The Silver Queen

Episode starts off in promising fashion—lonely, rich, old Leadhead (great name) is befriended by gorgeous French entertainer (Milan). Captivated, he leaves her his fortune in a will and then obligingly drops dead. Now the question arises—was she playing the old man for a sucker. Is she really a gold-digging opportunist who sees a great opportunity. She certainly seems honest, besides Paladin apparently trusts her. Still, the suspicion is unavoidable.

I wish the script had developed this aspect and saved a disclosure till the end. That would have generated real interest. Instead, the screenplay veers off in a different, more hackneyed direction that includes a poorly staged shoot-out in LA's favorite cheap location, Bronson Canyon. At least, the entry is a payday for a lot of veteran actors, especially Earle Hodgins (Leadhead) whose amusing opening scene with Boone is a little gem of unspoken affection. Still, the entry strikes me as a missed opportunity for something more memorable.

Palladin accompanies the lovely Annette (Lita Milan) to claim the mine left to her by her late admirer Leadhead (Earle Hodgins). When he gets to the town, Paladin discovers Leadhead's crooked partner Crawford (Whit Bissell) plans to challenge the will--and keep Paladin and Annette away from the hearing at any cost.

This is a good episode that lets Boone play lawyer as well as have a little of the usual gun play. Hodgins has a touching performance as the old man who's life is enlivened by the innocent Annette and the episode is enriched by the presence of several other old character actors, notably Ralph Moody as the Judge and Tom London (who used to play the comic sidekick to Sunset Carson) as one of the jurors.

In addition, Milan is both sweet and hot at the same time. The year she would star with Paul Newman in "Left Handed Gun" then according to her IMDb bio, a couple of years later she left the business to marry the son of a South American dictator--making her own life as exciting as some of the parts she played!

The episode has three parts.

The middle section, the action part linked to the mine, is actually the least interesting of the three. It is not outstanding but adequate to its purpose, with at least one bright Paladin idea which does not seem to have been used too often.

The opening and closing parts are those for which the episode is worth remembering. They are quite touching, using a slightly easy means to move us - broaching the subject of the loneliness of old miners who are close to the end of their life and never have known anything close to real happiness, let alone love. The opening is charming and folksy. The ending is a trial scene which fulfills the two main requirements most often missed by such scenes - it is crisp and to the point, and it manages to generate emotions - through close-ups of the old miners.

They are pushed by Paladin to identify themselves with their much happier fellow prospector Leadhead, and we spectators are encouraged by the story to identify ourselves with them, their past suffering and still not extinct longings. Both may appear in a way as manipulative tricks, but in the end they are well-meaning tricks and therefore, quite interestingly, they both work out fine...