The Virginian (TV Series) The Laramie Road (1965) User Reviews

Crisis for Emmet Ryker

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 2 June 2019]

This Virginian story starts with a pair of lowlife hobos, Leslie Nielsen and Berkeley Harris who kill farm woman Marge Redmond unfortunately with her son Rory Stevens as a witness. The two are arrested and held for trial. Public opinion in Medicine Bow runs high against these two but nothing compared to after they knife Sheriff Harlan Warde and kill him.

With lynch law talk on the rise this becomes a crisis for Clu Gulager. This episode may have been Gulager's finest in his tenure on The Virginian. Redmond's husband Harold J. Stone and his friend Claude Akins are working up lynch fever. And Gulager is a friend to these people.

One really outstanding episode for The Virginian series.

Good acting saves the show

[pfors-647-501497 · 7/10 · 16 August 2013]

The ACLU would be proud of this somber episode's assertion that the law must protect the rights of the guilty as zealously as the innocent if democracy is to thrive. Unfortunately, the point is driven home in the heavy, preachy manner typical of season four. Precise acting keeps the sermon bearable though, with Clu Gulager as the deeply conflicted Ryker, Lee J. Cobb in one of his last appearances as Judge Garth, Harold J. Stone, Claude Akins and the remarkable Leslie Nielsen. Playing a depraved wanderer who casually uses and discards any easy pickings that cross his path, including unprotected women, Nielsen proves he can subvert his stoic image as effectively for drama as could late in his career for comedy in the "Naked Gun" series and movies.

Lawman vs. Peer Pressure

[JenExxifer · 10/10 · 4 November 2022]

I give this episode 10 stars because I appreciate the principles of Lawman Ryker when he's under pressure!

Similar to 'Ring of Silence' (S4, E6) when Ryker had to put his lawman principles to the test against stagecoach strangers, in this episode his principles are again tested by his friends.

Ryker knows he's a lawman, but when his friends put the pressure on him Ryker has to stand for what he believes in, and he ultimately believes in the law; he is a lawman through and through, even if he has his doubts in justice.

I think Clu Gulager does a nice job as Ryker; I like that his character seems to struggle with the dynamics of being a lawman, because he knows what he must do even when the pressure is on him -- uphold the law.