Fury at Rio Hondo

This has to be one of the worst Cheyenne episodes ever. I sat watching this poor excuse for a Western, waiting for something remotely exciting to happen, guess what.....it didn't! Clint Walker was his usual laid back self, but even he seemed to be wondering what the storyline was meant to convey.

Peggie Castle as the blonde sultry pickpocket Mississippi, tried to lift the proceedings, but with a screenplay as uninteresting as this i'm afraid she was wasting her time.

Nearly all the scenes were studio shot, which didn't help to try and inject some pace into the plot and I have to say that the French border patrol officers were about as French as Mexican jumping beans!

The Cheyenne episode "Fury at Rio Hondo" does something I have not seen before. It has been suggested the it is an homage or retelling of the Bogart/Bacall movie "To Have and Have Not." I would say it is something less than that as the dialog is almost identical to the earlier movie. It's OK for what it is and Peggie Castle plays her role quite well and does her own singing (unlike Bacall). But it seems that there is an issue of plagiarism involved here; as it is almost 60 years after the fact it probably doesn't matter very much. I was just shocked at the precision of the "rip off" as no attempt was made to change the dialog at all unless the plot demanded it.

How do writers get away with this?

Warner Brothers owned the property (the screenplay of "To Have and Have Not") and if Roy Huggins wanted to make a western version of that, he, and the studio, were free to do so. They were also free to use archive footage from other Warner Bros. feature films (which they did many, many times in this TV series) and a lot of footage from "Juarez"is used in this "Cheyenne" episode. And for what it is worth, regrading the reviewer who thinks Hoagy Carmichael played the piano player in this episode, the piano player called 'Professor" was played by Tim Grahame.Yes, the 'Star Dust' man did play the piano in "To Have and Have Not."

At least two episodes from "Cheyenne's first season are actual movie plots retold in a Western setting. "Fury at Rio Hondo" is a retelling of "To Have and to Have Not" with Peggy Castle outstanding in the Lauren Bacall role. "The Argonaunts" is a retelling of "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and features Rod Taylor.

According to the film's plot summery: Harry Morgan (Cheyenne) and his alcoholic sidekick, Eddie (Pete), are based on the island of Martinique (a small Mexican town) and crew a boat (wagon) available for hire. However, since the Second World War (Maximilian's occupation of Mexico for France) is happening around them business is not what it could be and after a customer who owes them a large sum fails to pay they are forced against their better judgment to violate their preferred neutrality and to take a job for the resistance (rebels) transporting a fugitive on the run from the Nazis (the French) to Martinique (the United States). Through all this runs the stormy relationship between Morgan and Marie "Slim" Browning (Mississippi), a resistance sympathizer (a stranded Southern Belle) and the sassy singer in the club where Morgan spends most of his days.

Given the show's limited time to tell a feature length story it is pretty good.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

This is a virtual verbatim remake of 1944's Bogart and Bacall classic To Have and Have Not. Written by Hemingway and taking place in 1940 Martinique, with the Vichy French and the Nazis instead of the French and Mexicans. Bogart uses a boat to Cheyennes wagons but right down to the line I don't know what kind of war you guys are fighting, dragging your wives along is again a verbatim clip from the movie. Notable was the fact that that movie was Bogart and Bacalls initial film together. Walter Brennen played the drunken sidekick who was always asking Have you ever been bitten by a dead bee? A good performance by Hoagy Carmichael as the piano player only adds to the atmosphere. Anyway, a great movie and if you get a chance to see it, you will have seen this episode of Cheyenne as well. You may enjoy both of these, I did, particularly the movie.