When stable hand Cale is found with paralyzed legs after his horse threw him, Matt goes for help on foot, unarmed, on the dangerous prairie.When stable hand Cale is found with paralyzed legs after his horse threw him, Matt goes for help on foot, unarmed, on the dangerous prairie.When stable hand Cale is found with paralyzed legs after his horse threw him, Matt goes for help on foot, unarmed, on the dangerous prairie.
Chick Sheridan
- Townsman
- (uncredited)
Lucian Tiger
- Townsman
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- Kathleen Hite
- Norman MacDonnell(uncredited)
- John Meston(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaCarl Reindel first appeared as Cale in Cale (1962) a few months earlier, near the end of the seventh season.
- GoofsBoom Mic dips into lower right corner of the screen at 14:00.
Featured review
The Search . . . for Spock?
What a disappointing season eight opener. My guess is this was an unused half-hour show script that was jet-puffed to an hour. The action--using the term loosely--unfolds at a snail's pace, with endless scenes of Matt ambling across the prairie in real time.
And who does Matt come upon in that barren land west of Dodge? Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, paying his dues in the years leading up to STAR TREK fame. He plays the loudmouthed leader of a cut-rate outlaw trio. It seems Matt once ran these three amigos out of Dodge (and adding insult to injury, Matt has no recollection of it). They agree to give him a horse if he can best Man Mountain Mickey Morton in a fistfight. It's not a spoiler to say Matt does and that the bad guys welsh on the deal (that's what makes 'em bad guys!).
Guest star Ford Rainey as Tate Gifford enjoys a decent amount of screen time as a broken man who recently lost his son. There's a young drifter in town named Cale who works for blacksmith Hank Patterson and tends to Tate's horse, taking him out for suspiciously long three-hour runs in the mornings. Hmm, that's a detail to file away for later.
When Cale doesn't return with the horse, Tate believes Cale has stolen it. Turns out Matt is one of the few people who can vouch for Cale, but admits abashedly when pressed that he knows virtually nothing about him. It seemed a lapse on Matt's part not even to know from where Cale drifted in. I've seen him interrogate drifters in other shows. Why was Matt content--even complacent--to let Cale stay in his own lane no questions asked?
Matt sets out to find Cale and does in due course, finding him paralyzed from the waist down. When weighing how to get Cale back to Dodge, a crack of thunder sends Matt's horse scampering away. Cale proves himself an unlikeable fellow almost immediately, expressing no gratitude for Matt's rescue, and failing to hold up his end of the conversation in camp that night.
Matt wanders and wanders the countryside in search of a horse, fending off an awkward seduction attempt by an aging alcoholic farmwife who carries the jug with her. Essa's understanding husband suggests she imagines men coming around--make another note of that--as a reaction to their three children all having died from smallpox the previous spring. Matt, looking at the little graves, can't even muster enough sympathy for a polite "I'm sorry." Matt just says goodbye and ambles on. Maybe all these years as marshal have hardened him to the heartbreaking stories of the people living in that "nothing out there" west of Dodge?
Another discordant note was Doc's imperiousness at Tate's home. "It's out of the question" to move Cale into town, Doc declares. Why? Matt dragged Cale on a sledge and he bounced in the back of a buckboard all the way to Tate's. What harm can come from another trip? No, says Doc, Cale's going to be sleeping in your bed a long time--whether Tate likes it or not (and he doesn't). Yes, I can see the writer--a benevolent goddess over the fates of her characters--orchestrating events for everyone's ultimate best interest, but at the time it came across as Doc bullying the hapless Tate, a grieving father deathly afraid of another young man dying in his home.
I disliked Cale from the start but really detested him in the show's final minutes. I have not seen the earlier episode with him, but was relieved to learn the Cale character disappeared after this story. That said, I thought Carl Reindel did a fine job playing the part of a swaggering teenage drifter with a bad attitude and a shadowy past he plays close to the vest.
