"One More for the Road" -- A Favorite "Combat!" Episode

I love to show people this episode as an introduction to my favorite TV series.  It's really approachable and relatable, and shows off most of the main characters really well.  If I don't have time to show them "The Long Way Home, Parts 1 and 2," I show them "One More for the Road."  

In fact, I used this episode to re-introduce my teens to this show recently.  I'd shown them a few eps over the years, but they never really got into the show.  I have patiently waited for them to be ready to love it, and I think we are getting there!  After watching this ep, they asked to see more, so we have watched a couple more eps since, and I'm slowly pulling them deeper and deeper into the fandom, bwahahahahahahahahaha!

Okay, enough maniacal laughter.

Combat! (1962-27) has been my favorite TV show since 1994, when I was in my early teens.  I've never seen anything else I love nearly so much.  And this is one of my top favorite episodes.  So I'm going to review it lovingly and thoroughly today :-)

The episode begins with The Squad engaged in a firefight with some Krauts who have a machine gun.  Once we take care of that, Kirby (Jack Hogan) gets sent to clear out an abandoned barn behind the machine gun nest.  He hears a noise, reflexively fires a few rounds toward it, and then is mortified to discover what he was shooting at.

Mouthy, rowdy tough guy Kirby... almost shot a baby.  And when I say he is shook, I mean he is shook.

Which, when you see how cute this baby is, is pretty understandable.  Look at that sweet face!  The baby is played by The Monroe Twins, who have no other screen credits, but clearly were very photogenic!

This episode is directed by Bernard McEveety, who directed a total of 31 Combat! episodes.  He's a lovely director for an ensemble show like this because he knows how to give the characters all their own moments to shine and their own closeups, and also how to show them interacting in groups.  In this particular episode, we have a lot of shots that are composed to show Sergeant Saunders (Vic Morrow) a bit distanced from his squad.  He can't be their pal; he has to be their leader.  I'll showcase a few more of those throughout this review.  It's subtle filmmaking, and so effective.

The Squad is currently behind enemy lines.  Saunders learns, via the handytalky, that the American lines are going to be advancing, and the area where they're skulking about is going to get shelled at a specific time.  His orders are to get his squad back to the Allied side of the river before that shelling starts, lest they get hit by their own artillery.

Isn't this a lovely shot of four regular characters?  Caje (Pierre Jalbert), Billy Nelson (Tom Lowell), Littlejohn (Dick Peabody), and Kirby all assume that they'll be taking this baby along with them as they retreat.

Series semi-regular Brockmeyer (Fletcher Fist) thinks so too, but he's much less shocked about what happens next.  Random ENG (Expendable New Guy) Stroback (Don Edmonds) hasn't been around long enough to have a real opinion one way or another, I don't think.

Doc (Steven Rogers) is so sure, he's got the baby all bundled up and ready to go.  But Saunders shocks them all.

The baby stays in the barn.

This is not because Saunders hates babies.  This is not because Saunders thinks a baby's life is not worth saving.  It's exactly the opposite:  Saunders knows how dangerous it is going to be to get his men back through enemy territory and across that river before the shelling starts.  He doesn't want to put the baby in that kind of danger.  He tells the men the baby will be safer in the barn, and they'll do their best to find a civilian and tell it about the baby before they get back across the river.

And here's another amazing shot chock-full of people, with Saunders just a bit removed from the squad.  The men let him know just how unhappy they are that he's abandoned that baby, and he bears the brunt of their criticism for a long time.  That's part of his job.  He has to make decisions, and it doesn't matter if they are popular or not -- they just need to be correct.

But Saunders has a soft heart.  We know from other episodes that he has multiple younger siblings.  He had a sweet little moment with the baby where he handed it back its rattle and touched its head in what feels almost like a blessing.  Everything in him did NOT want to leave that baby alone.

And, eventually, he relents.  They haven't found any civilians, and they haven't run into any Krauts, so maybe it's safe for a couple guys to run back and get the baby and take it with them.  He finds a convent on his map and says they should be able to get the baby to the convent and still get back to their own lines before the artillery barrage.

Next thing you know, you've got eight men doing everything in their power to take care of that baby.  If you're getting 3 Godfathers (1948) vibes, you're not alone.  

