Wagon Train on the Encore Western Channel

[moira finnie]

Dane Clark is on Wagon Train in The John Wilbot Story!! Post-Civil War tensions seem to be rife and....there is something enigmatic about D.C. The episode today (Feb. 22) features a mysterious Dane as a Shakespearean-spouting preacher with a limp and a dark cloud of melancholy following him along the dusty trail. He seems to be the focus of romantic curiosity among the bevy of girls mooning over him on the wagon train. Robert Vaughan is also along for one of his intense young whacko roles he specialized in back then, (see The Young Philadelphians for more of the same misunderstood, possibly violent Bob).

[MissGoddess]

Dane Clark is on Wagon Train in The John Wilbot Story!! Post-Civil War tensions seem to be rife and....there is something enigmatic about D.C. The episode today (Feb. 22) features a mysterious Dane as a Shakespearean-spouting preacher with a limp and a dark cloud of melancholy following him along the dusty trail. He seems to be the focus of romantic curiosity among the bevy of girls mooning over him on the wagon train. Robert Vaughan is also along for one of his intense young whacko roles he specialized in back then, (see The Young Philadelphians for more of the same misunderstood, possibly violent Bob).

"WAGON TRAIN SPOILER!"

I was totally convinced that Vaughan was going to be the wacko one....wow what a twist! It was a terrific episode. Wendy likes Dane Clark so she would love this one.

[moira finnie]

I liked the open ended conclusion of that episode--though Dane Clark didn't seem to be anything like John Wilkes Booth physically--it was fun hearing him recite so much Julius Caesar. I just saw something on The History Channel recently about people who still believe that Booth ran away and lived out a long life in the American West, (the show concluded that the man believed to have been Booth was not Lincoln's assassin, thanks to DNA). I guess myths like this will never fade away completely.

[stuart.uk]

Yesterday I watched the Wagon Train episode The Molly Kincaide Story on you tube. John Mcintire and the underrated Robert Fuller were the stars, but the episode was dominated by Barbara Stanwyck and Carolyn Jones. Jones was the main guest star, but Stanwyck made such an impression she reprised her role in the later The Kate Crawley Story.

As I watched Stanwyck as the jean wearing tomboy Kate, I thought what a beautiful modern day girl she was. By todays standards referring to a woman in her 50s as a girl is perectly acceptable, but in the 60s her movie career, as a major movie star had been over for about 5-yrs, by the time she did Wagon Train

It's a pity the 50 something Barbara isn't around now. I reckon she would have stayed a major movie star for another 10, maybe 20-yrs, compared to Hollywood's heyday.

Back to The Molly Kincaide Story, it was great to see Barbara alongside another strong actress in Carolyn Jones. In the epiosde Stanwyck helps out one time Indian captive Jones adapt back into civilisation.

[MissGoddess]

I'm not sure if they are going to air those here along with the black-and-white ones (Ward Bond) we currently have on a cable network (Encore Westerns). I'd like to see that one. So far I have enjoyed every episode.

Funny how McIntyre also stepped in for "The Virginian" after Lee J. Cobb and Charles Bickford exited.

[stuart.uk]

April

Here's part one of Stany's Wagon Train

[movieman1957]

I'm having a hard time getting into this show. Maybe I haven't seen enough of them but it is slow going for me. I tried to watch the one last night with Dean Stockwell as the Mexican boy avenging the death of his father but left it half way through.

[MissGoddess]

Thank you, Stuart!

[stuart.uk]

My Pleasure April

It' funny too that Steve Mqueen, after Wanted Dead Or Alive got the part of Vin in The Magnificent Seven and became a major movie star overnight, yet Robert Fuller who had a better tv cv with not only Wagon Train, but the equally brilliant Laramie western series, but when he played Vin in The Return Of The Seven he didn't get the same success

[MissGoddess]

Oh, Chris, no one can like them all. I understand that. I missed the first half of that show yesterday, but I cried over what I saw. And I'm not really a Dean Stockwell fan but I thought he was excellent.

