Stagecoach West (TV Series) Finn McCool (1961) User Reviews

Finn McCool

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 17 October 2023]

British actress Hazel Court frequently played married ladies with a lusty eye.

She is no different here. Court plays Sybil Allison, married to an English toff traveller on the stagecoach called Robert Allison.

The object of her affections is Finn McCool. An Irish charmer who is full of blarney. Being a roguish smoothie is easy as falling off a log for Finn.

However there is a dark side to Finn McCool. He is a survivor and will do so at any costs. He is on the run from Ireland having betrayed his Irish Republican comrades.

They have tracked him down to America. Finn escapes from them and goes on the stagecoach but trouble is not far behind.

It is a story where young Davey Kane also gets to like Finn but his father Simon is unsure. However he realises that once the Republicans track Finn down, he cannot allow cold blooded murder.

It is a story that is unsure how to deal with the complex Irish Republicanism issues as it tries to have it cake and eat it.

Even with a nice story, this episode fell flat.

[kfo9494 · 5/10 · 1 August 2016]

Finn McColl is an Irishman that tends to be an all around nice guy plus has his way with the ladies. But he does have enemies. A group of men from the Irish Republican Brotherhood have tracked Finn to the rural west and they have plans to kill him for betraying the brotherhood. At their first encounter Finn is able to get away and makes his way to the midway station where he impresses the young Davey. Her also impresses a married English woman, Sybil Allison, with his attractive charm. It seems that everyone likes Finn.

But when the men from the brotherhood track down Finn to the midway station, they tell the others they they are there to carry out a sentence on Finn for betray and killing many men in Ireland. But with everyone liking Finn and the fact that they are in the United States, they rest do not recognize Irish authority. Mrs. Allison tries to help Finn my sneaking him a knife so that he can cut the ropes from his imprisonment. But instead, Finn's true colors come through and even the people of midway station feel betrayed.

The story played out well and the true feeling of the character Finn made for an enjoyable watch but for some reason you never felt comfortable watching Sean McClory as the main character. The viewer always had sense that the way McClory played Finn, there was always something sinister about the character. And that could have been the reason the episode felt predictable right from the start. An average show to watch.