User Reviews

Full disclosure: Robert Sterling is my cousin. That said, I find the episode above average if not perfect. The story is, as others have said, somewhat familiar with the "half marriage" angle. Whether it works out is the basic plot premise.

The casting was excellent, since Bob and Anne, married in real life (and contrary to most Hollywood couplings, stayed married for the duration) have a real chemistry. Those who saw "Topper" know the charm they exude.

One of my concerns, not leveled at this episode alone, is that Anne's makeup looked more suited to a night club act than for a woman supposedly traveling west by wagon train.

The acting is fine all around. Ward Bond always gives a quality performance and Bob and Anne make ordinary roles into much better than expected ones. All this, plus they are both easy on the eyes.

Especually since they are both now dead, Anne having died only recently at 94, it's always a pleasure for me to be able to watch them any time. As a child, I was puffed up because I had "stars" in my family, but now, as an adult, I appreciate them for their talents, and recognize them for what they accomplished. This Wagon Train episode encapsulates both their skill and their charm.

Whoever cast this episode with real-life husband-wife performers Robert Sterling and Anne Jeffreys must have done so with a knowing wink, as the episode is a variation on the plot of Cole Porter's "Kiss Me, Kate," which had also been done in musical theatre by Miss Jeffreys. It begins with Miss Jeffreys' "Julie" having lost her father to "the fever." (Her quick acknowledgment of her fellow passengers' concern and determination to "go it alone" prompts Ward Bond's "Major Adams" to play matchmaker.). Suitor after suitor pesters Miss Jeffreys until the initially combative Sterling poses as her husband after she nurses him through another bout of fever. Well, you can turn to the Bard or Cole Porter for the outcome. Sterling and Jeffreys are charming performers and are obviously enjoying their roles here (though I find Jeffreys' make-up oddly anachronistic).

A solo-traveling young lady that looks like she just came in from a fashion show manages to run-off every male helper assigned to ride with her on the wagon train to California!

What I actually should point out is that everyone on this show,not just the pretty lead-lady,has the cleanest clothes ever seen on a supposed trek out west. The laundry-fresh clothes are not necessarily something that ruins the whole show,but once you notice this it is impossible to un-see it! These folks' clothes look like new display clothes on a store manikin for heaven's sake,at almost all times!

Growing up as a child, among my favorite TV series was TOPPER, so it was a thrill to accidentally see its classic stars Anne Jeffreys & Robert Sterling team up again in this "Wagon Train" episode, recently re-aired on the Encore Westerns cable channel.

Though there are dramatic moments, particularly as Sterling's character comes down with fever and is nursed by Jeffreys, this is a light-hearted episode, with even Ward Bond less avuncular than usual. Stunt casting of the famous TV (and real-life) couple would have been appreciated in 1957 by avid fans, and so this was not the usual soap operatics "Wagon Train" outing.

Convincingly clashing as radically different personalities, the two are thrown together by necessity, as Jeffreys needs a new driver to keep her wagon on schedule as Bond's motley crew makes their way Westward. Neither one can stand the other, making for effective romantic dramedy.

I would be curious to see younger people's reactions to the piece, perhaps not aware of the casting gimmick -one could easily assume that Anne and Robert had never worked together. I thought it held up well, despite a certain predictability endemic to these '50s episodic series.

Robert Sterling and Anne Jeffreys only needed half a marriage and they were still Hollywood's greatest couple. That was only Ward Bond's and Jeffrey's gimmick in this wonderful episode to keep the lady folk at bay. Not to mention some hostile brothers waiting in California. Of course in real life they were married and the best looking ghosts ever in the hit series 'Topper'. Everything about this episode worked to perfection including James Komack and Don Megowan's efforts at being Jeffrey's suitors. You can't blame the boys for trying and doing it with great panache.

The action is on romance with a dash of comedy as husband and wife Anne Jeffreys and Robert Sterling guest star in the Julie Gage Story. Anne is in the title role and she's a spirited lass making the trip west with her father who takes with a sudden fever and dies.

Since she's also beautiful there's no shortage of competition among the single men on the Wagon Train. She rejects both Jimmy Komack and Don Megowan, but Robert Sterling strikes her fancy though she makes a big fuss in any event.

People had some strange ideas back then. Granted that when Robert Sterling comes down with the same fever she has to nurse him which necessitates spending time with him. So she proposes to quiet the gossip that Ward Bond perform a marriage ceremony with only her taking the vows. She's bound to him, but Sterling's not bound to her.

Quite an arrangement, if they run the episode maybe it will catch on if someone like Britney Spears or Paris Hilton does it.

Can half a marriage work? You have to watch The Julie Gage Story to find out.