It wouldn't surprise me that at another time of my life I wouldn't have liked the show as much as I do right now.

It's what makes horseraces.

[MissGoddess]

My Pleasure April

It' funny too that Steve Mqueen, after Wanted Dead Or Alive got the part of Vin in The Magnificent Seven and became a major movie star overnight, yet Robert Fuller who had a better tv cv with not only Wagon Train, but the equally brilliant Laramie western series, but when he played Vin in The Return Of The Seven he didn't get the same success

I didn't even know Fuller played Vin in the sequel! I haven't seen that one. I'm not as familiar with Fuller's work, his face is recognizable though.

It's a crapshoot sometimes as to who will "make it" and who will not.

[stuart.uk]

Here's a prequel to Laramie



And the trailer for 7 sequel



I was just thinking when John Mcintire did The Virginian, it was probably the first time he played oppisite real life wife Jeanette Nolan, who played Holly Grainger. They worked together a lot after that

[MissGoddess]

I totally did not realize Jeannette was his wife! I'm sure I read it but forgot. Great couple.

[moira finnie]

I agree with Chris about Wagon Train now that I've had a chance to see several episodes over time. The stories are not always consistently engaging, but a few of the more outstanding shows have captivated me. One of them was on yesterday starring Sessue Hayakawa in The Sakae Ito Story (1958).

Hayakawa played a Samurai in full regalia, who was traveling West on the wagon train with a lacquered box, accompanied by his loyal friend and servant Matsui (Robert Kino). Hayakawa, who had recently had an Academy Award nominated performance for The Bridge on the River Kwai, found himself in demand again in American movies around this time, so his appearance in this show must have been quite a coup for the producers.

Hayakawa's character become friends with Major Adams (Ward Bond) and tried to explain his beliefs and reasons for his journey, which was intended as an act of fealty to Prince Nara, the man whose ashes he carried in a lacquered box, which he hoped to return to Japan after his lord had died in America. With powerful simplicity, Hayakawa stated that once his task was complete, he intended to follow his prince to death, via hari-kari (though nowadays this ritualistic form of suicide is more accurately described as seppuku).

Shocked but respectful and trying to understand his new friend, Adams tries to protect the Japanese passenger from the false friendship of a stupid bunch of yahoos who, eyeing the box containing the prince's ashes, believe a moronic sailor's conjecture that there must be diamonds or jewels in the beautiful container. Their efforts to steal the box and ride away (in the middle of Indian territory) culminates in a confrontation between the thieves and the samurai soldier. Drawing his sword, he is about to confront the armed men when a band of Comanches appear. Fascinated and recognizing that the strange looking Ito is a kindred spirit, the Indians' leader forces them to face the exotic Ito with only hatchets and knives, to make the fight fairer.

In the end, which was provocative and very dramatic, the heartbroken Ito, who is crushed to discover the prince's ashes violated and scattered on the ground, makes his peace with the thieves, the Indians, and with Adams and his men, who arrive on the scene just in time to witness his final act, causing Adams to ask if he was a savage--though he goes away with another conclusion. I won't spoil the ending for anyone, especially since this epi will probably be shown again and is available on Netflix streaming.

[klondike]

I'm having a hard time getting into this show. Maybe I haven't seen enough of them but it is slow going for me. I tried to watch the one last night with Dean Stockwell as the Mexican boy avenging the death of his father but left it half way through.

Worry not, mon frere, you will be rivetted by the episode "The Steve Campden Story", wherein Torin Thatcher & Ben Cooper portray father & son Australian mountain climbers, who attempt to guide Flint McCullough through a spooky, labyrinthine alpine cave, while being stalked by an albino sabre-tooth tiger - - . . would I lie to you ?!
{I would not be shocked to hear this was penned after a long weekend in Acapulco . . coming back on Flight 420 . .}