The lady did not mean it as a compliment at the time.
Poor Dick Reeves. Except for a benign appearance here and there on "I Love Lucy," he played the same character in every tv show he was in. In this episode of "Cheyenne," we see his weathered, mugshot-worthy face in the first frame just before Cheyenne witnesses him shoot a hapless prisoner dead. He's just one of the town's gang of dastardly cutthroats led by a possibly psychotic deputy named Kell (James Coburn), who is determined to take over the town and then leave it bankrupt and in shambles. The town's bitter matriarch, Sharon Colton, is oblivious to Kell's decidedly unlawful methods. All she knows is that he's keeping 'her' town safe from drifters; how he does it doesn't matter to her. In her defense, losing your father and brother to a gang of itinerant bank robbers could tend to sour a person on strangers. Mala Powers is excellent as the still-traumatized Lady of the Town, and Coburn plays Kell with his usual reptilian smugness.
When a trail-weary Cheyenne stops into Miss Colton's hotel/restaurant for a meal and Kell goads him into a mild altercation then arrests him on a trumped-up charge of assaulting a law officer, the wheels of justice finally begin to roll. After the gunpowder settles, the impotent sheriff finally reclaims his office and Sharon Colton realizes that not all strangers are undesirable. There's also an amusing scene in which Cheyenne's second attempt at getting a meal is thwarted and he says to Sharon Colton in that wry Clint Walker way, "You're sure a problem to a hungry man." But she comes around, grudgingly acknowledging that he really does have "quite a way" with him, ends up actually saving his life and inviting him to stay on. Cheyenne Bodie hasn't met a lady yet on whom he didn't leave a mighty indelible impression.
Poor Dick Reeves. Except for a benign appearance here and there on "I Love Lucy," he played the same character in every tv show he was in. In this episode of "Cheyenne," we see his weathered, mugshot-worthy face in the first frame just before Cheyenne witnesses him shoot a hapless prisoner dead. He's just one of the town's gang of dastardly cutthroats led by a possibly psychotic deputy named Kell (James Coburn), who is determined to take over the town and then leave it bankrupt and in shambles. The town's bitter matriarch, Sharon Colton, is oblivious to Kell's decidedly unlawful methods. All she knows is that he's keeping 'her' town safe from drifters; how he does it doesn't matter to her. In her defense, losing your father and brother to a gang of itinerant bank robbers could tend to sour a person on strangers. Mala Powers is excellent as the still-traumatized Lady of the Town, and Coburn plays Kell with his usual reptilian smugness.
When a trail-weary Cheyenne stops into Miss Colton's hotel/restaurant for a meal and Kell goads him into a mild altercation then arrests him on a trumped-up charge of assaulting a law officer, the wheels of justice finally begin to roll. After the gunpowder settles, the impotent sheriff finally reclaims his office and Sharon Colton realizes that not all strangers are undesirable. There's also an amusing scene in which Cheyenne's second attempt at getting a meal is thwarted and he says to Sharon Colton in that wry Clint Walker way, "You're sure a problem to a hungry man." But she comes around, grudgingly acknowledging that he really does have "quite a way" with him, ends up actually saving his life and inviting him to stay on. Cheyenne Bodie hasn't met a lady yet on whom he didn't leave a mighty indelible impression.