As the episode drew to a close I was confident that man of the world Matt had enough horse sense not to believe Cale's cock n' bull story about rushing across the prairie to pay back some Colorado-bound settlers. Savvy scripter Kathleen Hite, skirting those censorious sponsors, left it to the audience to connect the dots she set out over the course of the story. Cale had to "ride like the wind," to quote Chester, in order to complete his carnal business with Essa and be well on his way back to Dodge with Tate's horse before Mr. Cutler returned home from his morning hunt.
And who does Matt come upon in that barren land west of Dodge? Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, paying his dues in the years leading up to STAR TREK fame. He plays the loudmouthed leader of a cut-rate outlaw trio. It seems Matt once ran these three amigos out of Dodge (and adding insult to injury, Matt has no recollection of it). They agree to give him a horse if he can best Man Mountain Mickey Morton in a fistfight. It's not a spoiler to say Matt does and that the bad guys welsh on the deal (that's what makes 'em bad guys!).
Guest star Ford Rainey as Tate Gifford enjoys a decent amount of screen time as a broken man who recently lost his son. There's a young drifter in town named Cale who works for blacksmith Hank Patterson and tends to Tate's horse, taking him out for suspiciously long three-hour runs in the mornings. Hmm, that's a detail to file away for later.
When Cale doesn't return with the horse, Tate believes Cale has stolen it. Turns out Matt is one of the few people who can vouch for Cale, but admits abashedly when pressed that he knows virtually nothing about him. It seemed a lapse on Matt's part not even to know from where Cale drifted in. I've seen him interrogate drifters in other shows. Why was Matt content--even complacent--to let Cale stay in his own lane no questions asked?
Matt sets out to find Cale and does in due course, finding him paralyzed from the waist down. When weighing how to get Cale back to Dodge, a crack of thunder sends Matt's horse scampering away. Cale proves himself an unlikeable fellow almost immediately, expressing no gratitude for Matt's rescue, and failing to hold up his end of the conversation in camp that night.
Matt wanders and wanders the countryside in search of a horse, fending off an awkward seduction attempt by an aging alcoholic farmwife who carries the jug with her. Essa's understanding husband suggests she imagines men coming around--make another note of that--as a reaction to their three children all having died from smallpox the previous spring. Matt, looking at the little graves, can't even muster enough sympathy for a polite "I'm sorry." Matt just says goodbye and ambles on. Maybe all these years as marshal have hardened him to the heartbreaking stories of the people living in that "nothing out there" west of Dodge?
Another discordant note was Doc's imperiousness at Tate's home. "It's out of the question" to move Cale into town, Doc declares. Why? Matt dragged Cale on a sledge and he bounced in the back of a buckboard all the way to Tate's. What harm can come from another trip? No, says Doc, Cale's going to be sleeping in your bed a long time--whether Tate likes it or not (and he doesn't). Yes, I can see the writer--a benevolent goddess over the fates of her characters--orchestrating events for everyone's ultimate best interest, but at the time it came across as Doc bullying the hapless Tate, a grieving father deathly afraid of another young man dying in his home.
I disliked Cale from the start but really detested him in the show's final minutes. I have not seen the earlier episode with him, but was relieved to learn the Cale character disappeared after this story. That said, I thought Carl Reindel did a fine job playing the part of a swaggering teenage drifter with a bad attitude and a shadowy past he plays close to the vest.
As the episode drew to a close I was confident that man of the world Matt had enough horse sense not to believe Cale's cock n' bull story about rushing across the prairie to pay back some Colorado-bound settlers. Savvy scripter Kathleen Hite, skirting those censorious sponsors, left it to the audience to connect the dots she set out over the course of the story. Cale had to "ride like the wind," to quote Chester, in order to complete his carnal business with Essa and be well on his way back to Dodge with Tate's horse before Mr. Cutler returned home from his morning hunt.
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- GaryPeterson67
- Dec 12, 2018
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