Die by the Gun

Josh Randall is taking a young hoodlum (John Wilder) on a stagecoach to collect his bounty. The stage driver is Ray Teal, who usually played a very nice guy, often as the sheriff on the Bonanza TV series.

Along come the escaped killers, played by John Larch and Warren Oates. They opened this episode with a rather chilling strangulation of an old prospector (Forrest Lewis), when they surprised him as he was cooking his food in his shelter in the rain. Then they lay in wait for Randall and Teal by laying a large tree branch in the path of the stagecoach.

Randall and Larch have a lot of good guy / bad guy give and take. It is fairly obvious that Larch has a big grudge against law enforcement, and people that he thinks do not respect him. Larch takes a liking to the young thug (Wilder) and he is freed from his handcuffs. Oates does a good job as the cold-blooded evil sidekick who does all the killing for Larch.

When the bad guys get near the Mexican border, Larch decides to settle everyone's hash. Teal played his stagecoach driver character as a humble, sincere, and kind guy who is not a friend of Larch and Oates. Larch orders Oates to take Teal by the spring for a drink of water, and that scene is very sinister, especially since there is no spring. Randall and Teal know the score, but they are helpless. I grew up watching Ray Teal play good guy roles, and every time I see this episode I want to cry a little bit. It is sad to watch Teal taken down the path by Warren Oates.

After Oates executes Teal, it is looking grim for Randall. Young Wilder finally realizes he does not want to join the killers, and Randall gets his chance to make things right, and avenge Ray Teal. The shootout is excellent, exciting, fast, and you get it from three angles. Everyone gets shot at least once. It was choreographed like a movie.

I loved this episode. John Larch was fabulous as the evil, but nearly likable bad man. This reminded me a lot of Petrified Forest, the old Bogart film. I believe the actor who played the stage driver was the same fellow who played the Sheriff in many Bonanza episodes. He was also outstanding as was a very youthful looking Warren Oates.

I agree with the other comment that the story was somewhat standard western fare but it was elevated in my eyes by the wonderful cast and superb production. The opening scene was magnificent as the two hard edged escaped convicts played by Larch and Oates bushwhack a lonely prospector as the rain falls in torrents. This was one of the better done scenes that I have ever seen in a western, any western. It plays almost like an old thirties horror film...very cool. I knew it was going to be a special film just from that great opening. I also found it very interesting that the Larch character was anything but a one dimensional character. That was certainly not always the case during those days in Hollywood westerns.

Another plus was the entirely realistic shootout at the end of the episode. Very well done. Overall, I gave this one a ten! Darn near a perfect little film. Larch and McQueen were awesome.

Josh Randall is escorting a young kid Joe Sands for armed robbery. The kid has remorse but Josh will get a good bounty for him.

He hears from the stagecoach driver two convicts are on the loose. One of them is Howie Kale (John Larch), Josh has heard of him. The other one is Jesse Cox (Warren Oates) a younger man but just as sadistic as Kale.

Only Josh, his prisoner and the stagecoach driver find themselves taken hostage by Kale. He wants to go across the border into Mexico. Josh figures quickly that Kale and Cox will not leave anyone alive behind.

It is up to Josh with the help of Joe to overpower them.

The baddies are suitable despicable. It could only end in a shootout. Oates. Larch and McQueen standout in the acting stakes.

A young kid who committed armed robbery but is obviously a decent person, is nonetheless being transported by Josh Randall via stage. En route, they are taken hostage by two killers, who we saw briefly murder a nice old man in the episode's introduction. John Larch ("Kale") is the main killer here and is not someone whose name we know but his face is recognizable. He was one of these actors that was in the million of TV shows in the '50s through the 70s. His young, stupid partner, "Cox," however, is Warren Oates, who turned out to be a fairly big movie star.

Anyway, "Kale" figures out the best way he and his partner can escape is to get across the border. All of them - the two crooks, the nice kid crook, Randall and the stage driver - go on a stagecoach headed that way. When they get to the border, it will look like Kale and Cox are prisoners being escorted by Randall and company. However, since the bad guys have all the guns, they will still be in charge all the way. That's the plan. The ending was a very predictable one that even I could see coming a mile away so, for that, it loses a point or two. It's still a pretty decent episode with good acting.