In Mora City, gunman Luke Frazer is in the street facing a nervous 18 year old kid, Bud Scanlon, who has accused him of being a thief. After outdrawing Bud fatally, he's told that Bud's father, Yance, will shoot him to pieces for killing his son, and to leave town fast. Over a quick drink Luke says young Bud reminded him of his younger brother, Johnny, who Luke says is in college in Texas, and he also states that he doesn't want Johnny to have anything to do with gunslingers. On the trail Jim Hardie finds himself facing down a gun belonging to a young punk kid. The gun belongs to Johnny Frazer, who intends to steal Hardie's horse to replace his mount which has gone lame. In typical fashion, Hardie gets the best of the young hothead, and upon reading a letter he finds on the kid he discovers that Johnny's been in college, paid for by his older brother. When Hardie questions him a defiant Johnny Frazer tells Hardie that he doesn't care for college, and all he wants to do is to be like his big brother. But Hardie is after Luke Frazer for the murder of a Wells Fargo agent during a robbery in Sacaton, and he typically gets his man. After arriving in Mora City and checking the local saloon he's informed of the location of Luke's camp, and Hardie captures him and proceeds to take him in. But he'll have not only deal with Luke and his henchmen, he'll have to face the Scanlons who want Luke dead at any cost. And there's Johnny, who's determined to get back at Hardie, as well as joining Luke's gang.
Here we have another episode containing a combination of a couple of common plots from the Golden Age of TV Westerns. The first thread is one where a lawman attempting to bring in an outlaw has to face a family bent on revenge for the killing of one of their own, and they're willing to take out anyone who gets in their way. The second thread is one where a notorious outlaw's punk kid brother wants to follow in his footsteps, against his brother's wishes. In these plots the older brother is typically determined to prevent his kid brother from making the same mistakes he did, as in this episode.
With only a half hour to resolve both plots there's not a lot of time available, and both stories are brought to fruition fairly quickly without too much exposition. But I don't penalize the episode too much for that, it's not uncommon in half hour series, and despite its short running time there's a decent amount of action. It's interesting that this episode as well as the previous one includes a character that's a hotheaded young punk, and both characters are basically identical...callous, snarling, boastful, and contemptuous.
The cast isn't particularly noteworthy, with one exception. Renon Cartwright appeared as Mae the saloon girl, and she had only two roles. Robin Riley appeared as Johnny Frazer, his career was equally brief with only 15 roles, most of them as similar characters. Charles Quinlivan appeared as Luke Frazer, and his career was not much longer with only 19 roles. Wally Brown appeared as bar owner Ed, and although I can't say he had an epic career he's unforgettable for me, as I'll always remember him as anguished basketball coach Elkins in The Absent Minded Professor.
But two others bear mention. John Hart appeared as Stass Weaver, and his career was a good one over more than 4 decades, with 52 episodes as the Lone Ranger (taking over from Clayton Moore), 39 episodes as the lead role in Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans, and 19 episodes of Rawhide, most of which were one of the drovers, Narbo. But with a very brief appearance as Yance Scanlon, it's John Dierkes who had the epic career, with appearances in tons of great pictures, including Shane as one of the Ryker clan, The Thing from Another World as Dr. Chapman, and as the Preacher in the beyond classic cult picture X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes with Ray Milland.
So not the best but as I say often, with Jim Hardie, EWIBIG y'know!
