User Reviews

There isn't any spoiler as you know who the killer is from the start: it's the judge. The only question is who will figure out first that the judge is Black Jack: the judge's wife, Rose; or the wife's sister, Lilac. The judge lives out in the middle of nowhere and has a rule: no strangers are ever to be allowed in the house. A good rule considering his avocation as a robber and murderer.

The judge has the reputation as a hanging judge. He claims it's because he hates stupidity; and he sees criminals as basically stupid. As Cheyenne is trapped in the judge's house for the winter, what follows is a cat and mouse game between Cheyenne and the judge.

An interesting episode with a side story. Lilac is lonely and wants a man. Stuck out where she is, there aren't a lot of candidates. She realizes she doesn't love Cheyenne, but she does get him to agree to talk her with him when the spring thaw arrives.

Worth a watch. Andrew Duggan gives a a good performance playing off his stereotype as a villain. Really, he played the bad guy way too often.

Cheyenne has come across his share of psychopaths, but Granger Ward is one of the most peculiar. Not only is he a thief and a killer who enjoys his work and thinks he's smarter than everybody else with, in his mind, the right to take the law into his own hands, he's also a presiding district judge who is sworn to uphold the law, which for him means punishing criminals just for being stupid. Not unheard of, but illegal by any measure and ripe for a takedown. When deputized Cheyenne is shot pursuing the notorious "Black Jack," he's found by Ward's sister-in-law, the lonely, unassuming yet perceptive Lilac, who takes him home, where the judge's wife, Rose, tends to his wounds. Then Granger Ward blows in like a dark, chill wind. After a few moments, the tension seems to ease, but then his mood changes and it becomes obvious that Granger Ward's slow descent into madness has been accelerated.

For example, his fireside chat with Cheyenne about what makes a hero is telling, so calm and measured, even friendly and complimentary. However, as soon as Cheyenne leaves the house after being called the epitome of a hero, Ward's voice hardens as he tells Rose, "I don't like that man." He even accuses Cheyenne of being "Black Jack," knowing full well that it isn't true. So he's conflicted at the very least, or delusional at the most; or perhaps it's simply all typical behavior of a psychopath. As the story unfolds, Granger Ward has eyes for his blossoming young sister-in-law. Cheyenne steps in to defend her, and that seals Granger Ward's irreversible determination to destroy a true hero. The way he goes about it is further evidence that he's on the edge and about to fall off.

There are only four characters in this episode. Andrew Duggan is fine as the duplicitous Granger Ward, and Adele Mara as his wife, while supportive, is not as blindly compliant as he thinks she is. Joan Evans plays Lilac with sweet innocence. It's obvious she's taken with Cheyenne Bodie from the moment she sees him lying wounded on the trail, so it's no surprise when she confesses later in her unpretentious way that she's in love with him. His reaction is typical Cheyenne, gentle and approachable, expressing to this inexperienced young woman what the word love means to him, that deep resonant voice becoming soft and sympathetic. It's one of the most poignant scenes in the entire series, making very clear that women are drawn to Clint Walker's Cheyenne Bodie, not only because he's the ultimate in masculine beauty but because he has the most tender heart of any man those ladies of the Old West were likely ever to encounter.

This four person drama set during the Christmas season is one of the best episodes of the Cheyenne series. Excellent acting all-around, & excellent script, well-written by the episode's director, Montgomery Pittman (who also wrote 14 episodes of "77 Sunset Strip"). Andrew Duggan plays a Judge who has a penchant for hanging people, more so for being "stupid" than for having committed crimes. The lovely Adele Mara (playing the Judge's wife) has some of the best dialog: "I'm not really ignorant, I've always pretended to be because that's the way you liked it," & later, "Will you ever learn that the world isn't as stupid as you'd like it to be?" The Judge is both fascinated by Cheyenne's morals & threatened by his intelligence. Mesmerizing cat & mouse game between the Judge & Cheyenne keeps the viewer's interest throughout.