Bonanza (TV Series) The Brass Box (1965) User Reviews

The Patrone class

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 19 May 2016]

Ramon Novarro guest stars in this Bonanza episode as a Spanish Don fallen into genteel poverty who everyone likes and buys drinks for at the saloon. But he's got a nephew in Michael Dante who is interested in lifting Novarro and himself into the Patrone class like the Cartwrights and an old Spanish land grant giving his family entitlement to just about all the land around including most of the Ponderosa could do just that.

Lorne Greene might be willing to settle this legally, but others in the Virginia City aren't behaving so nobly. Since the Cartwrights were back for another Bonanza episode or two we know Dante and Novarro did not succeed in this.

Ramon Novarro as a proud descendant of Spanish settlers turns in a fine performance, sadly one of his last. This episode is worth watching for him alone.

Ramon Novarro makes this episode a must-see.

[David-240 · 9/10 · 20 December 2009]

Ever wanted to hear Pavarotti sing "Baby One More Time", or see Gordon Ramsay make a hamburger, well that's what it's like watching the great silent film star Ramon Novarro act his heart out in this episode of "Bonanza". It is extraordinary to see him playing his scenes with such an intensity of emotion that you could swear his dialogue was written by Shakespeare. More than anything his performance reveals what a wasted talent he was in Hollywood. It is sadly ironic too that his character is physically tortured in one scene, given the terrible nature of his murder just three years later.

To give the episode its due, it is actually pretty good. The story of an elderly Spanish man who claims his family legally own the Ponderosa, and a large part of the land around it, has resonance with the the land rights claims of indigenous people all over the world today, and Novarro manages to capture the dignified humiliation of a once great family reduced to being an object of ridicule living on the fringes of society. Perhaps he was drawing on his own fall from being a major Hollywood star. In any case he gives his scenes a greater depth than they perhaps deserve, and makes this episode unforgettable. Lorne Greene especially seems to pick up on this and matches him well in their scenes together.

This episode is a must-see for all actors.

Most of the cast is amazing.

[crabbylucy · 9/10 · 29 May 2022]

Our regular Bonanza cast is always amazing. Ramon Navarro played an amazingly genuine roll.

The nephew "Miguel" was very definitely underwhelming. There was no sign of an accent, and his pronunciation in Spanish was awful.

I'm so glad everyone else played their hearts out and made this a great episode.