Ella West

Maybe the idea could, on paper, have appeared something worth shooting. But ham-handed directing and acting ruin whatever potential it might have had, which is probably not that much. It would have required very skillful if not talented inputs to win the day. Norma Crane has an interestingly touching face - possibly due in part to the weird hairdo - and she does her best, but she is completely out of her wits to make any of the dual parts of her character in the least believable. Mike Mazurki is given a thoroughly incomprehensible small role, which heavy sinister looks are supposed to make clearer but do not. As to Paladin he is taking the role of a paradoxical Pygmalion, who very quickly understands the real personality between the mask of the aspiring Calamity Jane and who does the right things to reunite her with her lover of forever. But much less helpfully, he far from refrains of doing everything in his extensive range of possibilities, including Yeats' poems, to dazzle and seduce her, which is a little too successful for her and his own good. Could it be that he is slightly vain, always striving to be admired by the fairer sex even when his Reason should tell him better?

Hodgins (a Fawcett look alike) plays Tomahawk Carter, who runs a Bill Cody like wild west show. A character West is an unrefined Annie Oakley and Paladin is hired by Tomahawk to refine her. Paladin quotes Keats to West, who plays a character more complex than that of My Fair Lady. In the end, Paladin does Tomahawk a big favor.

Tiresome "Taming of the Shrew" episode has Paladin come to the aid of his old friend Tomahawk Carter (Earle Hodgins) who wants Paladin to teach his Annie Oakley type star Ella West (Norma Crane in the first and worst of her four appearances on "HGWT") to be a lady.

If the idea wasn't tired enough, Crane's endless over the top chewing of the scenery makes things even worse. She wants to win the love of Tracy (William Swan) and we have no doubts why he's not interested in her until Paladin works his magic. While its always good to see Mike Mazurski, he is given little to do.

A disappointing script from Rodeenberry after two terrific efforts.

In this western take on "My Fair Lady" (during which no one, fortunately, stops to belt out a show tune) Paladin is tasked with transforming a hissing, spitting wildcat into a prize-worthy tabby.

Trick-shooter Ella West ("worth twice any man and six times any woman") fights him tooth and claw, so to speak, until the painful secret behind all of her bluster and belligerence is finally revealed.

There may be a minimum of violence here but Paladin does get a chance to show off his own formidable pistol-shooting skills. And we also get a rare glimpse into exactly why he's so popular with the San Francisco Ladies! Paladin, of course, is too much of a Gentleman to stand in the way of True Love, but anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of Chess will understand the significance of his parting "gift" to Ella!