Bart joins a wagon train headed for the Black Hills. Arlene Howell is Cindy Lou Brown, and she is running from an outlaw who put money inside a doll. The wagon train reaches Fort Doom only to find that most of the troops have died from a cholera epidemic. I googled cholera and found it to be a bacterial infection of the small intestine. When Indians attack the fort, Bart and his group fight them. Things are tough all over! Cindy Lou was not the force Samantha Crawford was, but she was pretty and likable. Arlene Howell was Miss USA of 1958, and third runner-up in the Miss Universe Pageant. Pappyism: "Love is the only thing in life you've got to earn. Everything else you can steal."
3 Reviews
Bart Maverick - Trail Scout
bkoganbing5 September 2018
This episode finds Jack Kelly looking to take any kind of work to get to Deadwood
and poker. But Kelly needs a grubstake so he takes a job scouting for Scotsman
Alan Caillou's wagon train to Deadwood. Not that's he Buffalo Bill, but Kelly
does know the way there.
It's quite an interesting group on the wagon train especially the women. Arlene Howell is running off with the loot from her boyfriend's bank robbery, Nancy Gates is planning to kill her husband, and Diane McBain is a blossoming late teen beauty.
They have all kinds of adventures enough for a few Wagon Train episodes if done individually. The most interesting is the pilgrims fleeing to an abandoned cavalry fort with Indians close on their heels. So why are there no soldiers there?
You have to watch a pretty episode to see how all these subplots are resolved.
It's quite an interesting group on the wagon train especially the women. Arlene Howell is running off with the loot from her boyfriend's bank robbery, Nancy Gates is planning to kill her husband, and Diane McBain is a blossoming late teen beauty.
They have all kinds of adventures enough for a few Wagon Train episodes if done individually. The most interesting is the pilgrims fleeing to an abandoned cavalry fort with Indians close on their heels. So why are there no soldiers there?
You have to watch a pretty episode to see how all these subplots are resolved.
Soap Opera on the Prairie
Gislef15 November 2020
Warning: Spoilers
It's another Bart/Western episode. In which other than Bart's presence and occasional Maverick-ish bits, there's nothing to distinguish the episode from any other period Western
The parts with Bart and Cindy Lou are good. But most of the episode focuses on the wagon train passengers, making the episode seem like an episode of... well, 'Wagon Train'. There's a scout, Granger, who joins up with the train, and of course he's secretly in love with one of the female members, Dorothy. Who is initially willing to kill her husband Ben for the money. But then she sees him in a shootout, and has second thoughts about the cowardly scout versus her brave husband, who she never knew was brave.
An older woman, Martha, is taking her daughter Charlotte to get married to a soldier, George, at the title-named Fort Doom. But Charlotte has second thoughts, and with a little prodding from Bart and a kiss (ahhh!), changes her mind and refuses to let her mother Martha dominate her life. Martha's barely-seen husband Charles steps forward and seems to be satisfied that their daughter has finally stood up for herself.
Oh, and Cindy Lou ends up with some money from a thief, Claude Rogan, who she was romantically involved with. He hid the money in Cindy Lou's doll, and... she doesn't seem like the doll type. Rogan comes looking for the money with his men, but he turns tail and runs when Bart and the train menfolk open fire on him. And that's the end of that subplot. We never hear from Rogan again. Cindy Lou mentions the money briefly at the end, when she offers to split the reward with Bart and the wagon master. So... Bart got $1,000, if he got one-third of the 10% reward. Small pickings, but he does also get Cindy Lou at the end.
Overall, "Passage" is a mediocre episode. None of the train passengers are very distinctive, and names are spouted off in passing or later in the episode. So it's hard to keep track of who is who, at least to me. The episode just ends: Rogan disappears, and Charlotte sees Dorothy and Granger shoot each other dead. It's not clear if this inspires her not to marry George, when she sees how love can curdle. Or if she just stays silent to avoid disappointing Ben, who believes his wife died fighting the Indians during the inevitable Act 4 Indian attack on Fort Doom.
I noted it in my review of the last Bart episode, but was 'Maverick' always so misogynistic? I suppose it's typical of the period, but Bart doesn't think much of women based on a couple of lines tossed off here. I don't recall Brett being so off-handedly dismissive/cruel toward women.
"Passage" just isn't that good, and one gets the impression the script was lifted from an episode of 'Wagon Train'. You barely notice Bart. Arlene Howell is easy on the eye and makes a suitable romantic interest for Bart. She has appeared on the show before, but she seems like a small-fry conwoman compared to some of the "Maverick women". Like Samantha Crawford. Cindy Lou is the typical "Out for herself but also drawn to a Maverick brother romantically" femme fatale. Howell isn't bad in the part, but her relationship with Bart gets short shrift compared to the "adventures" of Dorothy and Charlotte.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
The parts with Bart and Cindy Lou are good. But most of the episode focuses on the wagon train passengers, making the episode seem like an episode of... well, 'Wagon Train'. There's a scout, Granger, who joins up with the train, and of course he's secretly in love with one of the female members, Dorothy. Who is initially willing to kill her husband Ben for the money. But then she sees him in a shootout, and has second thoughts about the cowardly scout versus her brave husband, who she never knew was brave.
An older woman, Martha, is taking her daughter Charlotte to get married to a soldier, George, at the title-named Fort Doom. But Charlotte has second thoughts, and with a little prodding from Bart and a kiss (ahhh!), changes her mind and refuses to let her mother Martha dominate her life. Martha's barely-seen husband Charles steps forward and seems to be satisfied that their daughter has finally stood up for herself.
Oh, and Cindy Lou ends up with some money from a thief, Claude Rogan, who she was romantically involved with. He hid the money in Cindy Lou's doll, and... she doesn't seem like the doll type. Rogan comes looking for the money with his men, but he turns tail and runs when Bart and the train menfolk open fire on him. And that's the end of that subplot. We never hear from Rogan again. Cindy Lou mentions the money briefly at the end, when she offers to split the reward with Bart and the wagon master. So... Bart got $1,000, if he got one-third of the 10% reward. Small pickings, but he does also get Cindy Lou at the end.
Overall, "Passage" is a mediocre episode. None of the train passengers are very distinctive, and names are spouted off in passing or later in the episode. So it's hard to keep track of who is who, at least to me. The episode just ends: Rogan disappears, and Charlotte sees Dorothy and Granger shoot each other dead. It's not clear if this inspires her not to marry George, when she sees how love can curdle. Or if she just stays silent to avoid disappointing Ben, who believes his wife died fighting the Indians during the inevitable Act 4 Indian attack on Fort Doom.
I noted it in my review of the last Bart episode, but was 'Maverick' always so misogynistic? I suppose it's typical of the period, but Bart doesn't think much of women based on a couple of lines tossed off here. I don't recall Brett being so off-handedly dismissive/cruel toward women.
"Passage" just isn't that good, and one gets the impression the script was lifted from an episode of 'Wagon Train'. You barely notice Bart. Arlene Howell is easy on the eye and makes a suitable romantic interest for Bart. She has appeared on the show before, but she seems like a small-fry conwoman compared to some of the "Maverick women". Like Samantha Crawford. Cindy Lou is the typical "Out for herself but also drawn to a Maverick brother romantically" femme fatale. Howell isn't bad in the part, but her relationship with Bart gets short shrift compared to the "adventures" of Dorothy and Charlotte.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
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