User Reviews

Gena Rowlands' intoxicating beauty and enigmatic allure make this among the most beguiling of Drury's many unlucky-in-love episodes. Lavish (if somewhat sluggish) early-season effort splurges on expensive cast. Everett Sloane and Stephen McNally play antagonistic characters with sureness befitting their many years in the front ranks of Hollywood knavery. Vixenish Joanna Moore spreads honeyed malice as a conniving saloon girl. Big names also making their presences felt include Arthur Franz, Vaughn Taylor, Robert Colbert and Harold Gould. Season two's steady stream of fine episodes supports the old TV axiom that the second year of a long-running series is usually the best.

This is one of the better episodes in the series. The Virginian goes to collect a debt for the judge. The journey takes him to a town where an old flame owns a saloon. The saloon owner is played by the fetching Gena Rowlands, and she is superb. They both learn that their feelings went much deeper than either realized at the time. As the story unfolds, Gena is jailed for murdering the son of the town's most powerful man.

The murder victim is killed with a pair of scissors, and Gena is blamed. The victim attacked Gena in what Inspector Clouseau would call a drunken "rit of fealous jage". When Drury visits Gena in jail it is clear she had been physically beaten by the victim. Druary gets the Judge to come to Gena's defense in a court trial the is a sham. She is found guilty and sentenced to hang one week later. Judge Garth is furious and heads to the Gov for a stay and retrial. The victims father browbeat the judge into moving the execution up by six days, well before Judge Garth can stop it.

The Virginian breaks Gena out of jail and they flee the town to save her life, and to give Judge Garth the time he needs to secure a new trial. The ending is not what I expected in such stories, and I'll leave it at that.

TV stories depend heavily on writing and acting, a bit more than directing, and all the principals in this story, Cobb, Drury and Rowlands are superb. This episode stands out because of the storied look into The Virginian's past, and the story around the murder. Grab a beverage and some snacks 'cause this is one of the better ones in the long series. Enjoy, my friends.

When you've got an enigmatic title character who only goes by a nickname you can be sure he's got a lot of secrets. One of them is revealed in this story and she's played by Gena Rowlands.

Before he came to Shiloh she and James Drury were tight. But now Rowlands sings in a saloon and is being harassed by Robert Colbert who The Virginian is in town to collect on a bad check from. But one night Colbert is killed and the law in the person of Stephen McNally is holding.

Colbert is also the son of the local Ponderosa owner Everett Sloane who only knows his son and heir is dead and he wants Rowlands to pay no matter how much reasonable doubt Lee J. Cobb throws into the trial as Rowlands defense attorney.

Of course in the end the truth is revealed. Colbert was one rotten human being more than everyone realized.

Drury and Rowlands have some nice nostalgic scenes. Good story.