The Rifleman (TV Series) Seven (1960) User Reviews

A very Violent Episode

[gordonl56 · 8/10 · 29 September 2013]

THE RIFLEMAN – Seven – 1960

This is episode 79 of the 1958 to 1963 western series that ran for 168 episodes. Chuck Connors headlines as a world class hand with a Winchester rifle. This of course ends up getting him in no end of trouble.

A prison wagon stops in North Fork to make a supply pickup. In the back are seven men on their way to a date with a hangman. Chuck Connors' son, Johnny Crawford, gets a bit too close to the wagon and is grabbed by Don Megowan, one of the prisoners. Connors cracks the guy on the hands with his rifle butt to get him to release Crawford. Megowan swears to get even with Crawford. Connors does not think much of the threat since he knows the prisoners are all for the rope.

As the guards, Paul Sorenson and John Cliff are feeding the prisoners, they are jumped and disarmed. The seven of them quickly head for the general store and arm themselves. They then hit the saloon and take everyone there, hostage.

Megowan wants his pound of flesh from Connors. He threatens to start killing hostages if Connors does not show. Sheriff Paul Fix is out gunned and asks Connors for help. By this time the prisoners have taken on a bit too much liquor and are not all that fast on the draw.

Gunfire splits the night and several of the bad guys go down in a heap. Megowan and Connors end up have a first rate donnybrook in the street before Connors gets the upper hand. The surviving bad guys are soon locked in jail.

A pretty good episode with plenty of violence involved. The 6 foot 7 Megowan makes for a most imposing villain. Also in the cast is Kurt Russell's father, Bing. Bing was a long working bit player in films and television with hundreds of credits.

Last Ride to Yuma

[zardoz-13 · 8/10 · 30 May 2016]

Future "Hang'em High" director Ted Post of fame helmed the third episode entitled "Seven" for the third season of "The Rifleman." Clocking in at under 30 crisp minutes, the story-line here involves seven ruthless prisoners from the New Mexico Territorial Prison on their last ride to Yuma to be strung up. These guys constitute a rowdy, rough-hewn bunch with nothing to lose, especially Dorf (Don Megawon of "Money, Women, and Guns") who wants to kill Lucas McCain. This episode opens with the premise about the seven inmates. The warden issues orders that the wagon will stop only once on its way to Yuma—North Fork—where they will pick up supplies. Mark (Johnny Crawford) and Lucas (Chuck Connors of "The Big Country") are in town so he can had the lever replaced on his Winchester. Mark spots the mysterious looking wagon, gets too close to it, and Dorf lunges through one of the windows and seizes Mark. Marshal Micah Torrance (Paul Fix) and Lucas are leaving the gun repair shop when they see Dorf grab Mark. Lucas smashes Dorf's hand and Mark struggles free. Micah warns the guards about the unruly prisoners and our heroes settle down to a supper of steak and potatoes. Meantime, the ailing Dorf swears to his best friend, Sanchez (Bing Russell of "The Magnificent Seven"), that he plans to kill Lucas. A callous guard brings them a bowl with meat strips and the inmates devour it. In a white-hot rage, Dorf destroys the bowl, and Sanchez notices how the two shards would make excellent slashing weapons. They take care of the first guard and stash him out of sight. They knock the second guard unconscious. Everybody wants to clear out except Dorf who is nursing a grudge against Lucas. Dorf is determined to kill McCain.

Director Ted Post generates considerable suspense throughout this tense episode. The premise is surefire with prisoners on the way to face the noose. Don Megowan is ideal as the psychotic Dorf. Unlike some "Rifleman" episodes that end before they should, Post and "Clambake" scenarist Arthur Browne Jr., give us everything that we need. Eventually, Dorf and his pals take over the local saloon. Dorf has sent scavengers out to gather guns, food, and clothing. These guys could ride out of town and get away, but Dorf doesn't let any of them leave—except one that he shoots—during negotiations for a showdown in the street with Lucas. The ensuing fistfight is a good one, except you can clearly distinguish when Connors is swapping blows with Megowan and when it is two stunt men. As usual, the performances are first-rate, and Herschel Burke Gilbert's musical score accentuates the drama. The camaraderie between Connors and Crawford is terrific as father and son. This ranks as a tenacious episode with a strong resolution.

The Rifleman: Seven

[Scarecrow-88 · 7/10 · 27 November 2015]

Seven convicts are being taken to Yuma, stopping through town long enough for the two guards driving the stagecoach to get some grub. One of the convicts (played by Bing Russell of Bonanza fame) tries to grab Mark, and Lucas sees his boy in trouble, intervening by hitting the criminal lowlife's hand. This act sends the convict into a rage, initiating a plot to get even. Successfully tricking a guard in order to get out of the prison wagon, the convicts are free in the town, taking over a saloon while Lucas, Marshall Micah (Paul Fix), and some women eating in a diner try to figure out how to stop them from killing the bartender. Russell's Sanchez wants his revenge and will offer the life of the bartender in exchange for a duel with Lucas. How will the fight turn out? Your basic standoff storyline isn't particularly original, even when this show aired the episode in 1960, but it is a tried and true formula in how it begs the question: how will Lucas and Micah return the town back to safety with seven convicts, weapons in hand, are such a threat? Bing is a brute in this episode, full of spit and vinegar. His fellow inmates try to reason with him, an escape available disregarded due to a need for vengeance over something rather petty…because Sanchez grabbed Mark, Lucas was only right to hit his fingers. As is often the case with westerns, a fistfight in the middle of the town street between Bing and Connors will settle their dispute while Fix's Marshall will take matters into his own hands regarding the remaining convicts not shot during a few gunfights. The fisticuffs are quite physical and prolonged. Despite the familiarity of it all, the episode still entertains, building tension until the climax.

Another episode that ignores the full potential of the rifle

[mldardar · 7/10 · 29 May 2022]

Mostly good episode, with the usual fine acting, but one of many plot lines directors still fall back on, the "mano a mano" choice by the bad guy. In other episodes Lucas has been able to pick-off an outlow from a mountain. So, he could have easily hit the tall Dorf from across the street with a shot at least a foot clear of the much shorter Sweeney. But we had to have the fist fight scene including the horse trough.

I enjoyed the talk between Mark & Lucas at the end, though because Lucas' answer still applies today. When Mark asks if a gang of outlaws could take a town, he answers that they might take a place, but it isn't the place that makes a town, but the people. Adding, "...a time a town or even a country is really lost is when the people who live in it get careless and stop paying attention to how it's being run..." Boy if someone would've made that statement 12 or 13 years before to Chinese people, maybe they wouldn't have lost their country first to the KMT, then to the even worst outlaws, Mao and his Communists. But here in the US, we have another kind of outlaw trying to take away our country, with as large percentage of citizens mostly blind with racism, willing to become slaves.