Reunion for a Revenge

Good suspenseful episode, featuring two of the most popular box office stars of the 60's & 70's, Coburn and McQueen. Four convicts escape in barrels and take over a stage waystation to get revenge on Aben, the station master. Josh is there but mostly as a bystander. Meanwhile, Meeker gets the screen time and mugs it up as the lead outlaw. Fellow outlaw Coburn's almost unrecognizable in a really big eye patch, but the voice is unmistakable. Kudos to the writer who included the deaf-mute girl who stumbles in with her escort. Her presence gives the episode unexpected pathos. Anyway, it's an unusual thirty-minutes, almost like a stage play for some very well-known performers.

Two "name" actors helped elevate this "fair" episode of four criminals who escaped jail and went after the man who squealed on them, a former member of the gang who really was a good guy in the wrong crowd.

Almost the entire episode takes place in one room after two of the bad guys (Ralph Meeker and James Coburn!) burst in on "Aben" (Edward Kemmer) and just-passing-through Josh Randall.

From that point, the story is a bit stagy but Meeker's convincing scumbag character and a very young Coburn make it interesting. Added to the mix is a Quaker man and his deaf-mute wife. They also make this episode a bit more interesting.