THE WESTERNER "The Painting"1960
This is the 13th episode of the short run western series, THE WESTERNER. The series starred Brian Keith as a wandering cow-hand travelling the southwest United States. Of note here is the creator and producer, Sam Peckinpah. Peckinpah is of course known as the writer and director of, THE WILD BUNCH. This series only ran for 13 episodes in the fall of 1960.
Keith is offered 100 dollars by a stranger to help find a painting. This seems a bit odd to Keith, but he sure could use the cash. The stranger, Paul Sorensen, tells Keith that the painting is of a nude woman. The woman, Madlyn Rhue, is his boss on a cattle ranch. The painting was stolen and Rhue wants it back.
Keith is soon on the trail of the painting. And who should he run into? That would be none other than John Dehner. Dehner, a con man, card sharp and various other things, just happens to have said painting. Dehner offers Keith $300 to help him haul the painting by wagon to the next town. He has an offer to sell the painting to a saloon owner for double that.
Needless to say nothing goes right for the pair. They are soon corralled by Miss Rhue and several of her ranch hands. Now Keith finds out that Dehner, pretending to be a painter from France, had sweet talked Miss Rhue into posing for the portrait. There had also been a promise of marriage involved.
Dehner, being the cad that he is, had instead hot footed it with the painting afterwards. Rhue is all for filling his hide with bullets. Dehner, ever the smooth talker, tells the woman that he was returning the painting and cannot wait to be married. Rhue returns to her ranch to prepare.
Needless to say Dehner hotfoots it again with the painting. But not before giving Keith some pistol butt to the head. Keith of course gives chase once he regains his senses. He catches Dehner right after he has sold the painting. Keith and Dehner become involved in a dust-up just as Rhue and her men arrive. No giving away the end here, but I'll say it is worth the watch.
Keith and Dehner work well together in this, the third pairing of the two in the series. Like the other two episodes, this one is played for laughs. (Not many in the first two) Director Peckinpah manages to avoid the rough and tumble physical humour of the first two for word play. This works much better with Dehner really shining here with a true flair for language. There are more than a few chuckles to be had, and the episode had me smiling the whole time.
This was the last episode of the series. Too bad.
Madlyn Rhue is probably best known for the STAR TREK episode, "Space Seed". It was the episode where the character, "Khan" was introduced.
This is the 13th episode of the short run western series, THE WESTERNER. The series starred Brian Keith as a wandering cow-hand travelling the southwest United States. Of note here is the creator and producer, Sam Peckinpah. Peckinpah is of course known as the writer and director of, THE WILD BUNCH. This series only ran for 13 episodes in the fall of 1960.
Keith is offered 100 dollars by a stranger to help find a painting. This seems a bit odd to Keith, but he sure could use the cash. The stranger, Paul Sorensen, tells Keith that the painting is of a nude woman. The woman, Madlyn Rhue, is his boss on a cattle ranch. The painting was stolen and Rhue wants it back.
Keith is soon on the trail of the painting. And who should he run into? That would be none other than John Dehner. Dehner, a con man, card sharp and various other things, just happens to have said painting. Dehner offers Keith $300 to help him haul the painting by wagon to the next town. He has an offer to sell the painting to a saloon owner for double that.
Needless to say nothing goes right for the pair. They are soon corralled by Miss Rhue and several of her ranch hands. Now Keith finds out that Dehner, pretending to be a painter from France, had sweet talked Miss Rhue into posing for the portrait. There had also been a promise of marriage involved.
Dehner, being the cad that he is, had instead hot footed it with the painting afterwards. Rhue is all for filling his hide with bullets. Dehner, ever the smooth talker, tells the woman that he was returning the painting and cannot wait to be married. Rhue returns to her ranch to prepare.
Needless to say Dehner hotfoots it again with the painting. But not before giving Keith some pistol butt to the head. Keith of course gives chase once he regains his senses. He catches Dehner right after he has sold the painting. Keith and Dehner become involved in a dust-up just as Rhue and her men arrive. No giving away the end here, but I'll say it is worth the watch.
Keith and Dehner work well together in this, the third pairing of the two in the series. Like the other two episodes, this one is played for laughs. (Not many in the first two) Director Peckinpah manages to avoid the rough and tumble physical humour of the first two for word play. This works much better with Dehner really shining here with a true flair for language. There are more than a few chuckles to be had, and the episode had me smiling the whole time.
This was the last episode of the series. Too bad.
Madlyn Rhue is probably best known for the STAR TREK episode, "Space Seed". It was the episode where the character, "Khan" was introduced.
