The Death Merchant

This episode was so well-written and well-acted it holds up splendidly to this very day.

James Whitmore is Handy Random, who in spite of his clownish, droll air and comical mule, carries such an aura of sociopathic, pure evil hovering around him he is positively chillling. He has no morals or loyalties and no empathy for anyone and is willing to kill anyone if the price is right.

Royal Dano gives his usual excellent performance, here as the rigid yet upstanding patriarch Craddock, and watching this makes me nostalgic for the days of memorable and wonderful character actors.

The end of this episode was very tense and wonderfully filmed. I love this whole series, but this episode truly stands out so well it really could have been made into a TV movie.

I won't say James Whitmore was underrated as an actor, because he wasn't. He got tons of work, playing all kinds of characters, and he was as respected as any actor around. This episode shows why. Initially a hero to the Barkleys, his jolly demeanor gives way to the truth that Heath brings - the man creates chaos and feuds wherever he goes, just so he can hire himself out to the highest bidder to solve the situations he's caused. You can't beat James Whitmore for a role like this. He was spot on, and to prove how good he was at playing grizzled old men like this, remember he was 14 years YOUNGER than Barbara Stanwyck!

The Death Merchant is one of the more intense, dramatic dramatic episodes of The Big Valley series, and as such deserves high praise. The storyline is simple, as a once helpful, seemingly benign individual, Handy Random, makes a visit to the Barkleys and offers to help. Ransom, his folksy ways notwithstanding, is a psychopath, a man with an appetite for killing, and this gradually unfolds as the episode progresses.

Most of the best western series of this era were drama than action, closer to anthologies that just happen to feature regular characters than sagebrush sagas. The Death Merchant is a fine example of a show that makes the viewer feel and think differently in every scene. Its conclusion is not what one might have guessed anymore more than the featured guest character (excellently portrayed by James Whitmore) is an easy man to figure. Indeed, he's an enigma, and a frightening one at that. One never really comes to understand why he's so intent on making trouble, stirring the pot.

Like all good drama, this one makes one ponder how people become who they are. I rate it highly for not giving up its secret. It's a character study, not a case history: make of it what you will.

This is one of the few "good" episodes of what is basically a mediocre -- sometimes downright idiotic -- soap opera.

As a (unproduced) screenwriter, I am mightily impressed with Jay Simms' excellent script. There's an outstanding scene in which Royal Dano delivers a magnificent "verbal drubbing" that appears to capture the vocabulary and speech patterns of 19th-century Western language. Simms must have had direct contact with people who spoke this way. It's not something that can be learned from a Western-vocabulary book (of which I have a pile).

But the show is Whitmore's. His performance convinces us that Random really is an immoral, nutcase mercenary -- not just an actor spouting lines. This is one of the few "Big Valley" episodes worth watching (for something other than laughs).

When I was a kid back in the 70s, this was the one Big Valley episode that I remember the most. James Whitmore was truly a gifted actor and he showcased his talent beautifully here. I don't hand out 10 star reviews casually, but this episode certainly deserves it.