User Reviews

I thought that this particular episode, 'Strangers At Sundown', was quite intriguing. Watching this episode reminded me of Sartre's play, 'No Exit', Jim Henson's 'The Cube', Pirandello's 'Six Characters In search of An Exit' or the classic Twilight Zone, 'Five Characters In Search of An Exit'. The ending also reminds me somewhat of Gunsmoke 15:7, 'Charlie Noon'.

Like many episodes of The Virginian, this one featured commentary on many moral principles such as loyalty, betrayal, love, family, abandonment, and redemption.

I enjoy The Virginian series because it is often contemplative and the action is an accent for the principles taught, rather than an end in itself.

A really fine cast of name character players really make this Virginian episode one of the outstanding ones of the series.

Lee J. Cobb and Roberta Shore are returning to Shiloh ranch by stagecoach along with an assortment of passengers somewhat like the group on the John Ford classic Stagecoach. They are set on by a band of outlaws who want a man named George Wilson who betrayed them back in the day. They chase the coach into a station stop where grizzled old Arthur Hunnicutt is the station master. The outlaws led by Paul Richards then try a siege at a station that was an old army prison and built for sieges.

The real Wilson is revealed and it gets right down to the nitty gritty as to whether he will be forced out to save the others. You also get real deep into the character of the people in the siege and you find they've got varying degrees of character.

When you've got folks like Skip Homeier, Malcolm Atterbury, Harry Morgan, Evan Evans, Jocelyn Brando and Richard Anderson besides those already mentioned this is not an episode to miss.

Watched all Virginian and Men of Shiloh episodes and this is in the top 10! Shows why Lee J. Cobb went back to movies. Everyone represents a different moral fiber of humanity, watch it twice, at least!