fredcdobbs5
Joined Dec 2013
Welcome to the new profile
We're still working on updating some profile features. To see the badges, ratings breakdowns, and polls for this profile, please go to the previous version.
Ratings2.8K
fredcdobbs5's rating
Reviews98
fredcdobbs5's rating
Given the credits of director Charles Marquis Warren and writer John Champion, and with a cast of westenr veterans like John Pickard, Dewey Martin and Sheb Wooley, this pilot for a proposed series shoudl have been far better than it was. Warren has done some excellent westerns in the past--1953's "Arrowhead" being a particularly good example--but this is far from his best work. The writing is hackwork, the "action"--such as it is--is pjoorly done, and everything pretty much falls apart at the end, with a completely unbelievable resolution. A good director and a good cast don't necessarily result in good work, and this failed pilot proves it.
Sloppily writtten, badly directed, poorly acted stinker is an insult to its 1939 predecessor, which it pathetically tries to ape. Everything about it is thid-rate , from the cardboard sets to the lackluster "action" scenes to the zombie-like performances in some of the lesser roles., and pretty much everything in between. Robert Clarke is no Errol Flylnn, although there is a slight rsembulane, and none of the rest of the cast makes any im;ression at all. I saw it on YouTube, where it's colorized, and whoever did it didn't do a bad job, but everything else in this cheesefest isn't worth wasting your time on.
This series, starring Hugh OBrian, is fondly remembered by many who saw it when it came out as one of the better TV westerns of the era. I was 10 when it first aired, and I remember not being terribly impressed with it. I just saw it now on Tubi for the first time in decades, and I must say I was right the first time.
Sloppily writtern and poorly acted, it looks cheap and seems rushed. The "action" scenes are badly done, and there's no chemistry at all between O'Brian and the rest of the cast, especially the annoying Mason Dinehart as a young and incredibly dumb Bat Masterson. Some good characters actors like Denver Pyle and Hal Baylor can't save it. There wre western series out at the time, such as "Gunsmoke", that were far beter than this. This series was on for seeral years, so maybe it got better as it aged, but I didn't stick around then (or now) to find out.
I would not recommend this.
Sloppily writtern and poorly acted, it looks cheap and seems rushed. The "action" scenes are badly done, and there's no chemistry at all between O'Brian and the rest of the cast, especially the annoying Mason Dinehart as a young and incredibly dumb Bat Masterson. Some good characters actors like Denver Pyle and Hal Baylor can't save it. There wre western series out at the time, such as "Gunsmoke", that were far beter than this. This series was on for seeral years, so maybe it got better as it aged, but I didn't stick around then (or now) to find out.
I would not recommend this.