... in that you have cohabitation outside of marriage, incestual lust, attempted sexual assault, patricide, and self mutilation all in a one hour episode. Today, we wouldn't think of the discussion of racism being anything extraordinary on television, but it was a controversial topic in 1961 and actually a central theme of this episode.
Prosperous middle-aged widower and ranch owner Hardy Tate has apparently been making a habit of coming into Dodge City and whooping it up with wine, women, and song. His son, Cully, comes into Dodge to retrieve his father, an argument breaks out, and Matt Dillon has to come by to break it up.
So apparently, for all of his bluster, Hardy Tate really does listen to his son, but not in the way that Cully would like. For Hardy takes some of his cattle to a local Arapaho tribe and trades the cattle for a young Arapaho woman whom he marries in an Arapaho ceremony. Cully is furious at this development - having an Indian woman as his new stepmom, and one that is his own age at that.
When Cully goes into town with his stepmom he gets into fights with some of the local ruffians who make remarks about his "squaw". Cully is angry to the point that he is ready to shoot it out in a gunfight with one of the bullies who would for sure outshoot him and kill him. And in spite of that there is the constant badmouthing by Cully of his dad's situation, calling it "disgusting". I think the young man doth protest too much. This often happens when a man finds himself attracted to a woman and is horrified of where his hormones are taking him. Is that the case here? Watch and find out.
Cully at first had my sympathy with his dad being chronically drunk and disorderly and then with his dad hastily marrying in a way that causes him to be bullied by the townsfolk. But by the end of the episode Cully reveals himself to be a whiny little brat and nothing more.
At a time when the networks demanded their shows be squeaky clean to the point of being dull, I'm not sure how the controversial contents of this episode managed to make it to air. I have a feeling it had something to do with the fact that it was a Western. If questioned the producers could say - "We're not discussing modern controversial topics here. This is a western!"
Prosperous middle-aged widower and ranch owner Hardy Tate has apparently been making a habit of coming into Dodge City and whooping it up with wine, women, and song. His son, Cully, comes into Dodge to retrieve his father, an argument breaks out, and Matt Dillon has to come by to break it up.
So apparently, for all of his bluster, Hardy Tate really does listen to his son, but not in the way that Cully would like. For Hardy takes some of his cattle to a local Arapaho tribe and trades the cattle for a young Arapaho woman whom he marries in an Arapaho ceremony. Cully is furious at this development - having an Indian woman as his new stepmom, and one that is his own age at that.
When Cully goes into town with his stepmom he gets into fights with some of the local ruffians who make remarks about his "squaw". Cully is angry to the point that he is ready to shoot it out in a gunfight with one of the bullies who would for sure outshoot him and kill him. And in spite of that there is the constant badmouthing by Cully of his dad's situation, calling it "disgusting". I think the young man doth protest too much. This often happens when a man finds himself attracted to a woman and is horrified of where his hormones are taking him. Is that the case here? Watch and find out.
Cully at first had my sympathy with his dad being chronically drunk and disorderly and then with his dad hastily marrying in a way that causes him to be bullied by the townsfolk. But by the end of the episode Cully reveals himself to be a whiny little brat and nothing more.
At a time when the networks demanded their shows be squeaky clean to the point of being dull, I'm not sure how the controversial contents of this episode managed to make it to air. I have a feeling it had something to do with the fact that it was a Western. If questioned the producers could say - "We're not discussing modern controversial topics here. This is a western!"