Every single one of these guys is willing to risk his own life to see to it that this baby is safe.  It's so heroic and manly and wholesome that I could swoon.

Saunders still stays apart from the group.  The other guys take every opportunity to coo over the baby, tickle it, sing it a song, and generally overload it with love.

The composition of this shot is sooooo good, isn't it?  The arms pointing to the baby in the center, the protective circle around it of all those heads and helmets.  It's like a Renaissance painting.

Various adventures befall The Squad.  They get delayed.  They have to discard plans and make new ones.  The baby almost dies.  And then, a soldier does something stupid and dies, and look at that sorrow in Saunders's eyes.  If the soldier had listened to him, had obeyed orders, he would have stayed safe and alive, but he didn't.

Another grouping, as the guys process the loss of a buddy, and Saunders is not quite part of them.  Leadership is a lonely job.

We do finally make it to that river.  Crossing it is tricky and perilous.

So tricky and perilous that Brockmeyer must remove his jacket AND shirt so that we can all fully appreciate his physique.  He's so kind and thoughtful.

I'm going to SPOIL the ending of the episode, so if you care about that at all, jump down to the blogathon banner, okay?  I'll keep details kind of vague, but you will learn who survives to the end...

Caje executes a dangerous and cunning plan to get the baby across the river without drowning it.  And looks so nice in his borrowed disguise!

Saunders and the remains of the squad wait anxiously for Caje.  Brockmeyer takes his own sweet time getting dressed again.  Not like we're in a hurry to escape a barrage or anything here.

Annnnnnd we don't escape the barrage.  We get stuck in it just a weency bit.  The baby once again falls into Terrible Peril, and this time, it's Saunders who leaps to the rescue.  He's spent the entire episode refusing to touch the baby after they decided to bring it along.  He's given numerous lectures on how much danger they're putting the baby in, and how much danger the baby is putting them all in.  The men in his squad have kind of convinced themselves he doesn't like this baby at all.

And then they see just how wrong they were.  Because not one of them jumped to the rescue and covered that baby with his own body to protect it from debris and possible shrapnel.  Only Saunders did.

Which is why, when they finally do reach a convent where they can leave the baby in safety, they insist Saunders do the final bit of delivery.  

And man, is Vic Morrow just completely adorable with that baby in his arms!  He had two daughters of his own by the time this was filmed, one of them still basically a baby herself, and you can tell he's very comfortable holding babies, unlike a few of the other guys in the squad.  I think that works well for his character -- the episode "Just for the Record" establishes that he has a teenage sister, so we can assume he was old enough to carry her around when she was born.  It's assumed that his father is dead, and that he has stepped into a fatherly role for his younger siblings ("Mail Call," also directed by McEveety, shows that pretty clearly), and you absolutely see that fatherly side come out in this last scene.  

And it changes your perception of how Saunders has behaved throughout the entire episode.  He didn't think that baby wasn't worth protecting.  He didn't think it was a nuisance.  Time and again, he made the best decisions he knew how in order to keep it safe AND keep his men safe.  Just as a good sergeant should.

And we all have to say goodbye to the cute, cute baby and go back to the regular war, all a little wiser than we'd been before.  Yes, even including Saunders.  

This has been my contribution for the 12th Annual Favourite TV Show Episode Blogathon, hosted this weekend by A Shroud of Thoughts.  

(I was already planning to use the above button, but losing Nicholas Brendon this past week would have made me switch to it if I hadn't planned to use it.)

"The Avenger" (Bonanza) 1960

I will be blunt: the reason this is my favorite Bonanza episode is because of the guest star.  Vic Morrow is a dear favorite of mine, and I absolutely love getting to watch him play a good guy in a western.  He was in quite a few classic western shows, but almost always playing the heavy, sometimes playing very sinister and nasty baddies indeed -- and I enjoy those in a certain way, but not in the way I enjoy seeing him play a good guy.

I remember watching this episode for the first time in my teens, watching it with my whole family as part of our weekly Friday Night Movie Night family time.  I went in knowing he was the guest star and being pretty sure he was going to be the bad guy because that was how it had gone with all the eps of other westerns I'd seen him in.  You can imagine my delight when he proved to play not a bad guy, but not even an antagonist!  He plays a hero!  Oh joy, oh rapture unforeseen!

