The schoolteacher, Jim Ellis, is not happy to be that reason for celebration. After a bank robbery by the notorious Curren (or Curran) brothers, one of them ends up dead in the back of Ellis' wagon, and the teacher is hailed as a hero. Then when the truth comes out, that he's only after the reward money that rightfully belongs to Sheriff Bodie, those same townsmen turn against him in a fit of self-righteous communal indignation without asking for an explanation. It takes a lone boy, the banker's son Kenny, standing up for his teacher and coming to the assist of his friend Sheriff Bodie, to make the adults come to their senses and defend one of their own.
The main twist in this story is that the cutthroat Currens are half-brothers to peace-loving Jim Ellis, and when they find out what he did, they're determined to see to it that he pays with his own life. Ellis is conflicted because he's tried to live his life by the principle that guns are bad and killing is wrong, but his discontented wife prevails on him to claim that he's responsible for the outlaw's death when it was the sheriff's bullet that did the job.
Dan Barton credibly plays the meek schoolteacher who becomes a guilt-ridden pariah. Besides the children who adore him, Cheyenne Bodie is his only friend in town, but as always that counts for a lot. Bonnie Bolding is his wife, Lynne; she worked only a couple of years as an actress before becoming a stockbroker and philanthropist, quite a long way from Hollywood. Veteran child actor Christopher Olsen is Kenny, who taught the adults that their town had a conscience.
Clint Walker played a character much like himself, a man of principle who didn't back down no matter what the odds, never compromised (or played the Hollywood game), and was, like Jim Ellis, determined to remain true to his own core values, except that Bodie never faltered. Like Jim Ellis, Cheyenne Bodie didn't believe that killing was ever a good thing. Although proficient with a firearm, he took no pride in that skill even when the object was a thoroughly reprehensible scoundrel. Those ideals have taken a beating in the decades since Cheyenne roamed the television prairie, but Clint Walker remained true to them all his life.
The main twist in this story is that the cutthroat Currens are half-brothers to peace-loving Jim Ellis, and when they find out what he did, they're determined to see to it that he pays with his own life. Ellis is conflicted because he's tried to live his life by the principle that guns are bad and killing is wrong, but his discontented wife prevails on him to claim that he's responsible for the outlaw's death when it was the sheriff's bullet that did the job.
Dan Barton credibly plays the meek schoolteacher who becomes a guilt-ridden pariah. Besides the children who adore him, Cheyenne Bodie is his only friend in town, but as always that counts for a lot. Bonnie Bolding is his wife, Lynne; she worked only a couple of years as an actress before becoming a stockbroker and philanthropist, quite a long way from Hollywood. Veteran child actor Christopher Olsen is Kenny, who taught the adults that their town had a conscience.
Clint Walker played a character much like himself, a man of principle who didn't back down no matter what the odds, never compromised (or played the Hollywood game), and was, like Jim Ellis, determined to remain true to his own core values, except that Bodie never faltered. Like Jim Ellis, Cheyenne Bodie didn't believe that killing was ever a good thing. Although proficient with a firearm, he took no pride in that skill even when the object was a thoroughly reprehensible scoundrel. Those ideals have taken a beating in the decades since Cheyenne roamed the television prairie, but Clint Walker remained true to them all his life.
