This particular Bonanza episode, Silent Thunder is a very touching story that borrows no small measure from the classic film Johnny Belinda where Jane Wyman won her Oscar. The part of the deaf mute girl is played very touchingly by Stella Stevens.
Michael Landon as Little Joe takes center stage in this story. He's got the Lew Ayres role. Of course Landon is not a medical man, but he's taken an interest in her in a kindly way and sees that she's a great deal brighter than her father Kenneth MacKenna would care to see.
MacKenna in the Charles Bickford role is a hard bitten mountain trapper who lives in isolation despite occasional visits. MacKenna has a whole lot of issues himself dealing with the death of his wife giving birth to Stevens.
For a while I thought the story was going to venture into Rain country when preacher James Griffith visited, but it stayed with the Johnny Belinda model as fellow trapper Albert Salmi who can't get his itch scratched in town starts looking at Stevens for that service.
Silent Thunder works because of what Stella Stevens does with the part. Stevens usually played some dumb sex kittens, in this television episode the woman proved she could do more than that.
Michael Landon as Little Joe takes center stage in this story. He's got the Lew Ayres role. Of course Landon is not a medical man, but he's taken an interest in her in a kindly way and sees that she's a great deal brighter than her father Kenneth MacKenna would care to see.
MacKenna in the Charles Bickford role is a hard bitten mountain trapper who lives in isolation despite occasional visits. MacKenna has a whole lot of issues himself dealing with the death of his wife giving birth to Stevens.
For a while I thought the story was going to venture into Rain country when preacher James Griffith visited, but it stayed with the Johnny Belinda model as fellow trapper Albert Salmi who can't get his itch scratched in town starts looking at Stevens for that service.
Silent Thunder works because of what Stella Stevens does with the part. Stevens usually played some dumb sex kittens, in this television episode the woman proved she could do more than that.