User Reviews

ADVENTURES OF WILD BILL HICKOK was a half hour Western series that began in syndication in 1951, its popularity earning it a spot at first CBS, then ABC, until its 1958 cancellation, starring handsome Guy Madison as lawman Hickok, and Andy Devine as sidekick Jingles P. Jones. John Carradine had first worked with the amiable Devine on John Ford's "Stagecoach," and most recently in the Lippert Western "Thunder Pass" (from the same director, Frank McDonald), while this appearance as Sir Rodney Brentwood in "The Gorilla of Owl Hoot Mesa," broadcast Dec. 26, 1954, preceded the explosion of television oaters by nearly a year, the debut of GUNSMOKE only months away. This color episode boasts an amusing plotline supplied by TV Guide: "a gorilla in an animal act does more than monkey around during a rash of thefts." Sir Rodney Brentwood roams from town to town with an act consisting of him fighting off a savage simian in a confined cage, using a human partner in disguise to fool the patrons. Bill and Jingles remember him as an expert pickpocket, who may not be involved with a series of express holdups that take place every time he's in town. Only too late does Sir Rodney discover his business partner as the chief mastermind, but it's not long before the real gorilla does all the dirty work by locking up the villain and distracting the gang for an easy capture. The George Barrows ape suit is identical to the one he wore in the title role of "Gorilla at Large," not realistic but no worse than Emil Van Horn. John Carradine adopts a broad British accent that only proves distracting, with virtually no competition among a weak supporting cast.