Incident at Jacob's Well Oct 16, 1959
Incident of the 13th Man Oct 23, 1959
Incident at the Buffalo Smokehouse Oct 30, 1959
Incident of the Haunted Hills Nov 6, 1959
The problem with Jacob's Well is that there's too many of them. A community has run dry and the citizens keep digging wells in hope that they can reach water. Open pits are all over the place. Favor has to keep his steers and his drovers from them. The community's leader plots to get the drive's horses from them as a means to leave the area, (their animals have died out or left on their own). His wife, (played by Patricia Medina), has gone insane but is able to distract the drovers with a sensuous dance. But she's jealous of the attention her husband gives to his adult daughter. She pushes her into a week and also Rowdy Yates when he tries to help, (in a poorly orchestrated scene). Favor and the drovers eventually get their horses back and rescue Rowdy and the daughter and, predictably, the wife, trying to escape, falls into another abandoned well and is killed. One of the stranger episodes.
The 13th Man is another episode that has nothing to do with a trail drive. Rowdy and Wishbone are shanghaied to serve on a jury trying the local dentist, (Wishbone needs a tooth removed, which is done without anesthetic or any bandaging), for murder. The prosecution's case breaks down when their only witness reneges on what he told the prosecutor. The decision seems easy. But some people on the jury are sure he's guilty just because they know this dentist who is also the local pharmacist and undertaker. He's also the town boss and the dead man was a rival. The guards issue warnings to the jurors of what will happen to them if they vote the man guilty. Eventually 11 men, including Rowdy and Wishbone get the courage to vote 'guilty'. The 12th man shakes the hand of the dentist, (the '13th man' because of his attempts to intimidate the jury) but has his own personal revenge in mind.
The credits say that Patrick MacNee of the TV 'Avengers' plays 'Henry Watkins' in this episode. Neither Macnee nor Watkins appears on the screen. MacNee was in Hollywood at this time. His autobiography mentions that he was an extra on Gunsmoke, but doesn't give the episode - maybe he meant Rawhide? I suspect he appeared in a scene that wound up on the cutting room floor.
This one opens with Wishbone, not Favor, describing the trail drive and saying that there's one indispensable man on the drive - the cook!
The Buffalo Smokehouse starts out being about the trail drive- they are trying to out-run a prairie fire and find a place to ford a stream wide enough to protect them from it. Favor arrive at a local cabin to ask where the best place to ford the stream is. He meets Vera Miles, who warns him to leave or her jealous husband, (Leif Erickson), will arrive. But first an Army detail arrives looking for a group of four bandits who robbed the local fort and killed a couple for their men. They think Favor and Erickson might have been part of the group. They convince them they aren't. They leave but here comes the bandits, led by Gene Evans. The rest of the episode is a western version of "Key Largo", with the herd somewhere, trying to find a way across the river before the fire gets them.
The Haunted Hills have more directly to do with a trail drive but it's more remarkable for two things: John Drew Barrymore completely unrecognizable as a drover who is shunned member of the local Indian tribe whose sacred grounds are in a mountain pass full of geysers and is the only source of water for miles, (do they really want that kind of water?). The fact that he's unrecognizable is a tribute to his acting ability. Then there's those geysers. They seemed too real and too expensive to have been studio re-creations but the characters ride around them and the IMDB doesn't list any location other than the studio. Favor wants to negotiate with the local tribe to use their water for his men, horses and cattle but has to deal with them and a bigoted crew sent by the government to try to force them to give up the water.
The problem with Jacob's Well is that there's too many of them. A community has run dry and the citizens keep digging wells in hope that they can reach water. Open pits are all over the place. Favor has to keep his steers and his drovers from them. The community's leader plots to get the drive's horses from them as a means to leave the area, (their animals have died out or left on their own). His wife, (played by Patricia Medina), has gone insane but is able to distract the drovers with a sensuous dance. But she's jealous of the attention her husband gives to his adult daughter. She pushes her into a week and also Rowdy Yates when he tries to help, (in a poorly orchestrated scene). Favor and the drovers eventually get their horses back and rescue Rowdy and the daughter and, predictably, the wife, trying to escape, falls into another abandoned well and is killed. One of the stranger episodes.
The 13th Man is another episode that has nothing to do with a trail drive. Rowdy and Wishbone are shanghaied to serve on a jury trying the local dentist, (Wishbone needs a tooth removed, which is done without anesthetic or any bandaging), for murder. The prosecution's case breaks down when their only witness reneges on what he told the prosecutor. The decision seems easy. But some people on the jury are sure he's guilty just because they know this dentist who is also the local pharmacist and undertaker. He's also the town boss and the dead man was a rival. The guards issue warnings to the jurors of what will happen to them if they vote the man guilty. Eventually 11 men, including Rowdy and Wishbone get the courage to vote 'guilty'. The 12th man shakes the hand of the dentist, (the '13th man' because of his attempts to intimidate the jury) but has his own personal revenge in mind.
The credits say that Patrick MacNee of the TV 'Avengers' plays 'Henry Watkins' in this episode. Neither Macnee nor Watkins appears on the screen. MacNee was in Hollywood at this time. His autobiography mentions that he was an extra on Gunsmoke, but doesn't give the episode - maybe he meant Rawhide? I suspect he appeared in a scene that wound up on the cutting room floor.
This one opens with Wishbone, not Favor, describing the trail drive and saying that there's one indispensable man on the drive - the cook!
The Buffalo Smokehouse starts out being about the trail drive- they are trying to out-run a prairie fire and find a place to ford a stream wide enough to protect them from it. Favor arrive at a local cabin to ask where the best place to ford the stream is. He meets Vera Miles, who warns him to leave or her jealous husband, (Leif Erickson), will arrive. But first an Army detail arrives looking for a group of four bandits who robbed the local fort and killed a couple for their men. They think Favor and Erickson might have been part of the group. They convince them they aren't. They leave but here comes the bandits, led by Gene Evans. The rest of the episode is a western version of "Key Largo", with the herd somewhere, trying to find a way across the river before the fire gets them.
The Haunted Hills have more directly to do with a trail drive but it's more remarkable for two things: John Drew Barrymore completely unrecognizable as a drover who is shunned member of the local Indian tribe whose sacred grounds are in a mountain pass full of geysers and is the only source of water for miles, (do they really want that kind of water?). The fact that he's unrecognizable is a tribute to his acting ability. Then there's those geysers. They seemed too real and too expensive to have been studio re-creations but the characters ride around them and the IMDB doesn't list any location other than the studio. Favor wants to negotiate with the local tribe to use their water for his men, horses and cattle but has to deal with them and a bigoted crew sent by the government to try to force them to give up the water.
