User Reviews

In one of those Zane Grey Theater episodes where he acts as well as hosts, Dick Powell plays a man who returns home to settle a nasty feud between his family and neighbors. The problem is that home is Texas and he unlike two brothers who were killed at Missionary Ridge, he fought for the Union. Now a third brother was killed going after the feuding neighbor family of Francis McDonald.

Powell is sick of violence and guns of all kinds and he hopes to resolve things peacefully. But his father Ray Collins is one bitter man, bitter at the loss of three sons now, and bitter that Powell fought for the recent enemy. He can't make up his mind what he's most bitter about.

Powell and Collins are a joy to watch, a pair of matchless professionals in their scenes. This is one good Zane Grey Theater story.

In this entertaining episode, a small town in Texas has a feud between the Gracie family and the Hatton family. At the beginning of the show some of the Hatton family killed one of Gracie' sons which began the feud in the first place.

With all the bad blood going on in town, Jenny Gracie sends for her older brother, Sam, to come and put a stop to the killing. But his reunion at home is meet with icy cold hands. You see, the Gracie family was behind the Confederacy during the Civil War but Sam refused to fight for the south, Instead he headed north and joined the Union side of the conflict. His father has never forgiven him for turning his back on the south.

With things not going well at the Gracie house, Sam is going to spend the night at the town hotel and leave in the morning. But while in town he meets an old school friend that just happens to be Kimbal Hatton. Kimbal now sets in on Sam to come out to the street for a gunfight. Sam wants no part of the feud until his youngest brother rides into town and now the Hatton's are after him. Sam must do something.

This episode turned out to be a surprising entertaining show. The writing was tight and the acting top notch. Dick Powell does a nice job of playing the outcast son and his actions make the viewer feel like their right in the middle of the story. An enjoyable episode.

Host Dick Powelll guest-stars on his show, a story about rustlers, hot tempers and an age-old family feud.

It was a pleasure to watch Dick Powell act. I swear, that guy got better and better as he got older. His film-noir roles in the mid '50s-to early '50s were terrific, and he's great here in this Zane Grey episode.

The story is a bit of a cliché, one I've seen in a number of old westerns on film and on TV: the smart, non-violent cowboy forced into a fight with a thug who egg him on. Powell out-talks the man, with some great dialog, until he has little choice but to have a "Gunsmoke"-like showdown in the street.

Ainslie Pryor does an effective job playing the punk "Kimball Hatton." You want to grab a gun and shoot the bully yourself!

Before the episode, Powell provides us with another entertaining prelude, humorously giving us the whys and hows why branding steers needed to take place and how rustlers countered. It's all very interesting and Dick says it with a few funny lines. Do you remember how good Alfred Hitchcock was before his TV show? Well, Powell is similar.

Host Dick Powell talks about cattle rustling which led to cattle being branded, so neighbouring ranchers which ones belonged to them.

This is the cause of a family feud in Texas between two landowning families, the Hattons and the Gracies. It has led to a nasty blood feud.

Now older brother Sam Gracie (Dick Powell) has come to town after some years, his sister wrote a letter to him.

Sam is not a popular man around town, not even with his father. He fought for the Yanks in the civil war but now he wants to stop the killing.

Kimbal Hatton, an old friend now wants to provoke Sam, but the latter knows that Kimbal is an expert gunfighter. So he turns to Sam's younger brother instead.

A solid story but this was very much a staple of the 30 minutes television westerns back in that era.