Wagon Train (TV Series) The Jonas Murdock Story (1960) User Reviews

Tough and resourceful

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 4 February 2018]

This particular episode of Wagon Train where Noah Beery, Jr. is in the title role is one where Terry Wilson finally came into his own as an actor. It's the first time Wilson dominates an episode as a good deal of the story is him chasing Beery through the desert.

The Wagon Train is in the territory of Chief Red Hawk who has decreed that no game will be hunted by the pilgrims or he'll massacre everybody. But Noah Beery decides those rules don't apply to him. He traps some rabbits and gets caught. He slugs Charlie Wooster and Major Adams is accidentally stabbed with a poker when he falls on it during a fight.

That leaves Bill Hawks to go after Beery and being a former scout himself he's tough and resourceful. But Terry Wilson proves to be very tough indeed.

For fans of the dependable Bill Hawks on the Wagon Train series this episode is your's.

Terry Wilson actor and stunt man for this episode

[hawkswill · 27 May 2012]

There is a very lengthy, extremely well done fight scene near the end of this episode. Noah Berry does part of his fighting, but has a double for some of the rough stuff. Terry Wilson, who began his career as a double, does all of his. If you watch this a time or too, you will always be able to pick out his double action in any fight. He has a certain distinct style. After watching this, watch the knife fight in HONDO where John Wayne has to fight Silva. Except for the closeups, all the work is done by Terry Wilson, and it is very evident if you indeed did watch the Wagon Train episode. Terry doubled for Duke quite often. In this same movie, he is Ed Lowe, as the Indian jumps him from the rock. He,Frank McGrath, (Wooster on Wagon Train), and Ward Bond were all in this John Ford directed movie and were all part of his stock company. In fact, a little known fact is that Frank McGrath was one of the best horse stunt men in the early westerns. In Wagon Master, a movie directed by Ford and starring Ben Johnson and Harry Carey, Jr., (although Ward Bond was the true star and was paid top money), Frank McGrath has just gotten out of a full body cast, and Ford had him do quite a few horse falls and drags. Oh, forgot, when Ward Bond died, Terry Wilson called Duke and said, "Hold on.....Ward just dropped dead". It is said that both men cried together on the phone. Lot more to those stunt men and character actors that you will ever know.

Noah Beery as guest star

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 29 September 2015]

The episode benefits from Noah Beery Jr.'s excellent performance as the title character, a slightly deranged mountain man named Jonas Murdock. But the story strays too far from the wagon train, like some installments do, and neither Adams nor Flint figure much in the main action. Instead, the action is left to Bill Hawks (Terry Wilson) who goes chasing after Beery's character through the desert and winds up having a violent hallucination after drinking some tainted water. There is one scene near the end, where Hawks catches up to Jonas and they have a knockdown drag-out. But in what is obviously a case of poor editing, we get several very clear shots of the stuntman's face who has been put in as a double for Beery. After the fight, Hawks takes the man back to camp and there is a scene where the natives drop off some venison to prevent the wagoners from starving.