User Reviews

Beautiful Rhonda Fleming who was created for Technicolor is the guest star in this Wagon Train episode. She plays an entertainer who back in the Civil War was a Union spy. Now she has a daughter Cynthia Pepper and they've joined the Wagon Train with her musical accompanist John Archer and Fleming's general factotum, a blind but powerful Michael Conrad. There's an unusual bond between Fleming and Conrad and a brief prologue tells us why.

In any event Fleming is beautiful, but distrustful of all men and overprotective of Pepper in that regard to an absurd degree. Fleming causes a lot of problems on the train including coming between friends Robert Fuller and Denny Miller. There's also some bad history between Fuller and Fleming that also dates back to the Civil War.

Rhonda gets a couple of songs to sing, an added treat for this episode. A lot of dirty linen gets a much needed airing before this fine story is over.

This is the first time I've watched Wagon Train for decades and the first time I've seen Robert Fuller in it. I was expecting a far more engaging plot after seeing a description of it and being a big fan of Laramie. However I struggled to stay interested. There was a flatness about the whole thing and none of the characters, including Fuller's felt like they had any reality. Whether this was the unlikely plot , the poor direction or merely actors going through the motions, I don't know. Modern hairstyles and obvious make up didn't help. There WAS a very passionate kiss (but even that was faked, as "Coop" confessed later,) and a good fight scene, but these did not rescue this episode. In Laramie, Robert Fuller's character was very different, dynamic, engaging, charismatic and he had a believable bond with the other lead. These elements were missing here and it resulted in a dull and pedestrian story. If the rest of season 7 and 8 are like this, I won't be buying the dvds.