Cheyenne (TV Series) Deadline (1957) User Reviews

Rerun Drifting: To & Fro and Once Again

[redryan64 · 7/10 · 16 April 2015]

IT HAS BEEN said that there are some people who always manage to find trouble or visa-versa. Cheyenne Bodie would certainly have to be considered one of these guys.

WHILE STOPPING LONG enough from his wanderings in the Olde West in order to help out an old friend, Charley Dolan (John Qualen) from a previous time, Cheyenne gets involved in some crooked scheme to dispossess his friend from his homestead.

THROUGH AN EERIE string of "coincidences" he also befriends a local with a drinking problem, Boyd Copeland (Mark Roberts) who also just coincidentally is married to Cheyenne's old acquaintance Paula (Anne Robinson).

THE STORY EXPANDS to include a homicide by arson of the local newspaper publisher (Uncle of Boyd's), the effort to re-open the paper's operation and a shootout between Cheyenne and the local corrupt would be political boss. Just for good measure, we witness a cross country wagon journey that is supposed to have been a mission to bring new printing presses to the town for the paper's new publisher, Boyd.

WE SCREENED THIS episode on the Cable Channel HEROES & ICONS. We can't say whether or not that we had seen this one in its original run; for we did regularly view CHEYENNE in our house. We do believe that this was not one of those banner episodes. This one also makes us wonder how much drifting around the Great Plains, the Rockies, the Panhandles, etc., as he had bumped into two old acquaintances in just one town.

"A man's got to face himself sooner or later."

[faunafan · 9/10 · 29 November 2022]

Two men ride up to Charley Dolan's, where he and old friend Cheyenne are putting up fence, and try forcibly to serve an eviction notice. When Charley and Cheyenne protest, both end up on the ground unconscious. But a conk on the head has never stopped Cheyenne Bodie from trying to right a wrong. He goes into Los Altos to check on Charley's property rights, and encounters only resistance from the land agent, then in the saloon from the local sheriff and from the man who seems to run the town, Len Garth. Waiting for a meal, Cheyenne is befriended by Boyd Copeland, a genial drunk who's enjoying himself a little too much. To avoid the boisterous fellow being roughly ousted by Garth's men, Cheyenne escorts him home. There he finds that Boyd's wife is an old flame, Paula, and he learns that Boyd works for the local newspaper. A fire in his office starts a chain of events that involve both Cheyenne and Charley. There are many contemptible elements in this story, including corruption and greed; but there are also positive ones, such as the nature of friendship and the need for redemption. It's a satisfying mix, agreeably resolved by the time Cheyenne rides away.

Mark Roberts convincingly plays the alcoholic newspaperman who finds not only his voice but his true strength of character. The sleazy politician/thief/murderer Garth is played by Bruce Cowling, an unfamiliar actor to this series but one who was fairly active in the 40's and 50's. John Qualen is Charley Dolan, who considers Cheyenne the son he never had; it's a poignant relationship, so close that Cheyenne uncharacteristically loses his temper when he thinks that Boyd is responsible for the old man's death. Ann Robinson is effective as Paula, who chose Boyd because, unlike Cheyenne Bodie, he needed her. In an interview many years later, Ann said that Clint Walker was "the most decent man" she'd ever met, as gallant off-camera as he was on. That is rare praise in Hollywood, but it's an apt description of the man who brought Cheyenne Bodie to life so well that to this day he remains the epitome of the Western hero.