The Jennifer Churchill Story is absolutely one of my favorite episodes of the series, despite it being a remake of It Happened One Night. Although the cast only had a couple or three recognizable names, all players filled their roles admirably. The end result is an extremely fun episode, one of the highlights of Season 2.
Writer Robert Yale Libott did a good job of translating the original film into a product suitable for Wagon Train without making it too derivative. Viewers familiar with the source film will recognize some scenes, for example the hitchhiking scene was recreated somewhat, albeit without automobiles when Jennifer Churchill uses her feminine wiles to coerce a couple of grizzled old-timers to let her in out of the rain after Flint's attempt is less than successful. The singing scene is recreated as well, although with only Flint and Jennifer and they're singing the classic folk song "Cindy, Cindy" rather than "The Man on the Flying Trapeze". Yale is credited as writer for 6 episodes of Wagon Train, and for me this is his best, although he has some notoriety for writing the most bizarre episode of the series, The Steve Campden Story.
Director Jerry Hopper helmed 24 episodes of Wagon Train, including a number of film projects with Charlton Heston. He had also worked previously with some of his Wagon Train leading ladies in his short list of films, for example Jan Sterling, Nancy Gates, and Rhonda Fleming. I especially loved how he included a number of scenes during the episode with no dialogue, just Flint dealing with one disaster after another while Charlie Wooster and Bill Hawks stand by and laugh hysterically.
As to the cast, I'm a huge Robert Horton fan and he excels in this one. Despite getting dirty in several scenes, he really seemed to be enjoying himself, his general attitude and playful dialogue delivery sure seemed to indicate he was having a good time. But hey, who wouldn't have fun filming an episode where one has multiple love scenes with the deliciously gorgeous Rhonda Fleming? Oh, I would just *hate* it! (Now let me tell you about a bridge I have for sale). In fact, Robert Horton was quite the lucky guy to enjoy a number of episodes with some darned beautiful costars...Susan Oliver...Nancy Gates...Debra Paget...Linda Darnell...Margaret O'Brien...Barbara Stanwyck...and of course Ms. Fleming, to name a few. Lucky guy indeed.
Rhonda Fleming makes the first of her 3 appearance on the Train, and for me this is her best. Ms. Fleming had a storied career, appearing in dozens of film roles ranging from exotic characters in outings such as Serpent of the Nile (Cleopatra) to film noir projects, such as Out of the Past. She plays the spoiled rich girl part first made famous by Claudette Colbert quite well, first annoying and later enticing Flint McCullough.
The appearance of the legendary Andy Clyde was just awesome. Clyde appeared with William Boyd in 36 Hopalong Cassidy films as grizzled sidekick California Carlson after Gabby Hayes moved on, and he was pretty busy with a lot of work on many different TV series during his later years. He had pretty much settled into playing himself over the years as he did in this production.
Paul Maxey appears as Senator Churchill, and despite him having 167 credits I just did not recognize him. Unusual.
The concluding scene of the episode indicated Ms. Churchill was joining the train in an attempt to land Flint as a husband, but afterwards Rhonda Fleming made no further appearances in the role, and Jennifer Churchill was never mentioned again. She did however appear in 2 subsequent episodes in later seasons as different characters.
A darned fun episode!