens as they would be today visit the Ponderosa for a handout. They've got this Mexican kid with them and the relationship is master and slave. Seems as though they bought him from his parents and treat him brutally.

Now I'm not sure what a pair of saddle bums would be spending the money for a Mexican boy for. It's not like they have a ranch or farm and need a hand. Just what do you need this kid for on the trail. I leave it to your vivid homoerotic imaginations.

The episode also has one fatal flaw. Hagen and Dern hold power over young Tony DaCosta by saying that he's here illegally. Now today that might be true, but this was the west post Civil War and borders were crossed with ease because there were no strict immigration laws. That came in the 20th century.

Besides it is also a nasty homophobic message being given in this particular story. One of the worst Bonanza episodes I've seen.