Man of Fear

That's so far the first time that ZANE GREY THEATER tv show proposes a figure of the old West - here doc Holiday - in the stories. Besides that, there is really nothing to say about this story which looks like thousands of others, at least from my own point of view. You see, I seek weird, unusual, surprising plots, certainly not stories foreseeable in advance. Here, I was bored and watched it only because the length is only twenty six minutes. So, I undertsand that some audiences and western die hard fans may find some interest in this tepid plot, but me, regarding my "special " tastes, I could not make it.

Dewey Martin stars in this Zane Grey Theater episode as the healthiest Doc Holiday ever portrayed on the big screen and small. Not a hint of the tuberculosis that made him go west for a drier climate. Not even a hint of his actual profession as dentist.

Here Martin is visiting old friend Arthur Franz and his wife Julie Adams. Franz who at one time was a tough man just knuckles under to a corrupt new sheriff in the area Brett King. He specializes in 'tax collection' and King has three deputies all hard cases. It's just legal extortion.

I doubt the real Doc Holiday ever would have been taken the way King and his deputies get the drop on him. Not one of the better Zane Grey episodes given what is universally known of Doc Holiday.

Not sure why the writer wanted to use Doc Holliday's name in the script since this was a far-fetched story that really has no facts in the life of Mr Holliday. But with that said, we have a story concerning Holliday visiting an old friend named Lee Brand that is being shaken-down by the local Sheriff in the forms of special taxes. The Sheriff and his posse ride to all the local ranchers and demand money and if you cannot pay they take the money in other ways. This is what is happening to Lee Brand.

Lee, that use to be good friends with Holliday, is not doing well. He has an arm that will no longer function and seems to have lost the willingness to stand up for himself and his wife. Holliday visits and sees the condition that Brand has become. He is set on making Brand the man he knew years a go.

For whatever reason, just could not get in the flow of the story. It had all the elements to make for a nice story but just seemed too stiff in nature. Dewey Martin, whom I have like in other roles, just did not seemed the right choice for Doc Holliday character and appeared uncomfortable in this tale. Just not the best story in the lot.