User Reviews

Cheyenne Bodie is often singled out because he's so tall; it's just a fact of life that others notice but he takes in stride. But when he's wrongly accused of a crime, he doesn't take it well. Escaping from men determined to see him hang on the flimsy testimony of an intimidated eyewitness, he vows to bring the guilty party back to face trial. Getting to him, however, involves infiltrating the stronghold of the worst and most prolific gang of thieves and murderers west of the Rio Grande. Their lair isn't easy to get into and impossible to get out of, seeing as how the way in serves as both and the Army monitors that narrow passageway. So there must be a secret way out. Cheyenne figures the best way in is to make the gang think he's one of them. He's greeted by Lt. Quentin (who hasn't met too many Brobdingnagians) and takes him up on his offer to assist by making the criminals think the law is after him, offering to have his worst marksmen shoot at him as he flees into the pass. "If you don't mind," counters Cheyenne, "I'd rather them be your best marksmen."

Cheyenne makes it into the criminals' canyon and is brought before the infamous Major Ellwood (Andrew Duggan), one-eyed leader of the pack, who after interrogation invites him to join his band of merry men. Only not all of them are so merry. Joe Epic (James Griffith) is the chief sourpuss and takes an immediate dislike to the newcomer who seems to have won over his boss. In fact, Joe's devotion to the Major borders on obsession, but I'll leave that analysis to those more qualified.

Major Ellwood's wife is dissatisfied, and that's putting it mildly. She sees Cheyenne Bodie as a way out of the prison that the canyon has become, and when she finds out why he's there she more or less blackmails him into taking her (and the major's money) with him when he leaves. Thinking that the opportunity to clear himself of those bogus charges has been unalterably denied him, he grudgingly agrees because he thinks there's no longer a reason to stay. There's a surprise awaiting them, though, and justice can prevail after all.

Every character in this story is authentically drawn and well-acted. James Griffith is especially adept at that dull, sociopathic stare. Andrew Duggan played good guys and bad guys with equal proficiency during his dozens of tv appearances, although he's the latter in five out of his six appearances on "Cheyenne." Jennifer Howard as his long-suffering wife makes effective use of her time onscreen. Dan Blocker of "Bonanza" fame appears as one of the more congenial gang members, the only one of the thieving bunch that Cheyenne might have been friends with under different circumstances. Clint Walker always makes sure that the character of Cheyenne Bodie stays true to the values he himself lived by; in this episode, he turns the simple offer of a cigar into a subtle anti-smoking message. Such uncompromising integrity is a trait fans, young and old, appreciate to this day.

Sometimes I think if Andrew Duggan had been able to get paid $500,000 for every time he played a villain, he'd be a billionaire. But salaries weren't then what they are now. Seeing James Griffith, as Joe Epic the evil fast gun, was a stretch as I always see him as Aaron Adams from Trackdown. Dan Blocker is here too but he started out playing bad guys.

Bodie has been falsely accused for killing a man, and after a quick escape from the sheriff, he stops in a town to get a picture taken. He then has a false Wanted for Murder and Bank Robbery poster made up, his ticket to the gang. He arranges for Lt. Quentin to have him chased into the outlaws' impregnable valley. He gets in but arouses suspicion of Arnie Munroe, a gunman. Munroe is goaded into a gunfight with Cheyenne by Joe Epic. Cheyenne wins but Munroe is wearing a lion's head belt buckle, that means he was the man Cheyenne was looking for but now is dead. But Ellen Ellwood, wife of the Major (the mastermind behind this valley of cutthroats) wants Cheyenne to take her away from this place. Cheyenne agrees but the plans are overheard by Joe Epic. There is a secret way out of the valley, an old mine. This is how the gang has gotten in and out of the valley.

They are discovered by the major who after hearing his wife's pleas decides to leave with her. Cheyenne decides to go with them but the Major says Munroe only recently won the belt buckle from Epic. Cheyenne is going back for Epic. But Epic is there in the mine, he had been waiting for Cheyenne. When the Major says he's going anyway, Epic kills the Major accidentally. He is trying to force the Major's wife into digging a grave when Cheyenne arrives. He takes Epic so he can turn him in; but Ellen pulls a gun and tries to go it alone. She has all the Major's money and says she's not worried about bandits. Almost immediately she runs into a bunch of Mexican bandits, but Cheyenne had followed her, and when he shoots a bandit the others run off. Now Ellen goes with Cheyenne knowing all the money will be handed over to the authorities. Cheyenne's plan of being his own Trojan Horse have paid off.

It's not that this is a bad episode, it just feels truncated. There's just too much to fit into one episode.

...everything is lewd", as Tom Lehrer says in one of his songs.

"Land Beyond the Law" anticipates "North by Northwest". In that film, Martin Landau is in love with James Mason -- though the script only suggests it, rather than saying it outright.

In "Land Beyond the Law", the weaselly and vaguely effeminate Charles Griffith plays Joe Epic. Epic's leather outfit is kinda kinky, and someone accuses him of being a poisonous influence, probably because that person has figured out Epic is in love with the Major (Andrew Duggan). When Epic semi-accidentally kills the Major, his grief-stricken reaction should make his feelings plain even to the most-naïve.

Well, maybe. This is 1957. Male/male affection (let alone love) is uncommon in TV westerns (it shows up in a few "Gunsmoke" episodes, most notably "Thirty a Month and Found"), so it would be interesting to know exactly what the writers were thinking.

This episode is typical "Cheyenne", with Cheyenne a largely (though not wholly) reactive presence. Throughout the series, he often seems to be a secondary character, as if he'd been shoehorned into someone else's story.