The Marshall of Trail City

The episode's premise surrounds rancher Bill Elliott reluctantly being pressed into service as Marshall of crime infested Trail City. Along the way he befriends an orphaned boy (Timmy Tate), puts a spoiled, feisty cowgirl (Valley Keene) in her place and has to deal with a childhood friend who has fallen on the wrong side of the law.

This was presumably a pilot for a television series that was never sold. After watching this stinker it's easy to understand why. What isn't clear is how Bill Elliott and Dub Taylor got mixed up in this mess in the first place. Maybe they saw the writing on the wall for the end of the B-Western and were testing the waters for a TV series of their own, much like Hoppy, Gene and Roy. However unlike Hoppy, Gene and Roy the acting and production values are woefully bad. So much so, I doubt that they could have even floated this by a network or even sold it into syndication. Curiosity aside, this is one to pass on.

Wild Bill Elliott plays a rancher who reluctantly takes the job of marshal of a tough cowtown. This was a pilot for a proposed series for Eliott that was aimed squarely at kids, and it shows. The script by veteran writer Harold Shumate is sloppy and juvenile; he has done much, much better work. The reliable Dub Taylor plays Elliott's sidekick "Cannonball" and he manages to bring some life to the goings-on, but otherwise the supporting performances are uniformly poor and the photography is dark and muddy. Production values are rock-bottom, even for an early '50s TV show, and its cheapness shows in every frame. The few "action" scenes are poorly done and there's a particularly inept fight scene between Elliott and a former pal who is now a wanted criminal.

There's a reason this wasn't picked up as a series. It's poor all around and an embarrassment to those who fondly remember Elliott's great westerns for Republic. After this misfire, he went back to making westerns for Monogram and Allied Artists, all of which are far better than this. Maybe worth a look just for historical purposes, since--as far as I can tell--ttis was Elliott's only appearance on TV. Otherwise, don't bother.

"The Marshall of Trail City" has a few worthwhile plot-points, but the weak acting and the even weaker production values do not make this program view-worthy, other than it being a curiosity as an unpicked-up pilot from the early days of television. One must kick up the point value for the show a notch or two just because of the Elliot-Taylor combo, but beyond that the primary redeemer here is that there are a number of fascinating conversations in this film (check out the several examples that one fan highlights for us elsewhere on this page). This film will likely be of interest to fans of westerns, although certainly not really essential. In summary, it is difficult for B-westerns to be made to look well-budgeted, but by comparison to this cheaply-made pilot, Bill Elliot's same-era B's look lavishly appointed!