The biggest danger to a gunfighter is that other gunfighters will try to kill him simply to build a reputation, but the code of the West asserts that there's no credit at all in shooting a man with a bad hand. This story of a notorious gunslinger, Ben Shelby, being the target of every young gun who wants to make a name for himself, though not original (nothing's original, anyway), has the added element of revealing why the aging 'slinger wanted to hang up his guns in the first place; in fact, why he was rather hoping he'd actually lose the next shootout.
There's a schoolteacher whose 10-year-old son is eager to experience the West as it's depicted in the dime novels of Ned Buntline that the boy devours. Cheyenne Bodie is employed to see that they all get to Creek Point, where Shelby is to be marshal. Greg Kirby (played by reliable bad guy Leo Gordon) and his brothers intend to see to it that Shelby doesn't live long enough to take the job. They don't know that the aging gunfighter with one bad hand just might be giving them an assist.
Cheyenne is rather under-used in this episode, one of a number in the last couple of years of the series that made him an almost ancillary character. Clint Walker does his usual great job, though, of imbuing the part with kindness, courage, and skill. His sheer presence is a powerful reminder that this is Cheyenne Bodie's story. Some people he meets along the way are simply more interesting than others, but he's never not interesting. The drinking scene in this episode had me laughing out loud and proved that not only was Clint Walker adept at subtle comedy (which we already knew) but so was Leo Gordon (which I, for one, didn't know); it was fun to see the two of them do something besides fight--at least until the end when, inevitably, Leo lost again.
There's a schoolteacher whose 10-year-old son is eager to experience the West as it's depicted in the dime novels of Ned Buntline that the boy devours. Cheyenne Bodie is employed to see that they all get to Creek Point, where Shelby is to be marshal. Greg Kirby (played by reliable bad guy Leo Gordon) and his brothers intend to see to it that Shelby doesn't live long enough to take the job. They don't know that the aging gunfighter with one bad hand just might be giving them an assist.
Cheyenne is rather under-used in this episode, one of a number in the last couple of years of the series that made him an almost ancillary character. Clint Walker does his usual great job, though, of imbuing the part with kindness, courage, and skill. His sheer presence is a powerful reminder that this is Cheyenne Bodie's story. Some people he meets along the way are simply more interesting than others, but he's never not interesting. The drinking scene in this episode had me laughing out loud and proved that not only was Clint Walker adept at subtle comedy (which we already knew) but so was Leo Gordon (which I, for one, didn't know); it was fun to see the two of them do something besides fight--at least until the end when, inevitably, Leo lost again.
