The Elizabeth McQueeny Story Oct 28, 1959
The Martha Barham Story Nov 4, 1959
The Cappy Darrin Story Nov 11, 1959
The Felizia Kingdom Story Nov 18, 1959
Bette Davis returns to Major Adam's train as, supposedly, the proprietor of a finishing school who is actually the proprietor of a proposed dancing emporium. The other women in the train don't think much of her. But when am outbreak of spotted fever occurs, It's Ms. Queeny's girls who volunteer to nurse the victims, at the cost of one of their members. The remaining members of her group wind up putting on a show for the now appreciative wagon train. This was shown 11 days after Bonanza showed "The Julia Bulette Story", based a real woman who ran a brothel in Virginia City, Nevada. She and her girls nursed people there through a epidemic. It's ironic that Wagon Train's rival show used their title template "The.... Story" to tell a similar story. Bette looks like she's having a good time dancing around in the finale.
Next Ann Blyth returns as a former girlfriend of Flint McCullough's with a high degree of prejudice against Native Americans, especially when her military officer father's fort gets over-run and she sees him killed. Her fiancé, played by Mike Road, (why didn't he become a big star - very handsome and a great voice, which he used for cartoon characters), has been captured by the Indians and Flint and an old Indian friend try to find him and free him. Annie hates both of them but softens her attitude when she sees their bravery. It's a solid drama with its heart in the right place.
Staring with the second season, Wagon Train began creating episodes for various comic actors, crafted around their personalities: Lou Costello, Wally Cox, Mickey Rooney and, here, Ed Wynn. They may have bene good episodes for the performers but that doesn't automatically make them good Wagon train episodes, as the regulars become supporting or bit players and the show it turned over to the guest star, (even moreso than normal).
Wynn plays "Cappy Darrin" a supposed former ship's captain, (James Rosin's book on the show says that he's a riverboat captain but in the episode he seems more like a sea captain), escorting his grandchild to a rendezvous with an uncle who is going to care for him. He's enthralled the boy with tails of the sea and he wants to go to sea with his grandfather. Wynn and the buy unwisely try to leave the wagon train to get to San Francisco and avoid the uncle so they can go to sea. Once again, illness is injected into the story for instant drama as the kid becomes ill and Wynn prays for his survival. It turns out Wynn is a fake: he's never more than imagined being a sea captain. The ending is touching and Wynn's acting is very good, without all the silly flourishes he usually uses. But the whole thing really lacked any credibility.
The last of the four more than makes up for it. Dame Judith Anderson, (she was created that the year after this show was broadcast), has a tour de force as a domineering woman rancher whose ranching empire lies on the only place the wagon train can cross the now mountainous area. Flint tries but fails to get permission for the train to cross from the imperious woman, with her henchman laughing at him. He handles them with courage and impresses her so much that she decides he will marry her daughter and leave the ranch in his capable hands when she dies. He refuses the offer - but it wasn't an offer. The key for him is her failing help - to the point where she has to ask for help, something she hasn't done in years.
Bette Davis returns to Major Adam's train as, supposedly, the proprietor of a finishing school who is actually the proprietor of a proposed dancing emporium. The other women in the train don't think much of her. But when am outbreak of spotted fever occurs, It's Ms. Queeny's girls who volunteer to nurse the victims, at the cost of one of their members. The remaining members of her group wind up putting on a show for the now appreciative wagon train. This was shown 11 days after Bonanza showed "The Julia Bulette Story", based a real woman who ran a brothel in Virginia City, Nevada. She and her girls nursed people there through a epidemic. It's ironic that Wagon Train's rival show used their title template "The.... Story" to tell a similar story. Bette looks like she's having a good time dancing around in the finale.
Next Ann Blyth returns as a former girlfriend of Flint McCullough's with a high degree of prejudice against Native Americans, especially when her military officer father's fort gets over-run and she sees him killed. Her fiancé, played by Mike Road, (why didn't he become a big star - very handsome and a great voice, which he used for cartoon characters), has been captured by the Indians and Flint and an old Indian friend try to find him and free him. Annie hates both of them but softens her attitude when she sees their bravery. It's a solid drama with its heart in the right place.
Staring with the second season, Wagon Train began creating episodes for various comic actors, crafted around their personalities: Lou Costello, Wally Cox, Mickey Rooney and, here, Ed Wynn. They may have bene good episodes for the performers but that doesn't automatically make them good Wagon train episodes, as the regulars become supporting or bit players and the show it turned over to the guest star, (even moreso than normal).
Wynn plays "Cappy Darrin" a supposed former ship's captain, (James Rosin's book on the show says that he's a riverboat captain but in the episode he seems more like a sea captain), escorting his grandchild to a rendezvous with an uncle who is going to care for him. He's enthralled the boy with tails of the sea and he wants to go to sea with his grandfather. Wynn and the buy unwisely try to leave the wagon train to get to San Francisco and avoid the uncle so they can go to sea. Once again, illness is injected into the story for instant drama as the kid becomes ill and Wynn prays for his survival. It turns out Wynn is a fake: he's never more than imagined being a sea captain. The ending is touching and Wynn's acting is very good, without all the silly flourishes he usually uses. But the whole thing really lacked any credibility.
The last of the four more than makes up for it. Dame Judith Anderson, (she was created that the year after this show was broadcast), has a tour de force as a domineering woman rancher whose ranching empire lies on the only place the wagon train can cross the now mountainous area. Flint tries but fails to get permission for the train to cross from the imperious woman, with her henchman laughing at him. He handles them with courage and impresses her so much that she decides he will marry her daughter and leave the ranch in his capable hands when she dies. He refuses the offer - but it wasn't an offer. The key for him is her failing help - to the point where she has to ask for help, something she hasn't done in years.
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