filmgoer249711

While this film is certainly not outstanding, it is not a dreadful as some have said. It has some negatives, some moments of utter stupidity, but some of the screenplay was not bad, and Sorbo, Fonda, and. Galligan do a pretty good acting job. Galligan suffers a little bit in gun battle sequences, of which there are not enough of, but the director did not get much out of the actors as it was in the scenes and that is because he was afraid to have them shoot em' up. The actors could not handle the guns. Galligan was mediocre at firing the guns and the others just plain stunk. The introduction of J. Frank Dalton is the most interesting part of this film, and Galligan, minus the shoot em' up sequences, does quite well. The fault here lies with much of the action sequences and the costuming. The coffin thing was utterly stupid. The only reason that I am giving it four stars and not three or two is becaue I felt Sorbo did such an excellent job, and Fonda. Most of the set pieces look too new and the costume people did not even attempt to make some of the costumes not look like Halloween costumes, but it is watchable.

Basically all Michael Landon productions, beginning with Bonanza where he honed his crafts as a writer and director, were able to do serious episodes and funny ones and the audience still find it compelling. This episode is mostly Mrs. Oleson creating news where it does not exist and reporting gossip, half-truths, and crap. Of course, all of that is rather funny to see Mrs. Oleson make a total fool out of herself, but it gets serious and Charles takes matters into his own hands. Michael Landon lets us know that freedom of speech and the press does not give one the right to print half-truths and outright lies. A lot of negative things have been said about Mike recently, I regard them as crap, but some buy into them. Mike is not hear to defend himself against things people say today, but some assume guilty until proven innocent, even though it is supposed to be the other way around. Several things that a former cast member said about Michael can easily be proven wrong. One allegation is that most directors did not make it through the first season. For the record, the majority of episodes in the first season and throughout the series were directed by Michael, Bill Claxton, Victor French, and Maury Dexter. Sean Penn, made his acting debut in the series, because his father Leo Penn directed some episodes. Leo directed a first season episode of Little House. Of all the directors that directed an episode during the first season, Alf Kjellin was the only one who did not work for Michael Landon again. Leo Penn would go on to direct a few more Little Houses and a couple of Father Murphy's. Another allegation that he cut this persons screen time is also false. If anything the character Carolina Ingalls was given more and more and more screen time as the show developed through the years.

Charles fixes a little girl that has one leg that is longer than another new shoes. It is a touching and sometimes funny little episode, as Laura shoves Nelly into the creek. Little behind the scenes story on this, and I would not add it if not too make a point, Allison Arngrim writes that in the scene in which Nelly is pushed into the lake/pond/creek that director Alf Kjellin shot the scene with her stunt double, being pushed into the water, but then he was going to shoot a take with Allison being pushed into the water. What reason? Michael Landon evidently thought there was no reason for that either. He wanted to move on and shoot close ups of Nelly's reaction. Now in the book apparently, Arngrim is trying to criticize Michael Landon, but I agree with him. I think it would have been a not a smart move of the other director. For one, it would be a waste of film to shoot Allison after already having shot her stunt double, and it could cause the child to catch pneumonia. Michael Landon then fired Alf, after telling him he was doing his job for him, and the two of them exchanged some choice words. Michael was obviously right, and anybody that thinks otherwise would not be much of a problem solver, to put it nicely.