wildbillharding

I enjoyed this yarn. Lucas escapes the cardboard North Fork for a vastly better open air town setting. The direction by cult figure Joseph H Lewis is, as usual, above average. Take, for example, his excellent opening frame of the heavy's hand shackled to the barbed wire. The cast is fine, with Peter Whitney in his third Rifleman, spoiled only by his over-the-top ethnic costume. As ever, Claude Akins makes a superb villain with a touch of vulnerability.

We know Lucas will pull through but don't know who will actually gun down the heavy. There's a surprise there.

I gree with Johnbmoore's review. There is definitely something strange about this low-budget little western. It sticks to the mind, and it's not just the unique use of a harpoon as a street weapon. In his book Western Films: A Complete Guide, Brian Garfield horse-whips it to death. He dislikes almost every aspect of Lewis's direction and only admits to Sterling Hayden\s performance being any good.

Ned Young, who plays the hired gun, was once black-listed for communist sympathies and he was rarely seen on-screen. It is a curiosity, yes, but it stands out for being different, and that's rare among fifties westerns.

I'm watching all 17 episodes of this forgotten series, made in 1960, and which I enjoy much more than some of the more ponderous Western series, like Gunsmoke and The Deputy. The chemistry between William Bendix and Doug McClure is lively and funny. Not all the episodes are top-notch - the last one made, Most Dangerous Gentleman, has a silly plot about President Grant and almost nothing to do with the stagecoach line. This one's pure fun.

Mission into Mexico has a great cast, including the underrated Robert Loggia, who played Elfego Barca for Disney. as well as Doug McClure's future wife, BarBara Luna. The shenanigans will make you smile all the way.