The Frank Carter Story

One of the few times in the run of the series, maybe this is the only time that Denny Miller carries an episode with none of the other regulars in it. In this story Duke Shannon arriving four days in town ahead of the Wagon Train is looking for merchants willing to sell.

But when he arrives in the town folks there think he's the favored son of Frances Reid a local widow with a ranch. This kid was a wild and reckless one who ran off after doing a little stealing. Only lawyer Edward Platt knows that Duke's doppleganger was killed later in a bordertown shootout.

Everyone else thinks the man is still alive including Albert Salmi the hard working other son and Gloria Talbott saloon girl who was keeping company with the deceased.

Edward Platt asks Denny Miller to keep up the masquerade. But some things are revealed that will change several lives forever.

This so reminds me of the late crooner Russ Columbo who was killed in 1934 and for 10 years the family kept up the illusion for his mother that he was still alive until the mother died in 1944. z

Hard to believe that mom couldn't recognize her own son though.

In a previous episode with Chris Hale's brother, who was delusional, he believed Duke, who looked like his son, was actually his dead son. In the end, Duke played along as Chris's brother lay dieing. In this episode Duke was convinced to play the son of a mother who believed her son too was still alive. Again Duke looked so much like him even the town believed he was this woman's son.

This is not an instance of one actor playing two roles, or identical twins, or whatever. The plot point of a character looking like another person is certainly not new. This episode is not as far-fetched as it might have been, though so many characters have no clue as to the true nature of the people they live with.

The script for this episode followed a trend toward re-imagining the characters of the "regulars," which seems to me to eliminate the major benefit of regulars: that the regular viewers are familiar with these characters who do not need to re-establish themselves in each episode.

The most recent episode featuring Flint gave us a character who for years was obsessed with revenge. Great backstory for the episode, but at odds with five seasons of easy-going Flint.

Check out Duke in the Charlie Shutup episode earlier this season and compare it to this Duke. It's nice that they gave Duke a whole episode, but they exchanged the basically naive Duke for one capable of extended deceit (even in a good cause). Maybe this was written for Flint.