User Reviews

WAGON TRAIN "The Willy Moran Story" 1957

WAGON TRAIN was one of the most popular western series to ever hit television. The series was about the adventures of a wagon train crossing the country. Each episode focused on a person in the train or a problem faced by the train. The series ran for 284 episodes between 1957 and 1965.

For the first 134 episodes the wagon master was played by Ward Bond. After Bond's death in 1960, John McIntire took over for 152 episodes. Other series regulars were, Frank McGrath, Terry Wilson, Robert Fuller and Robert Horton.

Many Hollywood types guest starred on the show, these include the likes of, Dan Duryea, Harry Carey Jr, Henry Brandon, L.Q. Jones, Ann Blyth, Ernest Borgnine, Rhonda Fleming, Bette Davis, E. Cook Jr, Jan Sterling, Debra Paget, Mickey Rooney, Eddie Albert, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Shelly Winters, Sterling Hayden, William Bendix, Virginia Mayo, Peter Lorre and Barbara Stanwyck.

This episode is the first of the production run. The guest stars are Ernest Borgnine, Andrew Duggan, Donald Randolph and Marjorie Lord.

The wagon train is about to start their long trek to the promised land of California. One of the wagons though is short a driver. The man in charge of the wagon train, Ward Bond, tells the wagon owner, Ronald Randolph that he must have another driver to take part. Randolph response is that he has a driver, but the man was delayed.

Just then, a drunken man is frog marched out of a local saloon and tossed into the street. The man, Ernest Borgnine, turns out to have been with Ward Bond's unit during the Civil War. Randolph hires Borgnine on the spot and dumps him in the wagon.

The next day, a sober Borgnine tells Bond he will swear off the whiskey for the journey. Now the actual driver, Andrew Duggan, whom Randolph had hired, shows up. Bond however will not let Randolph fire Borgnine.

Borgnine, it turns out, had been a top notch bare knuckle fighter after the late war between the States. That was until he took to the bottle a bit much. Now he is just a bum roaming the west doing odd jobs for a drink or two. Borgnine does indeed stop drinking and helps around the wagon train when needed. A widow woman, Marjorie Lord and her kids take a shine to the man.

Now we find out that there is something nasty afoot. Randolph and Duggan are actually part of a group of ex-Confederate Army raiders planning on grabbing one of the wagons. The wagon holds all the gunpowder and ammunition for the wagon train. This particular wagon is kept at the back of the train for safety reasons.

Needless to say, the outlaw Confederate types come a calling hoping to gobble up said ammo supply. There is a furious gun battle between the wagon train men and the raiders. The day is only saved when Borgnine sneaks around the flank of the raiders, and tosses a lit barrel of gunpowder into the middle of them. Borgnine is the hero of the day and soon has the widow Lord on his arm.

This is an entertaining first episode with, Bond, Borgnine and Miss Lord shining. It is easy to see why the viewing public took a liking to the show. The director was long time television helmsman, Herschel Daugherty. Daugherty cranked out over 300 plus episodes from over 80 diff series between 1952 and 1975.

Marjorie Lord worked in film and television for 51 years. She is the mother of actress Anne Archer.