"Bronco" The Last Resort (1959)

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Director:

Lee Sholem

Writer:

Jack Laird (writer)

TV Series:

"Bronco" (1958)

Original Air Date:

17 November 1959 (Season 2, Episode 5)

Genre:

Western

Plot:

Pursued by Marshall Gaffney for a robbery he did not commit, Bronco rides to the town of "Last Resort"...

Plot Keywords:

Shirtless Male Bondage | Whipping | Whipping Post | Character Name In Title

Cast

Ty Hardin	...	Bronco Layne
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jean Allison	...	Flora Waters
Robert Carson	...	Sheriff Hodgkins
John L. Cason	...	McBride
Don C. Harvey	...	Curly Dan
Jim Hayward	...	Silas Waters
Peggy Jackson	...	Peggy
Ken Lynch	...	Marshall Gaffney
Vito Scotti	...	Pio Quinta
Orville Sherman	...	Johnny Deuce
Arthur Space	...	Morgan Owing
Kent Taylor	...	Three Fingers Jack
Marshall Thompson	...	Billy Styles
Warren Vanders	...	Guard

Quotes:

Curly Dan: [to Bronco Layne] You've been playing with my private property. By rights, I can shoot you dead where you sit.

Too much plot, not enough whipping

The core of this episode (written by Jack Laird) is intriguing. In order to clear his name from a false robbery charge, Bronco travels to an outlaws' hideout on the Mexican border known as "the Last Resort." This hideout actually has all the earmarks of a small town and it's ruled over by a man known as Three Fingers Jack. Now living in this town is Billy Styles, the robber for whose crime Bronco has been unjustly blamed.

Yes, there's good material for a story here with the town of "Last Resort" providing an almost surreal backdrop -- sort of like the village in "The Prisoner." Unfortunately, there's a bit too much plot stuffed into this hour-long episode. (Less would have been more.) For example, on the way to the hideout, Bronco spends a night on the farm of Silas and Flora Waters. Flora feels trapped on this isolated farm with only the dour, taciturn Silas for company and she longs for Bronco to take her away so she can escape her drab existence. There's enough material here for an entire episode but Flora's story proves to be just so much "filler" and she and her problems are quickly dropped as soon as Bronco rides off to new adventures. At least Flora gets a chance to give Bronco a passionate kiss while he's tied up in her barn. (Don't ask.) There's also a potential episode lurking in the colorful character of Johnny Deuce, whom Bronco meets en route to the Last Resort, and once he arrives at his destination, we want to know more about Three Fingers Jack, not to mention Peggy (the dance hall girl) and her loutish boyfriend, Curly Dan.

As if there aren't enough ingredients in this stew, we also have the character of Billy Styles who has a charm worthy of more thorough investigation but who simply flits through the story without quite coming into focus. (Marshall Thompson plays this part but seems a bit too "square" for Billy. Perhaps Clu Gulagher might have been a better choice.) This episode, however, is not without its points of interest, the chief one being the flogging which Bronco endures on the main street of the town. Stripped to the waist and tied to a T-shaped whipping post, Bronco suffers through at least six lashes of a forty-lash sentence before the flogging is interrupted by a tearful Peggy. (Bronco had been accused of trying to steal Peggy away from Curly Dan.) The flogging scene isn't all that impressive. (It ranks 26th in the book "Lash! The Hundred Great Scenes of Men Being Whipped in the Movies.") The flogger doesn't really know how to wield his weapon, (which looks more like a rope than a whip), and the whole affair finishes up in just a few seconds. However, we then have a post-flogging scene of a shirtless Bronco lying on his stomach on Three Fingers Jack's couch, recuperating from his lashing. The welts on his back -- which look drawn on with lipstick -- don't appear to match the flogging he just received but, hey, any chance to see Ty Hardin with his shirt off is always welcome.

Incidentally, Marshall Thompson and Ken Lynch (as the pursuing lawman) also have separate "beefcake" scenes as they're seen taking baths in washtubs, but obviously neither can compete with 29-year-old Ty Hardin in the physique department.