A stranger (Vic Morrow) rides into a town that positively drips ominous foreboding.  No people on the streets.  A saloon filled with toughs who are raucously celebrating the completion of a gallows in the middle of town.  Bad stuff is about to happen here.  Bad stuff has already happened here.

And then we discover that the two men in jail who are going to be hanged that night... are Ben and Adam Cartwright (Lorne Greene and Pernell Roberts).  Those yahoos in the saloon are eager to dance and spit all over their graves.  The stranger finds this disturbing, but he's a quiet guy not looking for trouble.  At least, not looking for this particular trouble.

Actually, he's looking for a group of men who lynched his father and killed a lot of other innocent townspeople a few years ago in Lassiter, Kansas.  Because he never shares his name in this episode, folks take to calling him Lassiter after the town he keeps talking about.  

Thanks to his family history, Lassiter is very sensitive to wrongful hangings, even when they're carried out by the law and not by a lynch mob.  He becomes convinced that Ben and Adam are innocent.  Their conviction hinged on the testimony of one scared hired man and one angry young woman -- and the hired man has been murdered, while the young woman is seeking to punish the Cartwrights for her father's death whether they were actually guilty of killing him or not.

Vic Morrow plays Lassiter with exquisite gravitas.  He's calm, steady, soft-spoken, and unflinching in his quest to find his father's killers and bring them to justice.  He doesn't waste a single movement; every flicker of his eyelids, every sideways glance, every raised eyebrow speaks as much as his dialog ever does.  This is a man who will not fail, and the audience knows it.  The people of this town know it.  Even Hoss and Little Joe Cartwright (Dan Blocker and Michael Landon) realize it, and agree to let Lassiter try to save their father and brother first before they start throwing lead at everyone in sight.

Obviously, Ben and Adam don't hang.  Obviously, the guy trying to get them hung is one of the men Lassiter is trying to find.  Obviously, Lassiter's calm logic and insistence on seeing truth and justice served are what save the Cartwrights.  There aren't any huge surprises here... unless you are used to seeing Vic Morrow play baddies in westerns, and discover to your great joy that he is playing a very good guy indeed here.

Honestly, "The Avenger" doesn't really feel like a typical Bonanza episode... because it wasn't.  It was supposed to serve as a pilot for a spin-off series starring Vic Morrow.  Another pilot of sorts was filmed as an episode of the lesser-known show Outlaws, with Morrow playing the same character and tracking down another of his father's murderers.  But the network never picked the show up.  

Part of me is sad about that, because Lassiter is really cool, and I would love to have a whole western show starring Vic Morrow to watch over and over and over.  But part of me is okay with it, because if Vic had made a success in that show, he might have been under contract when they started casting the series Combat! (1962-67) and unable to be in that.  And that would have been horrible, because that is my favorite TV show of all time, and his character, Sergeant Saunders, is my favorite fictional character ever.  So, I just keep enjoying this episode every now and then and don't mourn too much over the series never happening.

You can watch this episode basically anywhere because it's in the public domain.  It's easy to find on streaming platforms, YouTube, DVD, etc.

This has been my contribution to the 11th Annual Favourite TV Show Episode Blogathon hosted this weekend by A Shroud of Thoughts.

"White Warrior" (Cheyenne, Season 3, Ep 13)(1958)

"White Warrior" is the second episode of Cheyenne (1955-63) I ever saw.  I mentioned recently how, when we moved to North Carolina when I was 12, my whole world expanded thanks to a local video rental store with a fantastic collection of classic movies, particularly westerns.  That video store also had a lot of episodes of classic TV shows on VHS, including two each of Cheyenne, Bronco, Maverick, and Wanted: Dead or Alive.  One of those episodes of Cheyenne was this one, and it's the ep that made me fall in love with this show.  

