User Reviews

"Sharpshooter" director Arnold Laven and scenarist Palmer Thompson generate genuine suspense in the sixth episode of "The Rifleman" television series with guest star George Macready as an Old Testament judge driven by revenge to dispatch anybody who had participated in the hanging death of his son. This episode opens with a public hanging on a wooden scaffold with the convicted man standing with his back to the camera so we cannot see his face. A priest performs the last rites. The hanged man drapes a sack over the condemned man's head and the sentence is carried out. No sooner has the man been hanged than a dark rider shows up and executes the hangman at point blank range with a six-shooter. All we see of this stern but mysterious individual is his boots. The horseman utters two brief sentences in a solemn tone. "Judgment is mine. For I am the true judge of all things." Having said his piece, the rider shoots the hangman and rides away from the corpse. Before the enigmatic horseman rides away, Laven focuses on the man's boots, and we are shown a close-up of an oval medallion with the symbol of the scales of justice with the word justice spelled out in capital letters underneath it. Later, the mysterious rider confronts Judge Martin Harlow (Irving Mitchell), the judge who presided over the case, and he guns him down in broad daylight on main street. Harlow received a letter about the death of the hangman before he encountered the murderous rider. Eventually, Lucas gets wind of these murders when he receives a similar letter. Now, he fears the possibility that the killer will track him down. Lucas, it seems, participated in the arrest of the hanged man; he shot him in the leg with is vaunted rifle. Mark (Johnny Crawford of "El Dorado") rides off to school while Lucas (Chuck Connors of "Branded") carries out his daily chores. Unbeknownst to Lucas, Judge Zephaniah Burton (George Macready of "Knock on Any Door") gets the drop on Lucas while he is carrying a calf. Burton surprises Lucas as well as the audience by not killing him on the spot. Burton ties Lucas up to the wheel of a wagon and informs him that he is going to hang Mark while Lucas is powerless to prevent it. Not long afterward, Burton is surprised when a boy rides up and tells him that Mark has been forced to stay after class to chop a cord of firewood because his teacher caught him with a spit wad. Burton leaves Lucas tied to the wagon wheel and rides off to the school house to abduct Mark. Lucas has been working with a forge and he manages to topple it and roll the wagon within reach of the fire. He burns his bonds with a glowing coal and sets out after Burton. Meantime, Burton has reached the school and tells Mark and his teacher, Miss Adams (Marilee Phelps of "Arena"), that Lucas injured his ankle during a wagon crash. Naturally, Mark believes the older gentleman and accompanies him back to the ranch. While they are riding back to the ranch, Burton falls off his horse when it trips over a fallen branch. The judge hurts himself and mistakes Mark as his son. While Mark is getting some water, Burton brandishes his firearm. Lucas comes galloping up, determined to save Mark from Burton. Burton fires and Mark falls out-of-sight. Lucas is strangling Burton when Mark emerges with a rattlesnake in his fist and explains that the evil judge shot the snake. Burton dies not long afterward. The suspense and surprises in "Eight Hours to Die" qualifies this episode as an above-average installment.

Maybe not the best episode,but it had what I like,good ole George Macready bringing his brand of villainy.For anyone who says he's incapable of any warmth,he was very decent to young Crawford,and not just when he fell off the horse.That we get to see an open shirted Chuck Connors didn't hurt,but I really liked the crazed Judge,even if he was totally wrong.And I see no sign of senility,just grief and indignation of a father who can't see his son was wild and drunk and guilty of what his drunkenness caused him to do.And the fact that now he'd probably do next to no time in prison.The lines Macready delivered when he gunned down his two victims are very powerful because of his unique voice.And that Lucas almost throttled him,come to find out he was saving someone,does atone for his murderous rage.I love this episode because of big,bad Macready!

I disagree with the other reviewers here (rubber snake aside) As noted this was a very early episode in the series and helped to initiate the bond between father and son, at least to a young viewer. There was one funny line when Lucas dramatically states "Yes Micah, it would be a real welcome to know what the man looks like who wants to kill me "...Uh that would be about half the men in the territory of New Mexico.

Anyhow the second half of the show had me on the edge of my seat as Lucas struggles to free himself from the ropes holding him to the wagon wheel while Judge Burton rides merrily off to kill Mark. I think that was the crux of this episode. To show that the best way to hurt Lucas McCain was by harming his son.. The scene at the end was exciting to me at least as Lucas attacks the judge with a rage rarely seen on Television at that time. Yes the show did end a bit abruptly but it left a lasting impression.

THE RIFLEMAN –Eight Hours To Die– 1958

This is the sixth episode from the 1958 to 1963 western series, THE RIFLEMAN. Over the course of 168 episodes we follow the life of Lucas McCain and his son, Mark. They have just moved to the small western town of North Fork where they hope to start a new life. Chuck Connors headlines the series with Johnny Crawford as his son. Connors is a world class hand with a Winchester rifle which of course ends up getting him in no end of trouble.

Someone is bumping off people who had been involved in the capture, conviction and hanging of a murderer. Each person gets a note telling them that their date with justice is coming. Our man Connors was involved in the capture of the man.

It takes a while but the law finally figures out who is behind the killings, it is the father, George Macready, of the man who was hanged. Macready, an old time circuit Judge, has his own idea of Justice. He refuses to believe that a child of his loins could be a murderer. Therefore his son was hung in error. The people responsible need to be punished.

Macready hits North Fork and quickly finds Connors. He also discovers that Connors has a son, Johnny Crawford, who is in town at school. Macready decides that what better choice for revenge, can there be than to kill the son of someone involved in killing his own son. It is just a stroke of good luck that saves Crawford. (And a really bad looking rubber rattlesnake)

A not so bad idea handled in a somewhat clumsy manner. Oh well, one has to expect the odd clunker in a run of 168 episodes.

But seriously, wouldn't Lucas have gone to check on his son (who appeared to have been shot) before wasting time strangling the nutty judge first?

This is the first of too many episodes in which someone wants to kill Lucas in revenge for some real or imagined affront. Here the revenge-seeker is played by George Macready, famous for his creepy villains. (Macready's innately threatening voice made it difficult for him to play "nice" characters.)

The story is quite brutal, with at least two on-camera murders, and is the first of the "Lucas tied up in kinky bondage with his chest bare" episodes. Unfortunately, the plot is so tightly compressed into 26 minutes that there isn't enough time for a nuanced ending (though there is time for a lecture on the dietary benefits of green leafy vegetables). The climax is slightly confusing and abrupt. (There isn't even time for a homily.) What might have been exceptional performances by Macready and Crawford are swallowed up in the need to meet a time limit.

I would normally give this episode a 6 (or even a 7) if it weren't for the rubber rattler. In a change of heart, Macready kills a rattlesnake that's threatening Mark. When Mark holds up the "corpse" to show Lucas what actually happened, it appears to be some sort of long, pointed /rubber tube/ (apparently burned), rather than the rear (and rattle-less!) end of a pit viper. One cannot avoid doubling over in raucous laughter.

How difficult would it have been for the set decorator to unearth a stuffed rattlesnake? Or the producers to commission the death of one (rattlesnake, not set decorator)? One wonders how such minor points (which are easily anticipated weeks before the show is filmed) could be so mishandled.