R.g. armstrong plays his usual bullying self so there is nothing new here ... lew ayers plays the guest star in this episode as the fabled and much scorned doctor samuel mudd .. the point that was overlooked here is the hippocratic oath ... the problem i had with this series from the onset was the use of dennis holmes as the young lad living at the ranch .. each week there was some plot invention that included his antics and kept this show from being adult entertainment
3 Reviews
The hated Dr. Mudd
bkoganbing23 February 2017
The Sherman stagecoach station gets a celebrity visitor of sorts when Lew Ayres stops there. He plays the notorious Dr. Samuel Mudd who set John Wilkes Booth's leg as Booth was fleeing after shooting Abraham Lincoln. He's been pardoned by Andrew Johnson, but he's still mighty unpopular in some quarters.
When neighboring rancher Paul Carr has a wagon fall on him, men from his ranch on the way to Laramie to fetch the doctor stop at the Sherman ranch and learn Ayres is a doctor. Ayres goes and amputates Carr's arm.
Neither the amputation or learning who did the deed to Carr makes his father R.G. Armstrong happy. Armstrong is a mean man, a Union veteran who has a special hate for Mudd. A lot like John Carradine in The Prisoner Of Shark Island.
Ayres as always is a civilized who only heeded his Hippocratic oath in treating Booth. Armstrong is hard man to convince.
This episode also features Spring Byington saving John Smith. Now that is worth seeing.
When neighboring rancher Paul Carr has a wagon fall on him, men from his ranch on the way to Laramie to fetch the doctor stop at the Sherman ranch and learn Ayres is a doctor. Ayres goes and amputates Carr's arm.
Neither the amputation or learning who did the deed to Carr makes his father R.G. Armstrong happy. Armstrong is a mean man, a Union veteran who has a special hate for Mudd. A lot like John Carradine in The Prisoner Of Shark Island.
Ayres as always is a civilized who only heeded his Hippocratic oath in treating Booth. Armstrong is hard man to convince.
This episode also features Spring Byington saving John Smith. Now that is worth seeing.
Unconvincing coincidence
Nat-2124 October 2022
Warning: Spoilers
This could have been a good episode if the writers had left well enough alone. The idea of a doctor traveling through the area who performs life-changing, emergency surgery on a successful rancher's beloved son while the rancher is away contains plenty of juice for a good plot. Should the ranch hands summon the family doctor in Laramie even though that could result in the son's death? Will the rancher be grateful to the doctor or blame him for crippling his son? Good stuff there. But to throw in the unlikely backstory about the doctor being Samuel Mudd, who set John Wilkes Booth's broken leg, and the rancher having led the unit that arrested him years earlier stretches the imagination to the breaking point. Too bad. A missed opportunity here. On a positive note, Daisy points a loaded shotgun at a man who is attacking Slim, so that is certainly worth a watch.
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