Trampas is sent to Mexico to pickup a bull. He must go through Laredo where he gets into trouble with three Texas Rangers over a woman. Circumstances put him with them as they find a lost tr... Read allTrampas is sent to Mexico to pickup a bull. He must go through Laredo where he gets into trouble with three Texas Rangers over a woman. Circumstances put him with them as they find a lost train and then the money stolen from it.Trampas is sent to Mexico to pickup a bull. He must go through Laredo where he gets into trouble with three Texas Rangers over a woman. Circumstances put him with them as they find a lost train and then the money stolen from it.
Photos
Lee J. Cobb
- Judge Henry Garth
- (credit only)
Clu Gulager
- Emmett Ryker
- (credit only)
- Director
- Writers
- Borden Chase
- Charles Marquis Warren(uncredited)
- Owen Wister
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis season finale served as a backdoor pilot for the new Western series Laredo (1965), which premiered in fall 1965 and ran for two seasons.
- Crazy creditsBecause of the unusually large number of guest stars, the opening credits had several bars of the theme awkwardly repeated and additional footage of The Virginian added.
- ConnectionsEdited into Backtrack! (1969)
- SoundtracksWe're Gonna Raise a Ruckus Tonight
Performed by Randy Boone
Featured review
Three Cheers for the Three Musketeers and Three Godfathers of Laredo!
THE VIRGINIAN wraps up its third season with a backdoor pilot for LAREDO, which would debut that fall. I credit writer Borden Chase for bringing the LAREDO cast aboard without ever letting them steal the show, as often happens in these stealth pilots that sometimes sideline the regular cast entirely (see for example the "Jeffersons Move On Up" episode of ALL IN THE FAMILY).
As a relative tenderfoot at Shiloh, having only watched half of the first season of THE VIRGINIAN, and having never seen LAREDO, this was all-new ground to me. Timeless, the Western fan's favorite DVD packager, included this third season finale as a bonus disc in its first season LAREDO set. It was unsettling to time travel a few seasons ahead and see the cast changes. Among the welcome new faces were L.Q. Jones of CHEYENNE and young Randy Boone, whom I know from his later series CIMARRON STRIP. I was hoping to see Clu Gulager of THE TALL MAN, but he was taking a powder along with the ever-absent Lee J. Cobb, who even in the first season was MIA more often than not.
They say if you're going to steal, steal from the best, and Borden Chase, banging out this adventure on a battered Remington-Rand, drew upon those time-honored trios of yesteryear: the Three Musketeers and the Three Godfathers. Great sources both. When Trampas crosses swords, so to speak, with Reese, then Chad, then Riley, it was straight out of the pages of Dumas with our hapless hero as D'Artagnan, scheduled for three duels to the death. When the testosterone simmers down, however, it's the beginning of a beautiful bromance.
And when Reese emerged from the train with a baby, what Western fan didn't think of THE 3 GODFATHERS? It was an especially well done scene, lightheartedness leavened with heartbreak for the family that was massacred by the Yaqui Indians. The men in their ineptness trying to do the right thing for this little life that emerged from tragedy. Baby seemed eager to try a bite of that beef jerky before Trampas again intervened. When Reese mentions the baby's lack of manners in wetting himself, note that Reese's left sleeve is soaked at the elbow. I wondered if baby really did let loose or if there was a crackerjack continuity person on duty (though the rubber nipple on the baby bottle is probably anachronistic).
I credit all the actors involved with already having an easy chemistry and rapport. They played really well each other, with the exception perhaps of Phil Carey as Captain Parmalee, who seemed to take his cues from Frank Sutton's Sgt. Carter on GOMER PYLE. All slow burn and barking orders. Here's hoping the implied illicit attentions of Carmelita Flanagan mellowed him out for the series proper.
Seeing Trampas tagging along with three friends stirred up memories of the first season episode "West," in which the restless youth quit Shiloh to trek westward with three fun-loving saddle tramps led by Claude Akins as Lump. "We've Lost a Train" was a much better episode that balanced the humor and suspense. It also showed how much Trampas has matured since the opening season. He is often the voice of reason and experience, and the three rangers come to appreciate his counsel. A younger Trampas, like the one who in "Riff-Raff" ran off to join the Rough Riders, would have raised his right hand and joined the Texas Rangers on a lark. At the close, when Carmelita drops her shoulder strap alluringly, Trampas can smile and ride off, worldly wise enough now to discern the dangers awaiting men who fall for aging and desperate bordello madams, which wisdom puts him a step ahead of Matt Dillon.
Let us not forget the macguffin of the piece: Sam the Hereford bull. How did Trampas get him across the Rio Grande, anyway? But looking at that heavy head graced with white curls, I came to suspect that this was the very same bull that played Vindicator in the 1966 Jimmy Stewart movie THE RARE BREED. That fun and fine film was produced by Universal, as was THE VIRGINIAN, and was likely in production about this same time.
Three cheers for writer Borden Chase, who has given Western fans much to appreciate, from RED RIVER, WINCHESTER '73, BEND OF THE RIVER, and NIGHT PASSAGE to name but a few. By the 1960s his big screen star had dimmed and he was submitting strong scripts for television shows, such as the opening episode of DANIEL BOONE and three episodes of Doug McClure's earlier and underappreciated Western OVERLAND TRAIL (including both shows featuring The O'Mara). This was his third and final script for THE VIRGINIAN, and the third was indeed a charm! Surprisingly, he never wrote for THE LAREDO series, nor was he credited as that series' creator.
