User Reviews

This is a really good episode about a middle-aged man who's cold heart started to warm. Andrew Holloway was pretty proud of himself. He headed a silver mine and no longer had to go down in the mine and he had a daughter who was engaged to his foreman. But all this came crashing down when the cave in happened.

This episode isn't merely about a cave in. It's about what happens to a person as they climb up that social ladder. No longer do you see your workers as people. Instead, they are just empty faces - numbers. The miners that died got no sympathy from Andrew Holloway. His daughter, who had a lot of feelings for mankind, was appalled that the only service given to the families was a box of groceries.

Helene's fiancé, Gil, is upset that men were even working in that section of the mine. He knew it was dangerous. He asked a man to try and figure out how to make it stronger so it wouldn't crumble when dynamite was set off. Probably the most tragic and the most revealing moment of the movie was the aftermath of Gil's death. The father- daughter talks were really good.

7 dead.

Another episode concerning mining-- but this time it involves a cave-in at the local mine that kills some of the workers. There is a problem with the way the timbers are shifting and the danger is very real. The problem is that the manager of the mine, Andrew Holloway (R.G.Armstrong), is more about profits and keeping the owners off his back than he is safety. And even being told that the mine is not safe, he orders the men back down into the mine. And with a cold heart he provides the widows of the dead men a box of groceries for their loss all because the company says they are entitled. But when the fiancé of Holloway's daughter is killed in another collapse things may start to be done.

With the help of Adam Cartwright, Phillip Diedesheimer will develop a new way to timber the mine and hopefully make the mine more safe. But they will face problems from Holloway and other mine owners because the cost of the new timber complex will eat into their profits. The two will have to prove that the new timber design is the best for the men and the mine.

There are some nice scenes in this episode that really made the show stand out from others. Like when Helene Holloway comes to grips that her fiancé had died or when Hoss is upset when Mr Holloway is thinking more about the mine that an employee's death. This episode had much going on that is worthy of a watch. Ben and Little Joe are a no-show on this episode but their absents are not really missed. This was a good story that was played well by the entire cast. Good watch.

Though the Cartwrights are ranchers primarily they have other interests and two of them are mines and timber. They both come into play in this episode from Bonanza's first season.

R.G. Armstrong and his daughter Mala Powers have the biggest mine in Virginia City, but like the others they have cave-ins all the time. In one cave-in son-in-law Charles Cooper is killed.

John Beal plays the title character in the Philip Diedesheimer Story, a German engineer has devised a safer system of timbering the mines. But it will cost and lumber, a lot of it will be needed.

Mine owners like Armstrong and William Forrest don't want to dip into their profits, but if they don't many more lives will be lost.

Both Pernell Roberts and Dan Blocker take vigorous exception to the charge that the Cartwrights are only interested in profits. No doubt they will rake in some for sale of their timber.

Maybe Adam, Hoss, and Beal are acting a bit too idealistically, but it's still a good story.

That is the very statement from the daughter Helen that got her old man's attention. I thought this episode was heart tugging as well as how working people or the simple people who are the ones who do all the toiling, building and dying for the ruling class (so to speak) nameless faceless useful only to make me prosper. The mine was unsafe for a good long time multitude of cave ins and no improvement to working conditions. Then Helen's fiance and other men get killed in an explosion that is when things take a turn.

When that man Adam had punched took a new standing became like hallway. Thankfully short lived. Diedescheimer the engineer a modern marvel and genius suggested a beehive construction would save miners making it safe. Meets static from all the other fat cats but they too are enlightened. Men standing up for others.

I thought this show was excellent.