"The Wild Wild West" is one of those shows that's so "out there", it's really rather amazing that CBS, (at the time the show was produced, still known as "The Tiffany Network"), actually bought the show! But I, for one, was thankful they did. The "WWW" was a rather strange amalgam of a standard TV Western and a VERY imaginative Science-Fiction show - not exactly the sort of thing one would think of coming from the network that brought you Gunsmoke. In this outing, "The Night Of The Hangman", a man is shot in front of dozens of witnesses. The man accused of the murder swears he didn't do it. At first glance, it looks like he's a liar. But the combined brain power of West and Gordon of the Secret Service end up proving what he ("Dean" Stanton) says is true. Sure, there are a few things in this show that are a bit out of their actual time (check the other review for the years the Daguerreotype was actually in use, for example). Be that as it may, the script was clever, and just take a look at this cast! A young Harry Dean Stanton (before he used the "Harry"), The Rifleman's Paul Fix as The Judge, just to name two, work together with West and Gordon to make this show a great one!
3 Reviews
Remember 11.22.1963?
searchanddestroy-112 March 2019
Or you can replace Harry Dean Stanton character as a kind of Lee Harvey Oswald...That's my own interpretation of this basic story; the only link that first came to my mind. A rather unusual W W WEST show indeed, but with some recurrent elements though. And I also found weird the more than supporting character, just at the beginning, whom the camera focuses on, with no reasons at all, this old rude man at the buffet.
Essentially a detective mystery episode
oscar-3527 November 2012
Warning: Spoilers
*Spoiler/plot- TNOT Hangman, 1967, The agents go undercover to overturn a hanging verdict unjustly given to an innocent man.
*Special Stars- Robert Conrad, Ross Martin, Harry Dean Stanton, Charles Lane, Paul Fix
*Theme- The Secret Service once involved will get justice.
*Trivia/location/goofs- Original air date: 10-20-67. Rolins Ranch and it's railhead frontier town is plot location. Daguerrotype photos were essentially unpopular and out-of-use by the 1850s. The walls of the Ace Novelty Company obviously shake and are clearly only unbraced thin studio stage 'flats'.
*Emotion- Essentially a detective mystery episode but made very fun & interesting based on the acting talents & action of Mr. Conrad. The plot gets too complicated at first and then is too unbelievable. The arrested man(Harry Dean Stanton) is played to 'flat' to be sympathetic to the episode watcher. Hhs character is forgettable. His pregnant wife is more sympathetic and well acted. But, Mr. Martin's many undercover characters make this episode entertaining and worth a fun look also.
*Special Stars- Robert Conrad, Ross Martin, Harry Dean Stanton, Charles Lane, Paul Fix
*Theme- The Secret Service once involved will get justice.
*Trivia/location/goofs- Original air date: 10-20-67. Rolins Ranch and it's railhead frontier town is plot location. Daguerrotype photos were essentially unpopular and out-of-use by the 1850s. The walls of the Ace Novelty Company obviously shake and are clearly only unbraced thin studio stage 'flats'.
*Emotion- Essentially a detective mystery episode but made very fun & interesting based on the acting talents & action of Mr. Conrad. The plot gets too complicated at first and then is too unbelievable. The arrested man(Harry Dean Stanton) is played to 'flat' to be sympathetic to the episode watcher. Hhs character is forgettable. His pregnant wife is more sympathetic and well acted. But, Mr. Martin's many undercover characters make this episode entertaining and worth a fun look also.
See also
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