Route 66 (TV Series) The Newborn (1961) User Reviews

5/5/61: "The Newborn"

[schappe1 · 20 April 2015]

The boys are back dealing with ruthless businessmen in this and the next one. Albert Dekker plays a rancher whose wastrel son Is dead but also the father of a child an Indian woman, (Arlene Sax, who had previously been in "Legacy for Lucia" as an Italian woman) is pregnant with. He demands she have the child on his ranch and give it over to him. He'd like another chance at producing an heir worthy of his empire. She wants no part of the family.

Tod and Buz are working on the ranch and are ordered to retrieve her but rebel when they find out the rancher's plans. Robert Duval plays a psychopathic ranch hand they have a run-in with. Bing Russell, (Kurt's Dad), is another hand and tried to convince the boys that "We're not all like that". They aren't buying it and are leaving. The woman has already escaped form the ranch and they encounter her on the road. They find shelter for her. She gives birth and dies. They now have a baby to care for and decide to head for the reservation, where they will give the baby to the woman's tribe. Dekker sends all his men after them and Duval corners them with the apparent intent of killing them all. He meets his demise is a particularly unconvincing way. It winds up with a confrontation between Dekker and a priest, (Denver Pyle), who finally convinces him that the baby belongs with his people.

One of the more dramatically powerful episodes of the series.

Grace under pressure

[frank4122 · 10/10 · 7 November 2019]

Is the grace of God working with a grace under pressure young mother? Arlene Martel and Robert Duvall give another outstanding performance for Route 66. Buz and Tod are being chased by Albert Dekker's henchmen. They're assured by Bing Russell that they're really not so bad - or are they? Now our boys have another complication, thus the title, "The Newborn". I love Maharis and Milner's performance in a race to the finish with a hungry baby and a lynch mob in hot pursuit. Can they get the newborn to Denver Pyle and the Native American tribe where the baby truly belongs in time?

Exotic Visuals

[dougdoepke · 17 February 2015]

That opening panorama of northern New Mexico is a real grabber. There're elements of cowboys and Indians in this offbeat episode. The guys sign on to a cattle ranch run by tyrannical owner Frank Ivy (Dekker). Trouble is Ivy's son has raped and impregnated an Indian girl (Martel) before he died. Now Ivy wants the baby, no matter the human cost. Naturally Buzz and Todd side with the hapless Indian girl.

Dekker brings all his angry gravitas to the role of Ivy. Ivy's look and manner are easy to despise, despite there being some legitimacy to his claim; that is, as long as he stands in line with the other grandparents. This is another episode that draws greatly on unusual staging, this time of a lonely prairie and grimly isolated lodgings. The narrative itself wobbles at times, especially as it focuses on vicious cowboy Roman (Duvall). There's also a rather lordly overlay delivered by Denver Pyle as a mission priest.

All in all, it's an exotic entry, however the storyline is taken.

Stark and not believable

[lor_ · 2 December 2023]

Silliphant's script is too contrived to make this offbeat episode fly, with dramatics as stark as a Silent Era Western. Even the Corvette is largely absent, not used for either the opening or closing of the show and definitely out of place in a story filled with cowboys, horses and even in the final reel, Indians.

Arlene Martel is the saving grace here, giving a powerful performance (and handed all the flowery dialogue by Silliphant) as an Indian woman giving birth (aided by M & M) to the child of the son of the ranch owner. She was raped by him and the boy committed suicide thereafter, all part of a back story that would have been more interesting to watch than the actual episode.

Instead we have one-note performances as the "heavies" by Albert Dekker, as the bitter ranch owner and an early role for Robert Duvall, as his violent foreman with no redeeming characteristics. The conclusion, with stoic Indians as extras and a showdown with local priest Denver Pyle getting the better of evil Dekker, is utterly unconvincing.

Location near Santa Fe, New Mexico was shot on the ranch of the state's former governor.