Ward Bond and Robert Horton give it a rest in this episode of Wagon Train as Terry Wilson as Bill Hawks takes the center stage. Lee Marvin and Lon Chaney, Jr. star in The Jose Morales Story where Terry Wilson takes a group of three wagons off on a side route as they are not making the whole trip to California.
There are Mescalero Apaches in the area, but what Hawks doesn't count on is being jumped by a group of Mexican bandits headed by Lee Marvin. They disarm him and hope to use the wagons as cover in a getaway, but the Mescaleros interfere with everyone's plans.
The three wagons contain a doctor, Steven Darrell in one, a Quaker family Clark Howatt, Aline Towne and young Charles Herbert in the other and a misanthropic old merchant, Lon Chaney Jr. in the third. Marvin recognizes Chaney, he's not likely to forget him, he gave him a saber cut way back at the Alamo when Marvin was a soldier with Santa Anna and Chaney was going over the wall.
There's been long speculation about whether someone did take William Travis's offer about going over the wall. Wilson who's been raised on the stories of the bravery of the Alamo defenders doesn't like hearing a frontier myth shattered. This is The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance syndrome of when the legend becomes fact, print the legend. Ironic indeed that it's the man who played Liberty Valance shattering the myth.
The travelers take refuge in an abandoned stagecoach line station. Some life or death decisions have to be made. Everybody starts reexamining certain beliefs with the notable exception of Howatt.
The Jose Morales Story is a finely written drama from the Wagon Train series. And it's always nice to see one of the other regulars get center stage away from the stars.