Some real talent behind the camera went into this Wagon Train episode, Gene L.
Coon who wrote for Star Trek did the script and future Oscar winning director Sydney Pollack was at the helm of this Wagon Train story. Another one of those
Wagon Train episodes I remember well from my youth.
The Civil War is about to begin all over again with unreconstructed rebel Gary Cockrell and his wife Evan Evans traveling with another southern gentleman on the Train. Charles Drake is hiding a dark secret from the rest on the Wagon Train, he was from Virginia but he did not fight for the South or North. In their eyes it was worse. Drake went north and edited an abolitionist newspaper. Which makes him the lowest kind of human being around because Cockrell lost his family and his plantation burned down during an abolitionist inspired slave revolt.
If this were made today Drake would be a hero. In this story his views are tempered by the fact of the terrible carnage of the years 1861-1865 which he feels he had a part in starting. Drake just carries a burden of sadness in his performance for all to see.
Peter Whitney is also on the Chris Hale Wagon Train, he plays a surviving member of a divided family. Whitney fought for the Union and his two brothers died for the Confederacy. He's not happy with either Cockrell or Drake.
It wouldn't be the same episode today, but it's still a well acted one.
The Civil War is about to begin all over again with unreconstructed rebel Gary Cockrell and his wife Evan Evans traveling with another southern gentleman on the Train. Charles Drake is hiding a dark secret from the rest on the Wagon Train, he was from Virginia but he did not fight for the South or North. In their eyes it was worse. Drake went north and edited an abolitionist newspaper. Which makes him the lowest kind of human being around because Cockrell lost his family and his plantation burned down during an abolitionist inspired slave revolt.
If this were made today Drake would be a hero. In this story his views are tempered by the fact of the terrible carnage of the years 1861-1865 which he feels he had a part in starting. Drake just carries a burden of sadness in his performance for all to see.
Peter Whitney is also on the Chris Hale Wagon Train, he plays a surviving member of a divided family. Whitney fought for the Union and his two brothers died for the Confederacy. He's not happy with either Cockrell or Drake.
It wouldn't be the same episode today, but it's still a well acted one.
