User Reviews

I loved this episode. John Larch was fabulous as the evil, but nearly likable bad man. This reminded me a lot of Petrified Forest, the old Bogart film. I believe the actor who played the stage driver was the same fellow who played the Sheriff in many Bonanza episodes. He was also outstanding as was a very youthful looking Warren Oates.

I agree with the other comment that the story was somewhat standard western fare but it was elevated in my eyes by the wonderful cast and superb production. The opening scene was magnificent as the two hard edged escaped convicts played by Larch and Oates bushwhack a lonely prospector as the rain falls in torrents. This was one of the better done scenes that I have ever seen in a western, any western. It plays almost like an old thirties horror film...very cool. I knew it was going to be a special film just from that great opening. I also found it very interesting that the Larch character was anything but a one dimensional character. That was certainly not always the case during those days in Hollywood westerns.

Another plus was the entirely realistic shootout at the end of the episode. Very well done. Overall, I gave this one a ten! Darn near a perfect little film. Larch and McQueen were awesome.

Josh Randall is taking a young hoodlum (John Wilder) on a stagecoach to collect his bounty. The stage driver is Ray Teal, who always seemed to play a very nice guy, often as the sheriff on the Bonanza TV series.

Along come the escaped killers, played by John Larch and Warren Oates. They opened this episode with a rather chilling strangulation of an old prospector (Forrest Lewis) they surprised as he was cooking his food in his shelter in the rain.

Randall and Larch have a lot of good guy / bad guy give and take. It is fairly obvious that Larch is going to kill Randall at some point. Larch takes a liking to the young thug (Wilder) and he is freed. Oates does not have much dialogue, but he does a good job as the evil sidekick who does all the killing for Larch.

The end of this episode is very heartbreaking for fans of Ray Teal. Like usual, he manages to play a Western character in a very humble, sincere, and kind manner. That scene is played in a sinister and touching manner.

After that, it is looking grim for Randall. Almost by freak luck, Randall gets his chance to make things right, and avenge Ray Teal. The shootout is excellent, exciting, fast, and you get it from three angles. Cinema quality ending.

A young kid who committed armed robbery but is obviously a decent person, is nonetheless being transported by Josh Randall via stage. En route, they are taken hostage by two killers, who we saw briefly murder a nice old man in the episode's introduction. John Larch ("Kale") is the main killer here and is not someone whose name we know but his face is recognizable. He was one of these actors that was in the million of TV shows in the '50s through the 70s. His young, stupid partner, "Cox," however, is Warren Oates, who turned out to be a fairly big movie star.

Anyway, "Kale" figures out the best way he and his partner can escape is to get across the border. All of them - the two crooks, the nice kid crook, Randall and the stage driver - go on a stagecoach headed that way. When they get to the border, it will look like Kale and Cox are prisoners being escorted by Randall and company. However, since the bad guys have all the guns, they will still be in charge all the way. That's the plan. The ending was a very predictable one that even I could see coming a mile away so, for that, it loses a point or two. It's still a pretty decent episode with good acting.