In "White Warrior," Cheyenne Bodie (Clint Walker) is leading a wagon train.  I really love wagon train stories (so much so that I wrote one), so that alone would probably make this episode a favorite.  There's something so compelling for me about a group of people who have decided to leave home and family and familiarity behind them and are setting off into what they hope will be a better world.  But they're also stepping out into the unknown, with uncertainty and hard work and a lot of possible dangers around them.  Also, one of my great-grandmothers was born in a wagon train while her family headed to their new home in the Dakota Territory, so that might be part of why they fascinate me.

Anyway, the wagon train Cheyenne is leading has a couple of total creeps in it, Eli Henderson (Peter Whitney) and Matt Benedict (Morris Ankrum) in particular.  Eli Henderson is a trader who wants to bilk settlers and American Indians out of whatever he can by selling them subpar and sometimes illegal goods.  Matt Benedict is a harsh, hateful man who pushes his son Neal (Chuck Courtney) to bully others in order to prove what big and powerful people they both are.  Cheyenne has plenty of trouble keeping the two of them from creating havoc even before the titular character arrives.

A handful of Apache warriors meet up with the wagon train and want to trade with Henderson.  While Henderson is wheeling and dealing with them, Cheyenne notices that one young man riding with them (Michael Landon) is a Comanche captive, not an Apache.  He trades a horse for the captive because he knows the Apache warriors will most likely brutally torture and then murder him when they get back to their own people.

Cheyenne frees the Comanche and learns that he speaks English.  He also notices a distinctive scar on the young man's wrist.  Some of the people on the wagon train, egged on by Henderson and Benedict, demand that Cheyenne get rid of the Comanche because they are sure he will kill them all in their sleep.  Why?  Because he's an Indian, and they don't trust Indian.  When Benedict snarls, "He's an Indian.  There's too many of them, anyway," Cheyenne retorts, "That's exactly how they feel about us. Only, they got better reason."

Then Cheyenne drops a little bomb on their let's-hate-the-Comanche party:  the captive he freed isn't Comanche by birth, but by adoption.  The captive confirms this reluctantly -- he is a young white man named Alan Horn who was captured by the Comanche when he was a child and adopted into their tribe through a blood ceremony that left the scar on his wrist.

The settlers still aren't cool with this, even after Cheyenne explains he knew Alan had been adopted by the Comanche because the same thing happened to him as a boy, only he was adopted by the Cheyenne instead.  This is a big part of why I love this episode: we get to hear more about Cheyenne's backstory here than we do in any other episode I have seen.  He was rescued by the Cheyenne after his family was killed by raiders, and they adopted him into the tribe.  But, when he was in his teens, about the same age as Alan, he had to decide for himself where he belonged.  And Cheyenne Bodie decided he wanted to rejoin the white world, even though he never would quite feel at home there or find total acceptance because of his Indian upbringing.

Cheyenne gives Alan Horn the same choice.  If he wants to rejoin the Comanche, Cheyenne will send him on his way with a horse, water, food, and a knife.  If he wants to try living with the white people, Cheyenne will help him find a place in that world instead.  And that is another big reason why I love this episode -- Cheyenne never pushes Alan to decide one way or another.  He lets him make his own choice.  He never even tries to persuade him that one society would be better than the other.

The way this show as a whole treats American Indian characters was pretty revolutionary when it first aired in 1955.  That was the height of the popularity for western shows and movies, and the vast majority of those portrayed the American Indians as nameless, faceless, remorseless enemies.  Of course, there were exceptions.  And, of course, Cheyenne's being raised by a native tribe is often used as a way to make him seem exotic and special.  But the show insists on treating Indian characters with dignity, as intelligent individuals.

Anyway, Alan Horn does find some acceptance in the wagon train, particularly being befriended by Clara Bolton (Randy Stuart) and Lyle Gordon (Richard Garland).  But others are determined to drive him out, especially when he reveals that he overheard Eli Henderson making a deal with those Apache warriors to sell them rifles and ammunition, which is against the law.  Matt Benedict even tries to convince his son Neal to kill Alan Horn just because he was talking to a white girl.

Cheyenne believes and trusts Alan, and of course, the bad guys are stopped, the good guys are rewarded, and the wagon train is able to safely continue on the way to their new homes.  This is a fifties show with a lot of kids in the audience, after all.  But that doesn't keep it from taking a deeper, harder look at issues like trust, kindness, and belonging.  The show as a whole doesn't shy away from difficult subjects, and that's another reason that I love it.

