This excellent episode should have been a '10' but the ending was a letdown. The real star of this episode isn't Connors or Crawford, it's Billy Hughes Jr. as 13-year-old Gridley Maule. (Hughes' name appears second-last in the credits, an injustice.) Grid has ridden a thousand miles to kill Lucas, because several years earlier Lucas had killed his father. Grid doesn't care that his father had just robbed a bank and had fired on Lucas, who returned fire in self-defense, killing him. Grid wants revenge on the man who killed his Pa no matter how it happened. This is one of the most intense episodes I've seen of Rifleman. Grid is deadly serious, a 13-year-old who dresses, acts, talks, and handles a gun like someone twice his age, and he wants only one thing - to face Lucas in a gunfight and kill him.
First he goes to the McCain ranch but Lucas isn't there; he pulls a gun on Mark, who lies that his dad is in town at the hotel. After Grid leaves to find Lucas at the hotel, Mark returns to where his dad is working and tells him what happened. Lucas heads to North Fork where he finds out that this young man has registered at the hotel; when he sees the name in the hotel register, he knows what it's about. Lucas confronts Grid about having pulled a gun on Mark earlier, and Grid demands that they go out in the street and shoot it out because he has come a thousand miles to get even for Lucas killing his pa. Lucas is reluctant to engage in a shootout with a gunslinger who's still a kid; he stalls for a moment, then gives Gridley something to think about, by putting six matches into a hitching post and then lighting them with six shots from his rifle. Grid watches with some bewilderment. Lucas asks 'Are you ready to talk now?' Grid's reply is to pull his revolver and bang out six quick shots, extinguishing the lit matches. Now Lucas and Micah are both visibly worried because obviously this kid is dangerous with a gun and not put off by Lucas's rifle exhibition. All Lucas can think to do is walk away and hope Grid will cool off. Instead though, Grid goes back out to the McCain ranch where he tries to engage Mark in a gunfight because he "can get even with one McCain as good as another." Lucas shows up a few minutes later and tricks Grid so that Mark can grab him from behind. They tie him up and take him back to town to Micah, the sheriff.
At the jail, Lucas wants to press charges over the attempt to make Mark engage in a gunfight, but Grid insists the guns weren't even loaded and he "wouldn't shoot a kid." Lucas tries again to talk some sense into Grid, who refuses to forget his mission of revenge. He tells how when he was eight years old, he had to bury his own father and it took him half a day just to dig the grave, and how to 'keep from bawling all the time' he spent his days and nights learning to shoot his father's guns. Now he wants to kill Lucas. (By putting together the details of his story, we learn he is now 13 years old which is about the age of the actor playing the role.) Micah suggests that he can send Grid to a reform school in Washington but it could take a few months to get him accepted; as Micah walks him to a jail cell, Grid viciously yells a threat at Lucas. 'Go ahead, send me to Washington, but I'll come back and I'll kill you.' Once in the cell, Lucas's lady friend Lou who runs the hotel tries to talk to Grid, thinking he might respond better to her than to the men. At first he is upset and keeps telling her to just leave him alone, but eventually he agrees to be released into her custody to see what she can do with him. It's at this point that the story loses its bite. In short order Lou turns this 13-year-old gunfighter into a polite 13-year-old boy, and at the end of the story he agrees to be a blacksmith's apprentice. It's just not credible that Grid, self-raised, self-reliant and filled with purposeful hate, would agree to let someone turn him into a kid he probably never was. This story deserved an ending as intense as the rest of the story. Whether dead or alive, Grid should have ended the story in-character.
Billy Hughes Jr. as Gridley Maule Jr. is excellent. He fully looks the part of the pint-sized gunman from black hat to spurs, and he can really handle a revolver. In one scene he effortlessly twirls his gun and drops it into his holster; in another scene he draws on Mark McCain and with no trick photography involved, that gun is drawn and aimed in about 1/20 of a second. That one quick draw by itself is well worth the watching. Also, Hughes' acting talent belies his age. He delivers his lines with the hatred, or snottiness, or anger, or desperation that the scene calls for, and his expression telegraphs the thoughts that are going through his character's head even when he's not speaking. When Lou asks him how he likes being in jail, he sneers that it's 'just dandy' but you can see his anguish at this unanticipated turn of events. Hughes lives his part far beyond what you'd expect from someone so young.
