User Reviews

The Gary Cooper classic "High Noon" served as a model for TV westerns scripting the hero to take a lonely stand against the forces of evil. "Siege" is a fine example of the sub-genre and a typically accomplished episode from season two. McClure plays the reluctant hero peerlessly, but the solid, undervalued Ron Hayes has the Cooperish role of the town marshal who risks losing his life and his wife, played by willowy former "Father Knows Best" ingénue Elinor Donahue. Joseph Campanella drips oily menace as the head bandido. Agonizingly tense buildup to elaborately staged final shootout is a tribute to the acumen of production team.

After a real lucky streak helped with a borrowed $10.00 to call on a hot poker hand, Doug McClure keeps his money and heads out for a town he and his dad used to hang out at and where both left a lot of debts. But Doug's come back to square his debts.

Many are happy to see him, a few are not such as Elinor Donahue who is now married to the town marshal Ton Hayes. But when McClure comes upon the bodies of a man and wife who befriended him back then and tracks down the killers as a trio of Comancheros, he brings two of them back alive for Hayes as prisoners to stand trial.

This town is terrorized by them and their leader Joseph Campanella and they operate with impunity in the area. The business leaders led by banker Philip Carey just pay them off to not rob the place too often or raid it like Quantrill.

Shades of films like High Noon, Warlock, and Johnny Concho are present in this Virginian story. Interesting set of characters for the townspeople.

Phillip carey plays his usual chicken hearted role and thinks he's the boss of everyone... ron hayes plays the marshal .. joseph campanella plays a latino commanchero very badly and should have stayed away from westerns ... elinor donohue plays the whiny sister of phillip carey and the wife of ron hayes ... doug mcclure takes leave from shiloh and comes to a new mexico town called logan to repay previous debts and visit old friends who have been murdered and robbed by commancheros so he sets out to avenge them wearing that stupid blue shirt ... he riles both the town and commancheros against him

Crabby little sandcrab loves to get grease by being squeaky but it's just as easy to be groovy like me when I say Trampas looks great in his ubiquitous blue shirt, and better without it.

Campanella got the part for his eyebrow, not his accent- bet sandcrab has neither- so he's great as the leader of the comancheros.

Trampas hits a lucky streak and borrows more than $10 to parlay his four aces into a stack of bills large enough to pay off some gambling debts he and his father (killed in 2x1) acquired in Logan NM about five years ago. Everyone is still there, plus a new guy (Ron Hayes) Brett who serves as town marshal. Trampas wants to see his old girlfriend Carol (Elinor Donahue) who is the sister of the town banker (Phil Carey) Duke. Duke used his position as Carol's brother to force Trampas out of town before, but things are changed now. Other things have changed too. The comancheros used to trade with indians in Logan when Trampas and his dad were there before, but cavalry eventually ran out the indians and all that remained were comancheros; rather than get raided and/or slaughtered by them, Duke as banker and member of the town council came up with a shaky truce, to live and let live.

Trampas pays his debts, sees old friends and decides to go back home but wants to make one last stop to see Fred and Sarah who he used to work for. He finds them dead in their back yard, their house ransacked and their horses stolen. He trails the horses to a comanchero camp, shoots one dead who goes for his gun, then bundles the other two on horses and brings them and the loot they stole back to town for trial. The marshal puts the two in jail and explains how Fred and Sarah lived outside his jurisdiction, that they have to wait for the territorial judge maybe two weeks, then they can have a trial. Trampas has to sign a complaint plus stay in town--no affidavit on a double-murder.

This one isn't like High Noon or Warlock or Johnny Concho because nobody is a hired killer, nobody begs others for help and nobody got killed first so that revenge became the plot- it's more like Fred MacMurray's At Gunpoint. Just a guy, Trampas, trying to do the right thing and everyone else being too scared to trust their own instincts. It's a good show and worth your time to watch.