Test of Courage

...even some of the characters' names ("McCool," the leader of the outlaw gang) are the same. And footage from the 1953 film is used quite liberally throughout the episode. Clint Walker and the other actors had to dress in similar-looking costumes to make the fillers plausible. The plot is simple: horses are being stolen from the army in a number of daring raids, and in turn are sold to the Indians under Crazy Horse (in the film, the bad guys were Southern sympathizers). Cheyenne (Walker) is assigned to work with Army intelligence to undercover the culprits. Lots of action, but not very original. Good performances from such veteran western stars as John Archer, George Neise, Mickey Simpson, and Robert Anderson

Army scout Cheyenne is court-martialed for cowardice when he wants to abandon Army horses the Army needs to raiders who always know where to strike. The post commander is frustrated as is his wife who wants to return back east.

In reality, Cheyenne is working undercover to bust a horse stealing gang and he does a great job of getting into the gang - strikes an officer who hates him, which gets him in the hoosegow and he escapes, thanks to someone from the outside ...

Big question is : who is the head honcho of the gang ...

Well, if you watched my favourite Gary Cooper western, Springfield Rifles, then you would know who the main villain is as this episode is a remake of that film - of course, the scale is chiselled down to fit the fourth-eight minutes and there's some stock footages from the film. Nevertheless, it's an entertaining one and exciting at times.

Other comments deal at length with the plot, so I will stay away from that. The story was fine, and had much action and twists. This is supposedly a remake of an earlier film, and trying to fit two hours of story into less than one hour is obviously a challenging project.

I can't fault the acting, which was proficient and often excellent. But I was often confused as to who was who, their motives, whether they were "undercover". The biggest confusion resulted from half of the characters wearing Army uniforms and often looking and sounding alike. There seemed to be little time for discoveries of true character, and instead we had revelations. Still, the episode was worth watching.