The ending is a letdown, but most of the story is great to watch. It's just disappointing that a story that starts out so intense, becomes everyone living happily ever after.
First he goes to the McCain ranch but Lucas isn't there; he pulls a gun on Mark, who lies that his dad is in town at the hotel. After Grid leaves to find Lucas at the hotel, Mark returns to where his dad is working and tells him what happened. Lucas heads to North Fork where he finds out that this young man has registered at the hotel; when he sees the name in the hotel register, he knows what it's about. Lucas confronts Grid about having pulled a gun on Mark earlier, and Grid demands that they go out in the street and shoot it out because he has come a thousand miles to get even for Lucas killing his pa. Lucas is reluctant to engage in a shootout with a gunslinger who's still a kid; he stalls for a moment, then gives Gridley something to think about, by putting six matches into a hitching post and then lighting them with six shots from his rifle. Grid watches with some bewilderment. Lucas asks 'Are you ready to talk now?' Grid's reply is to pull his revolver and bang out six quick shots, extinguishing the lit matches. Now Lucas and Micah are both visibly worried because obviously this kid is dangerous with a gun and not put off by Lucas's rifle exhibition. All Lucas can think to do is walk away and hope Grid will cool off. Instead though, Grid goes back out to the McCain ranch where he tries to engage Mark in a gunfight because he "can get even with one McCain as good as another." Lucas shows up a few minutes later and tricks Grid so that Mark can grab him from behind. They tie him up and take him back to town to Micah, the sheriff.
At the jail, Lucas wants to press charges over the attempt to make Mark engage in a gunfight, but Grid insists the guns weren't even loaded and he "wouldn't shoot a kid." Lucas tries again to talk some sense into Grid, who refuses to forget his mission of revenge. He tells how when he was eight years old, he had to bury his own father and it took him half a day just to dig the grave, and how to 'keep from bawling all the time' he spent his days and nights learning to shoot his father's guns. Now he wants to kill Lucas. (By putting together the details of his story, we learn he is now 13 years old which is about the age of the actor playing the role.) Micah suggests that he can send Grid to a reform school in Washington but it could take a few months to get him accepted; as Micah walks him to a jail cell, Grid viciously yells a threat at Lucas. 'Go ahead, send me to Washington, but I'll come back and I'll kill you.' Once in the cell, Lucas's lady friend Lou who runs the hotel tries to talk to Grid, thinking he might respond better to her than to the men. At first he is upset and keeps telling her to just leave him alone, but eventually he agrees to be released into her custody to see what she can do with him. It's at this point that the story loses its bite. In short order Lou turns this 13-year-old gunfighter into a polite 13-year-old boy, and at the end of the story he agrees to be a blacksmith's apprentice. It's just not credible that Grid, self-raised, self-reliant and filled with purposeful hate, would agree to let someone turn him into a kid he probably never was. This story deserved an ending as intense as the rest of the story. Whether dead or alive, Grid should have ended the story in-character.
Billy Hughes Jr. as Gridley Maule Jr. is excellent. He fully looks the part of the pint-sized gunman from black hat to spurs, and he can really handle a revolver. In one scene he effortlessly twirls his gun and drops it into his holster; in another scene he draws on Mark McCain and with no trick photography involved, that gun is drawn and aimed in about 1/20 of a second. That one quick draw by itself is well worth the watching. Also, Hughes' acting talent belies his age. He delivers his lines with the hatred, or snottiness, or anger, or desperation that the scene calls for, and his expression telegraphs the thoughts that are going through his character's head even when he's not speaking. When Lou asks him how he likes being in jail, he sneers that it's 'just dandy' but you can see his anguish at this unanticipated turn of events. Hughes lives his part far beyond what you'd expect from someone so young.
The ending is a letdown, but most of the story is great to watch. It's just disappointing that a story that starts out so intense, becomes everyone living happily ever after.
