Rawhide (TV Series) Incident of the Prodigal Son (1962) User Reviews

A couple of chips

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 7 March 2020]

The Gil Favor trail herd comes upon a thirsty and starving young Carl Reindel nn the desert as they are looking for water for the steers. Reindel is a spoiled rich kid who has to earn his keep to stay with the drive.

Another one with a big chip on his shoulder is old hand Gene Evans. These two form a strange bond.

Rawhide regulars take a back seat to Evans and Reindel in this story. They have some great scenes together.

Gene Evans Gets What He Deserves

[Johnny_West · 3/10 · 1 March 2023]

Gene Evans was awesome at playing a total jerk, an unreasonable creep, a bully, and mean, evil people. He often either had a problem with authority, or he was abusing his authority. Every time I saw Gene Evans on any TV show, I usually spent that episode hoping that he would get killed at the end. He always deserved a bullet in his guts.

The other main character in this episode is played by Carl Reindel, who had appeared on Gunsmoke a couple of times as a tough kid with a bad attitude. Here he is a similar character, but he listens to Gene Evans advice about life, and becomes a better person during the cattle drive.

Evans character is rough and mean to the drovers, but kind and nurturing to Reindel. It was perhaps the only time I can think of that Evans tried to be nice to anyone. By contrast, he really dislikes Rowdy (Clint Eastwood) and throws a rope on him and then drags him around. At that point Favor fires Evans from the cattle drive, and sets up the story's finale.