S3.E16

The Dealer

Name: The Dealer
Genre: Western
Released: 1958-12-29
Duration: 30 min
Rating: 7.5
Cast: Dale Robertson, Vic Perrin, Jeanne Bates

Episode aired Dec 29, 1958
TV-14
30m

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

YOUR RATING

Jeanne Bates, Johnny Crawford, Vic Perrin, and Dale Robertson in Tales of Wells Fargo (1957)

Western

Jim is going to Dodge to look for two men who robbed Wells Fargo in Yuba City. On the way he helps the Peel family with a broken wheel. In Dodge City Peel's gambling addiction has him losing... Read allJim is going to Dodge to look for two men who robbed Wells Fargo in Yuba City. On the way he helps the Peel family with a broken wheel. In Dodge City Peel's gambling addiction has him losing all his money but it helps Jim solve his case.Jim is going to Dodge to look for two men who robbed Wells Fargo in Yuba City. On the way he helps the Peel family with a broken wheel. In Dodge City Peel's gambling addiction has him losing all his money but it helps Jim solve his case.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

YOUR RATING

3User reviews

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Johnny Crawford played Tommy in this episode and his mother was played by Jeanne Bates. Two years earlier Jeanne Bates and Johnny Crawford played mother and son in an episode of The Lone Ranger called The Cross of Santo Domingo where Crawford also played the part of Tommy.

User reviews3

Featured review

A settler addicted to gambling presents a challenge to Jim Hardie

"The Dealer" is one of those "Wells Fargo" episodes where the narrative takes place almost entirely indoors and is more of a drama than an action piece. But when the writing is as good as it is here, thanks to veteran Hollywood screenwriter A.I. Bezzerides, there'll be no complaints from this reviewer. Vic Perrin plays a settler with a family who is given some crucial aid by Wells Fargo agent Jim Hardie (Dale Robertson), but when he offers to buy Hardie a drink at the saloon, he gets obsessed with an ongoing poker game and soon puts up his life savings in the hopes of experiencing a winning streak like the one he once enjoyed. When Perrin loses his money, Hardie stakes him to a one-on-one game of high card draw with the cardsharp (Michael de Carlo) who'd won all his money, but not before producing a fresh pack of cards from the bartender. As it looks like Perrin's having another winning streak, it gets quite suspenseful. The resolution was quite a surprise and is based entirely on an issue of character and moral choice, rather than circumstance or contrivance. I was quite moved.

Johnny Crawford, who was already starring with Chuck Connors in "The Rifleman" when this episode aired, appears here as Perrin's son. Perrin was a frequent guest star on episodic TV and made numerous appearances in "Dragnet" in both its 1950s and 1960s incarnations. Scripter Bezzerides is best known for writing such film noir classics as THIEVES' HIGHWAY, ON DANGEROUS GROUND and KISS ME DEADLY.