In fact, Cheyenne is one of my top favorite western shows of all time, despite my only having seen two episodes of it as a teen, and then all of season one when I was in my twenties.  I now have all seven seasons on DVD and have been having a jolly time making my way through the show.  I'm only halfway through season two, but I jumped ahead to rewatch this episode so I could review it this weekend.

Michael Landon's star was on the rise when he guest-starred in this episode.  In a matter of months, he would be starring on Bonanza and become a household name.  His performance here is understated and lovely, showing his inner conflict mainly through his haunted eyes and hesitant words.

This review is my contribution to the 10th Annual Favorite TV Show Episode Blogathon hosted by A Shroud of Thoughts all weekend long.

I've been crushing on Clint Walker for more than thirty years, so here is one last shot of him looking particularly good in this episode.

"Inmate 78" (The Magnificent Seven, Season 1, Ep 8)(1998)

It takes Chris Larabee (Michael Biehn) a whole two minutes and seven seconds of this episode to get himself sentenced to five years of hard labor with no chance of parole.  That Chris, he always is a fast worker!

Chris has had the bad luck to slouch into the town of Jericho, a scummy nowhere town rotting from the inside.  Folks there have a jolly little set-up: slap a passerby in jail, claim they're a wanted criminal, and get them or their family to pay a ridiculously high bail fee.  If they can't make bail, they get sent to a hellhole of a prison to work as what amounts to slave labor.

You don't even have to guess where Chris ends up.  Of course, the minute they get him inside the prison compound, he makes a gutsy escape attempt, which ends with him getting sentenced to a few days in The Hole.  Which, as you can see, impresses and frightens Chris a great deal.

Those poor prison officials have no idea what kind of a feral critter has just landed in their midst.  I could almost feel sorry for them if they weren't all (except one guard) sadistic bullies.  Especially the Warden (Art LaFleur), who takes Chris's defiant sass as a personal insult and makes it his mission to grind our volatile hero into the dust.

Meanwhile, back in the unnamed town where the Seven keep the peace, Mary Travis (Laurie Holden) is concerned because Chris has been gone for ten days without sending word when he'll be back.  She asks Buck (Dale Midkiff) and a couple of the other guys if they shouldn't start looking for Chris, but Buck is convinced Chris has just holed up in some nice little brothel hotel and will come back when he's good and ready to.

I'm rather annoyed with Buck here because he knows that Mary cares about Chris, but he giggles like a twelve-year-old over how displeased she is when he implies that Chris is staying away from town (and her) for such a reason.  I expect that kind of behavior from J.D. (Andrew Kavovit) because he basically is twelve, but Buck is usually a lot more gentlemanly and kind toward the ladies.  I blame the writers for forgetting this about Buck, not the character himself.

Meanwhile, eight days in The Hole have not sweetened Chris's disposition any.

This ep is never stressful to watch because you KNOW Chris won't crumble under whatever pressure they bring to bear on him.  This is Chris Larabee.  It's honestly kind of a joy to sit back and watch him sass and snarl his way through.

Well, Chris has been out of  The Hole for about half a day before the Lawless Brothers (headed by Don Swayze) find him and try to kill him for shooting their cousin a few years back.

That goes about as well as you'd expect, considering it's three against one.  Chris probably would have taken them all down if one of them didn't have a shiv and slice Chris up with it.

At least he gets taken to the prison hospital instead of thrown back in The Hole.  This whole part where he's handcuffed to a bed, mostly shirtless, would be a little too much fanservice if he wasn't getting the cut across his abdomen sewed up by a shaky-handed prisoner.  That makes it really hard to watch, at least for me.

Back in town, Mary Travis finally convinces the rest of the Seven that Chris's disappearance isn't natural.  Led by Vin Tanner (Eric Close), they ride off to find him.  For a group of guys who have been hired to keep the peace in town, they sure do ride off in all directions and leave it undefended a lot.  Hmm.

