User Reviews

THE RESTLESS GUN was a forgotten Western series that starred ruggedly handsome John Payne as renowned gunman Vint Bonner, drifting West after the Civil War, airing on NBC for two seasons, 1957-59. From May 26 1958, "More Than Kin" predates by seven months the similar "The Moor's Revenge" from HAVE GUN-WILL TRAVEL, also featuring Shakespearean players performing in the Old West (Vincent Price and Patricia Morison). Actor Archibald Plunkette is portrayed by legendary scene stealer John Carradine, as expert in the Bard as any actor during his lifetime, often quoting Shakespeare at the drop of a hat, but rarely performing such on screen; apart from THE RESTLESS GUN, there was 1954's "An Evening with Hamlet" on THE ADVENTURES OF OZZIE AND HARRIET, 1960's "Tolliver Bender" on WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE, 1962's "The Actor" on LAWMAN, 1985's "Leroy and the Kid" on FAME, feature films "Alaska" (1944), "The Kentuckian" (1955), and "Vampire Hookers" (1978), plus the 1981 videotaped television production of "Antony & Cleopatra" (as the Soothsayer). Archibald's wife Maggie Plunkette is played by lovely Veda Ann Borg, from Carradine's Poverty Row features from 1943, "Monsoon" and "Revenge of the Zombies." The Plunkettes are performing "Othello" in Virtue City, but are forced to abruptly move on due to the rowdy trigger happy audience response. John Payne's Vint Bonner remembers the couple as San Antonio ranchers, solving their money problems by turning to show business, passing themselves off as famed performers known by all the crowned heads of Europe. Once the world famous showman P. T. Barnum (Robert S. Carson) reveals his presence, the Plunkettes have added incentive to be noticed in a big way. Of course, they'll have to contend with the same audience that ridiculed them the night before, as the sheriff advises Archibald: "he said if we ain't any better'n we was last night, he's gonna advise the boys NOT to aim at the ceiling!" A lighthearted episode, featuring past Carradine cronies like Emmett Lynn ("Hitler's Madman," "Bluebeard," "Stranger on Horseback," "The Ten Commandments") and Roscoe Ates ("Chad Hanna," "Down Missouri Way"), while John Payne's screen finale in 1967, "They Ran for Their Lives," featured a villainous turn from Carradine.