Incident at Deadhorse: Part I

Every episode with Burgess Meredith as guest is so good because his acting is exemplary. He molds his characters with so many interesting and entertaining quirks, and conveys such depth and emotion. He also imbues everything he acts in with intelligence as well as humor, and obviously with repeated appearances throughout the course of the show, those people responsible for the series felt the same way.

Add to that the talented Broderick Crawford, as well as Chill Wills and Robert Middleton, along with the usual cast's great work, and this is one of the better episodes. So many of Rawhide's episodes are interesting studies in the human condition, and this is certainly one of them.

Broderick Crawford shot a card shark during a poker game. Apparently the guy was not armed, and Crawford was tried by a Judge, not a jury. Bad choice, he had a right to trial by jury. The Judge apparently was not a big fan of Crawford, and found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to hang.

Nobody wanted to be the hangman of Crawford, so the Sheriff contacted the the State Supreme Court for a hangman, and Burgess Meredith got sent out to do the job.

Now this could have easily been a one hour story. Crawford did not want to hang, and his family controlled the town and lots of cowboy employees. So the entire confrontation with Gil Favor and the drovers should have been wrapped up without adding the three attempts on the life of Burgess Meredith.

First they bury him after a beating, then they whip and toss him into a ditch, then something similar gets done. Each time, the drovers happen to find him, they take him back to camp, and Wishbone heals up Meredith, and we get to hear Meredith engaging in several dramatic monologues regarding his life and death, and why it is his life's work to hang people, and why he has to do it even if he gets killed.

The drovers get dragged into it out of misplaced sympathy. I think the first time should have been enough, and if Meredith wanted to get killed, that was his problem.

Broderick Crawford and Chill Wills as guest stars do not do much in both episodes. Crawford's highlight is at the end of the second part, when he makes a dramatic speech about not wanting anyone to get killed (after numerous confrontations), and wanting to do the right thing (really late in the game).

Crawford meets his fate, and Meredith gets back on his mule with his fake bent neck and bad back, and everyone watches him ride away as they slowly realized they wasted a week or more defending a guy who could care less about anyone, including himself.

This was an episode dedicated to Burgess Meredith making a lot of dramatic pointless speeches about duty, loyalty, obligations, death, etc. Somebody at Rawhide must have owed him some big favors.