User Reviews

This episode is interesting from an historical point of view; the murderous family, the Bleecks, are obviously intended to be the Benders, the infamous predatory family who preyed on travelers in 1870s Kansas. The m.o. is the same in this episode--unwary men are lured into relaxing at the B's dinner table, which is backed by a canvas tarp, and at some point the father bashes them in the skull with a hammer. The victim's belongings are ransacked and the body is hidden. Historically, when they were discovered, the family disappeared. Rumor has it that they were "disappeared" by a mob who didn't want to wait for justice, but in the Big Valley universe they reappeared as "The Bleecks" and own an inn where two of the Barkley brothers visit. Good episode, great sixties TV.

This Big Valley story has Peter Breck and Lee Majors returning to Stockton when they stop by a ranch and get a nice welcome from father royal Dano and his children Anthony James.

What these folks normally do is kill unsuspecting travelers and rob them of whatever they have. In fact there has been a spike in the rise of killings lately and several sheriffs are investigating.

Which is what they have in mind for the two Barkleys. But hearing who they are Dano decides no since Breck seems to be taken with Mason. All ready they see the perks of becoming Barkley in-laws.

Mason is the come-on for the travelers and she's done her job with Breck. Even she is thinking of living in that big house on the Barkley ranch.

Nice performance by Marlyn Mason as a girl whose reach exceeds her grasp.

Nick Barkley had to be the most obnoxious character to ever appear in any Western TV series. In this episode, he is on a drunken bender, gambling and partying away while Heath (Lee Majors) and the foreman are buying cattle. After a few days, Heath tries to get Nick to come home, but he refuses, because he is "winning." So the blowhard orders the foreman to return to the Barkley Ranch by himself, with the expensive cattle.

Naturally, the foreman visits the Bleeck House, where characters based on the notorious Bender family of killers, are waiting to pluck the foreman's goose. Thanks to Nick, the foreman got killed, and the cattle were stolen. A day or two later, Nick and Heath also visit the Bleeck House. Heath, always being the most level-headed brother, just wants to find the cattle, and get back to the ranch.

Nick, who always had the biggest ego, wants to stay behind to seduce the Bender Family's daughter, the lady killer (thus the title of the episode, Lady Killer). Nick tells Heath to go home on his own, so that Nick can spend some more time neglecting the ranch work, and try to seduce the poor girl, who in this case was a murdereress. Nick Barkley, the TV Western's dud stud.