The guys ride into Jericho and find it an unpleasant and suspicious sort of place.  Because they are intelligent and savvy that way.  They make themselves at home in the boarding house's barroom. (Hint: boarding houses don't usually have a barroom, so this is a big signal this town is many flavors of wrong.)  Josiah (Ron Perlman) and Vin try to charm some answers out of Jessie (Julianna McCarthy), the sweet old lady behind the bar.

She seems super trustworthy, right?  (Hint: trustworthy little old ladies don't usually tend bar.)

Nobody in town has seen Chris Larabee.  Or heard of Chris Larabee.  However, the sheriff and deputy would really like the Seven to leave town.  Which, of course, makes our guys very, very suspicious.  (Hint: most towns want customers who spend cash money to stay and enjoy the town as long as their money holds out.)

Well, the best way to make these stubborn heroes stay someplace is to tell them to leave.  Is it any wonder I love them all?

Meanwhile, for a guy whose will is supposed to be crumbling under the pressure of the Warden's shiny bootheel, Chris sure is looking mighty pleased with his bad self over how quickly he's worked his way to the top of various pecking orders at the prison.

Chris's triumphant smirking lasts for about twelve seconds, right up until the Warden drags a sick prisoner out of the hospital tent and tries to beat him into starting work again.

Chris Larabee won't stand for that.  He may be volatile, smirky, broody, sarcastic, and given to random acts of brash violence, but he has Justice running through his veins.  He cannot and will not stand by and watch a sick man beaten by armed bullies for not being able to stand up.

Ohhh, you can just see the Hero Vibes wafting off him, can't you?

Of course, the Warden beats Chris to the ground for this.  And Chris keeps standing back up, getting between the Warden and the sick prisoner.  His obstinate courage inspires the rest of the prisoners, and they clink their tools against any handy object in aural support, like scruffy, filthy cheerleaders.  Including the Lawless Brothers, who wanted to kill Chris themselves not so long ago.

Meanwhile, back in Jericho, the guys find Chris's gun at a general store.  They set about trying to find real answers as to his whereabouts in various ways, some subtle and some not-so-subtle, depending on if you're Ezra (Anthony Starke) or not.

Meanwhile, back at the prison, the Warden is picking on Chris again.  His cruelty and malice eventually disgust one of his guards (Anthony Lee), who resigns his post in protest.

Doesn't do Chris any good, of course.  Back in The Hole he goes, and this time, the Warden intends to see to it that Chris will never come out alive.

Meanwhile, back in Jericho, the sheriff has found one of those pesky handbills with Vin's name and face on them.  Those do have a way of cropping up at the most inopportune moments.  He thinks if he waves that handbill around, five of his six problems will go away, and he'll be able to toss Vin in prison.

Vin doesn't seem any too perturbed, though.

Neither do any of the others.  The sheriff's expectation that they would scatter at the threat of their compadre's arrest goes completely awry on him.

As a matter of fact, Nathan (Rick Worthy) informs him that they knew all about that particular wanted poster, and it doesn't bother them a bit.

Instead of trying to run, Vin stands up and challenges the sheriff to a duel on the count of three.

Don't you dig how they frame our guys from a low angle in this scene to highlight just how in control of the situation they are?  Don't you also love how many shots of Vin I can cram into this little section since he's my favorite?

Well, the guys break into the prison camp in a reasonably clever way, which I won't spoil for you here.  One thrilling gun battle later, plus an unpleasant incident involving a rattlesnake, and off the Seven go, back home to their unnamed town.

Man, that ep hits so many sweet spots for me!  Wrongful imprisonment, attempted prison escape, a rescue mission, a guy standing up to protect someone helpless, people rallying together against a bully, Chris Larabee handcuffed shirtless to a bed Vin Tanner being ridiculously calm and cool and adorable at the same time -- there is no wonder this is my favorite ep of this show!

I have had such a great time reviewing "Inmate 78" that I think I just might start reviewing the whole series.  There are only 22 eps (here's a list of my 10 favorites, if you are curious), so it wouldn't take me that long, even if I spent two hours on each review like I did this one.

This particular review is my contribution to the 9th Annual Favorite TV Show Episode Blogathon hosted by A Shroud of Thoughts.  I love this event!  It is always such fun to focus on just one episode of a beloved show.