Wagon Train (TV Series) The Ah Chong Story (1961) User Reviews

Chinese Take In

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 5 May 2013]

It's sad that people watching this episode are concentrating on political correctness and not the comic talents of Arnold Stang who gives a very good performance in the title role of the Ah Chong Story. He may be a very comic bucktooth stereotype of an Oriental character, but he's quite human with some real human problems. And he's pretty resourceful.

Getting a bit tired of Frank McGrath's prima donna ways, Terry Wilson finds Stang in one of the towns on the route west and brings him along. Wilson and John McIntire take to Stang's cooking and McGrath is in danger of losing his place. Right now McIntire has him doing all kinds of dirty odd jobs.

It turns out that Stang is trying to get back to his home in China or brings his family here. A lot of Chinese were brought here to be cheap labor and they had a very hard life as has Stang. His opening up about his past life with McIntire is the high point of the show.

It's not politically correct and truth be told Stang lays it on a bit thick. But it's still a good episode, just not in the top drawer.

Looking at the 1960s Through Modern Eyes.

[sdenk-75725 · 6/10 · 9 April 2024]

I love watching re-runs of Wagon Train on INSP. The writing and story lines are better than what you see today.

However, as others have mentioned in their reviews, seeing this particular rerun from the 1960s, through our 21st century eyes, is as painful as it is embarrassing.

It was the days when the Philadelphia Mummers would march up Broad Street on New Year's Day in blackface; the role of native Americans in Westerns would be played by white actors like Michael Landon, Ed Ames or Michael Ansara speaking broken English while wearing ruddy makeup.

So why should we be surprised when New York City comedian Arnold Stang is assigned the role of "Ah Chung", the fill- in Chinese cook on the wagon train. You can see his strong European features and hear his raspy strong city accent under his faux broken English.

My thoughts are not to criticize the past, but to recognize the progress we have made in respecting our great diversity the past 60 years.

Pretty Unbearable, But Telling For The Time I Suppose

[richard.fuller1 · 1/10 · 16 July 2010]

The offensive depiction by Mickey Rooney in a movie as an Asian was Breakfast At Tiffany's and essentially it is that portrayal that keeps the movie from being more in circulation, as much as it is attempted to be ballyhooed as a great film.

The problem with that performance and all of these Asian depictions, is they are all portraying essentially the stereotype, not a character. Rooney especially drove that point home in Tiffany's, pretty much with his first appearance in the film.

Yet they all go beyond blackface, which was buffoonery. All the depictions seem to strive for some heart to the character, with the recognition being applied to the actor. "See how diverse I am in my talent?" as tho they are portraying garbage men who become scholars, or something.

Stang's is no better. Like Richard Haydn in the Bewitched episode, nothing is done to even make Stang 'look' Asian. Stang does what Rooney did and flashes a lot of teeth when he is first shown in closeup.

I suppose the remarkable thing is the birds nest soup that is mentioned. I've heard of this as a delicacy before, but Im kind of surprised the show didn't totally fabricate a Japanese dish.

Yet its all so dated now. Even the cowboy swagger and responses of trying to be civil and appreciative are clumsy sounding as well.

I suppose the remarkable thing about these depictions, and Tony Randall in Seven Faces of Dr. Lao (tho we still love to watch that movie) and Marlo Thomas appearing on Bonanza as a mail order bride, is that Keye Luke, Victor Sen Yung (Hop Sing from Bonanza), Miyoshi Umeki, James Shigeta and Nancy Kwan, no doubt among others, were all available or established as performers at this time. Why not use any of them? Vito Scotti's turns on Gilligan's Island, tho not the last, seem to stand as the pinnacle of how bad this all was (tho for the level of Gilligan's island, Scotti works). I think James Caan was a white man who did an imitation in a later Duke movie that was pretty frowning.

Perhaps Stang here stands as how it doesn't work and didn't work. One out of so many, certainly.

Tho credited, Robert Horton does not appear at all in this episode.

Racist, but cute in its naivete

[mknight74 · 3/10 · 20 June 2009]

Ah yes, the old days of the 50s and early 60s, where asians were apparently not capable of playing themselves ... but ridiculous, overacting white people were. I remember seeing this kind of thing for the first time with Mickey Rooney in some movie (popular movie, can't remember the title as this is all before my time). I initially thought it was funny, because I was a teen and didn't know any better. However, as time went on, I saw how absurd this kind of casting was - it was essentially putting on 'blackface', but instead with jet black hair and a stereotyped accent a 10 yr old could do (though probably better!).

Fortunately, Wagon Train rises above some of the other negative stereotypes and portrays 'orientals' (I believe thats how they were referred to back then) in a generally good light. WT always has a way of getting a moral message through without sounding preachy and they get the job done here as well. But thats about the only thing that saves this episode from being a rare dud for them