There was such an appetite for TV westerns in the late 1950s that MGM figured it could sell this series even though it's set during the French & Indian War when the frontier was Pittsburgh! Most of its plots, however, could easily be interchanged with those on more traditional westerns. On 10-19-58, for instance, an episode ran titled "Break Out" in which series star Keith Larsen falls into the hands of the Bad Guys who force him to work on a road-gang. This same plot played across the whole "western" spectrum, perhaps because it allowed the lead ctor -- usually a muscular "hunk" -- to appear bare-chested and sweaty and maybe even suffer a bit of bondage and punishment. In "Break Out," Larsen is tied to a post and given a sound whipping. (Despite such sado-masochism, these old TV westerns are often re-run on "Family" channels!)
Review of Northwest Passage
