As a young kid I watched innumerable TV Westerns, all the WB titles like "Sugarfoot" and "Bronco" and "Cheyenne", my favorite being "Yancy Derringer" and my own personal cult classic (still unsung) "Black Saddle" with Peter Breck. This Hugh O'Brian show was also on my radar, but watching this episode 60 years later brought my rosy vision of the genre crashing back to Earth.
That's because it is truly inept, on every level. Not only is O'Brian's acting not up to what I recalled it to be from memory (like Gene Barry and Barry Sullivan I imagined him as terrific, drawing on a child's credulity) but the production values are p*ss-poor, the story line lame in the extreme and even the gimmicks insulting. Clearly not up to the standard of the '50s best work, those sometimes extraordinary short stories unfolding in a half hour each on "Gunsmoke".
We have a brief set-up of a con out to get even with Earp to settle an old score, and then the tedious tale of the marshal falling for a widow, not very attractive or well essayed by guest star Marjorie Owens. And as sure as one or more Bond girls who get too close romantically to good old 007 are knocked off before the interminable final credits roll, the ultimate shoot out with her present is ridiculous and just in time to prevent the show from morphing into "Mr. & Mrs. Earp", ripe for Brad and Angelina (ooops!, I forgot they broke up) to remake.
For nostalgia it is certainly fun to watch these oldies, mainly morality tales and often dated evocations of a rosy-colored West that never existed, but I wish they would live up to my own fond memories the way the more serious TV shows of my youth, say "The Defenders" or "East Side West Side" do.
That's because it is truly inept, on every level. Not only is O'Brian's acting not up to what I recalled it to be from memory (like Gene Barry and Barry Sullivan I imagined him as terrific, drawing on a child's credulity) but the production values are p*ss-poor, the story line lame in the extreme and even the gimmicks insulting. Clearly not up to the standard of the '50s best work, those sometimes extraordinary short stories unfolding in a half hour each on "Gunsmoke".
We have a brief set-up of a con out to get even with Earp to settle an old score, and then the tedious tale of the marshal falling for a widow, not very attractive or well essayed by guest star Marjorie Owens. And as sure as one or more Bond girls who get too close romantically to good old 007 are knocked off before the interminable final credits roll, the ultimate shoot out with her present is ridiculous and just in time to prevent the show from morphing into "Mr. & Mrs. Earp", ripe for Brad and Angelina (ooops!, I forgot they broke up) to remake.
For nostalgia it is certainly fun to watch these oldies, mainly morality tales and often dated evocations of a rosy-colored West that never existed, but I wish they would live up to my own fond memories the way the more serious TV shows of my youth, say "The Defenders" or "East Side West Side" do.