In addition to his writing, Borden blazed the trail that later brought infamy to Woody Allen. As he neared age 50 Borden began a love affair with his stepdaughter Patricia, then only about 25, which understandably resulted in a messy divorce. It must have been true love because, like Woody and Soon-Yi, Borden and Pat married, and their May-December romance endured through his death at age 71 (sadly, Pat died just a few years later in 1974 only in her late forties).
I enjoyed Chase's rollicking yarn this morning not knowing that today is the 48th anniversary of his death on March 8, 1971. I thought I would write a review as a tribute to a good writer whose work is worth remembering and enjoying again and again.
As a relative tenderfoot at Shiloh, having only watched half of the first season of THE VIRGINIAN, and having never seen LAREDO, this was all-new ground to me. Timeless, the Western fan's favorite DVD packager, included this third season finale as a bonus disc in its first season LAREDO set. It was unsettling to time travel a few seasons ahead and see the cast changes. Among the welcome new faces were L.Q. Jones of CHEYENNE and young Randy Boone, whom I know from his later series CIMARRON STRIP. I was hoping to see Clu Gulager of THE TALL MAN, but he was taking a powder along with the ever-absent Lee J. Cobb, who even in the first season was MIA more often than not.
They say if you're going to steal, steal from the best, and Borden Chase, banging out this adventure on a battered Remington-Rand, drew upon those time-honored trios of yesteryear: the Three Musketeers and the Three Godfathers. Great sources both. When Trampas crosses swords, so to speak, with Reese, then Chad, then Riley, it was straight out of the pages of Dumas with our hapless hero as D'Artagnan, scheduled for three duels to the death. When the testosterone simmers down, however, it's the beginning of a beautiful bromance.
And when Reese emerged from the train with a baby, what Western fan didn't think of THE 3 GODFATHERS? It was an especially well done scene, lightheartedness leavened with heartbreak for the family that was massacred by the Yaqui Indians. The men in their ineptness trying to do the right thing for this little life that emerged from tragedy. Baby seemed eager to try a bite of that beef jerky before Trampas again intervened. When Reese mentions the baby's lack of manners in wetting himself, note that Reese's left sleeve is soaked at the elbow. I wondered if baby really did let loose or if there was a crackerjack continuity person on duty (though the rubber nipple on the baby bottle is probably anachronistic).
I credit all the actors involved with already having an easy chemistry and rapport. They played really well each other, with the exception perhaps of Phil Carey as Captain Parmalee, who seemed to take his cues from Frank Sutton's Sgt. Carter on GOMER PYLE. All slow burn and barking orders. Here's hoping the implied illicit attentions of Carmelita Flanagan mellowed him out for the series proper.
Seeing Trampas tagging along with three friends stirred up memories of the first season episode "West," in which the restless youth quit Shiloh to trek westward with three fun-loving saddle tramps led by Claude Akins as Lump. "We've Lost a Train" was a much better episode that balanced the humor and suspense. It also showed how much Trampas has matured since the opening season. He is often the voice of reason and experience, and the three rangers come to appreciate his counsel. A younger Trampas, like the one who in "Riff-Raff" ran off to join the Rough Riders, would have raised his right hand and joined the Texas Rangers on a lark. At the close, when Carmelita drops her shoulder strap alluringly, Trampas can smile and ride off, worldly wise enough now to discern the dangers awaiting men who fall for aging and desperate bordello madams, which wisdom puts him a step ahead of Matt Dillon.
Let us not forget the macguffin of the piece: Sam the Hereford bull. How did Trampas get him across the Rio Grande, anyway? But looking at that heavy head graced with white curls, I came to suspect that this was the very same bull that played Vindicator in the 1966 Jimmy Stewart movie THE RARE BREED. That fun and fine film was produced by Universal, as was THE VIRGINIAN, and was likely in production about this same time.
Three cheers for writer Borden Chase, who has given Western fans much to appreciate, from RED RIVER, WINCHESTER '73, BEND OF THE RIVER, and NIGHT PASSAGE to name but a few. By the 1960s his big screen star had dimmed and he was submitting strong scripts for television shows, such as the opening episode of DANIEL BOONE and three episodes of Doug McClure's earlier and underappreciated Western OVERLAND TRAIL (including both shows featuring The O'Mara). This was his third and final script for THE VIRGINIAN, and the third was indeed a charm! Surprisingly, he never wrote for THE LAREDO series, nor was he credited as that series' creator.
In addition to his writing, Borden blazed the trail that later brought infamy to Woody Allen. As he neared age 50 Borden began a love affair with his stepdaughter Patricia, then only about 25, which understandably resulted in a messy divorce. It must have been true love because, like Woody and Soon-Yi, Borden and Pat married, and their May-December romance endured through his death at age 71 (sadly, Pat died just a few years later in 1974 only in her late forties).
I enjoyed Chase's rollicking yarn this morning not knowing that today is the 48th anniversary of his death on March 8, 1971. I thought I would write a review as a tribute to a good writer whose work is worth remembering and enjoying again and again.
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- GaryPeterson67
- Mar 8, 2019
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