The New Daughters of Joshua Cabe

A few years before, the television movie "The Daughters of Joshua Cabe" aired. Oddly enough, the network apparently saw promise in the plot (probably intending to make it a weekly TV series) and so they commissioned this follow-up film. The problem is that none of the folks from the original film (apart from Jack Elam, in a supporting role) were in the sequel...and I suppose that's why they tacked 'New' onto the title.

In the first film, Joshua Cabe wanted to keep land he was homesteading on and to do so he needed a family to live there with him. But without a family readily available, he hires some women of very ill repute to pose as his daughters and they live happily ever after.

In this follow-up, a baddie discovers Joshua's scheme and threatens to have the land grant invalidated since the women were NOT his actual daughters. Joshua is furious and goes to confront the guy...only to find he'd been stabbed and he is accused of doing this foul deed. Soon, he's convicted of murder and his 'daughters' scheme to free him from prison before his scheduled execution.

I scored the first film an 8, as it had a fresh plot, good acting and held my interest. While there are some very good actors in this one (such as John McIntire and John Dehner), I missed Buddy Ebsen and his original 'daughters'. Just expecting the audience to forget these originals seems silly...but not unprecidented, as the TV movie "Skin Game" was likewise remade only a few years later with a different leading man (Larry Hagman instead of the original, James Garner) because they were considering making the concept into a TV series. This doesn't excuse the recasting but it does help you to understand it. Overall, a decent enough film but not great one....and I could see the network not deciding to green light the series.

Released to TV in 1976 and directed by Bruce Bilson, "The New Daughters of Joshua Cabe" chronicles events in Wyoming when homesteader/interim Sheriff Joshua Cabe (John McIntire) is falsely accused of murder and sentenced to hang in thirty days. His three adopted daughters (Louise Williams, Renne Jarrett & Lezlie Dalton) hatch a harebrained scheme to smuggle him out of a nasty cave prison before going to the gallows. Jack Elam plays Uncle Bitterroot, John Dehner the warden and Geoffrey Lewis the ne'er-do-well. Jeanette Nolan is also on hand.

This was the third in a trilogy of TV movies, the first two being "The Daughters of Joshua Cabe" (1972) and "The Daughters of Joshua Cabe Return" (1975). The producers could never get the same people to play the main characters with the exception of Elam returning as Bitterroot from the first film.

The Western locations are actually good and realistic, but they're obviously the same locations used for 70's TV Westerns, like the Kung Fu series. The best part about "New Daughters" is the likable cast, particularly the three girls, with Louise Williams standing out as the spirited brunette. Lezlie Dalton was on the soap Guiding Light for a couple of years before leaving acting; it's nice to see her again.

"New Daughters" isn't a Western comedy, but rather a lighthearted Western drama. Despite the quality locations and cast, the story (by Margaret and Paul Savage) is thoroughly contrived in the manner of TV show Westerns. If you can handle that and like the cast it's fairly entertaining.

The film runs 73 minutes and was shot in Southern California.

GRADE: C