By this third outing THE MONROES has already proven itself an engaging drama with a capable cast and a setting perfectly suited for color television. It's a shame the location shooting proved too costly and unwieldy and would soon force relocation to a Hollywood soundstage. Here in "Ride with Terror" we have an age-old tale of gold and greed played out on a stage literally as big as all outdoors with guest stars who shine as bright as the sun.
A pre-LANCER James Stacy turns up in Wyoming as Perry, a hometown friend of the Monroes. He's initially an affable good ol' boy, eager to wager on a tortoise race and to scrap with town bully Bud Chapel. This earns Perry cheers from the townsfolk but a tongue lashing from Mae Duvall, a woman who wields both wealth and wisdom. She warns Perry that Bud will be back to even the score.
Jeanne Cooper plays Mae, a savvy businesswoman who schemes to use the Monroes as unwitting gold mules. She hires Clayt to deliver a wagonload of old furniture, neglecting to mention there's a king's ransom in gold hidden in the wagon. She knows nobody would ever suspect or try to steal a wagonload of worn-out chairs. And nobody would have, either, had the Monroes not invited trouble aboard in the person of Perry Hutchins.
Claude Akins plays baddie Bud Chapel with the accustomed aplomb (and by '66 he's played this part plenty of times), lending some depth to his character in a scene where he brags about what sets him apart from the "apple knocker farmboys" who come West and end up dead.
Why did Bud Chapel and his outlaw band pursue the wagon? For only one reason: To exact revenge on Perry, which a now sobered-up and seething Bud accomplishes in short order. It was only by an accidental and (un)lucky shot at a grandstand-playing Perry that Bud discovered there was gold hidden aboard the wagon. Just like the Old Testament prophet Jonah fleeing God aboard a ship of innocent sailors, Perry brings calamity upon the innocent people aboard this prairie schooner. And the calamities keep on coming.
After besting Perry in a brutal battle with tree branches, Bud lets the Monroes and Perry travel on. It's just a ruse, however, so Bud can dispatch his gang (to their eternal reward or merely on a fool's errand is never made clear). Perry, instead of being grateful for being alive, is increasingly consumed by greed and a gold lust that drives him to turn his gun on Clayt after he and Kathy reject his proposal that they steal it. Perry and Clayt then have their own scrap that keeps everyone distracted long enough for Bud to get the drop on them. He wants the gold all to himself (foreshadowing Akins' awesome 1970 Western A MAN CALLED SLEDGE).
There's a curse that follows other men's--or women's--gold, as both greed-crazed crooks discover. Bud barely hits the ground before he's declared dead, but Perry persists long enough to reference Aesop's fable about the tortoise winning the race, feebly atoning for his earlier slighting of Clayt for being slow and steady. Clayt takes that as an invitation to mount a soapbox and proclaim the admirable aspirations of the Monroes to make something good in the West with no ill-gotten gain, which I'm sure is exactly what Perry wanted to hear as he shuffled off his mortal coil.
It was a good story and I weighed giving it nine stars . . . until the epilogue cast a pall over the good that preceded it. Fast forward days later, mission accomplished, and Clayt is reaming Mae Duvall for not telling them about the gold shipment. Not only is Clayt downright rude to and unforgiving of Mae--an out of character misstep by the writer--but he is willfully ignorant of Perry's pivotal role in all that befell them on their journey. Had Perry not run afoul of Bud, had Clayt not invited Perry along, and had Perry not tried to steal the gold, their dangerous assignment would have been the most mundane of assignments because Bud and his outlaw band would never have pursued them. Mae isn't the villain of the piece, Perry is. His rejection of and contempt for his small-town Illinois values and eager embrace of the dog-eat-dog me-firstism he wrongly believed typifies the West was a fast-acting cancer that consumed him.
A pre-LANCER James Stacy turns up in Wyoming as Perry, a hometown friend of the Monroes. He's initially an affable good ol' boy, eager to wager on a tortoise race and to scrap with town bully Bud Chapel. This earns Perry cheers from the townsfolk but a tongue lashing from Mae Duvall, a woman who wields both wealth and wisdom. She warns Perry that Bud will be back to even the score.
Jeanne Cooper plays Mae, a savvy businesswoman who schemes to use the Monroes as unwitting gold mules. She hires Clayt to deliver a wagonload of old furniture, neglecting to mention there's a king's ransom in gold hidden in the wagon. She knows nobody would ever suspect or try to steal a wagonload of worn-out chairs. And nobody would have, either, had the Monroes not invited trouble aboard in the person of Perry Hutchins.
Claude Akins plays baddie Bud Chapel with the accustomed aplomb (and by '66 he's played this part plenty of times), lending some depth to his character in a scene where he brags about what sets him apart from the "apple knocker farmboys" who come West and end up dead.
Why did Bud Chapel and his outlaw band pursue the wagon? For only one reason: To exact revenge on Perry, which a now sobered-up and seething Bud accomplishes in short order. It was only by an accidental and (un)lucky shot at a grandstand-playing Perry that Bud discovered there was gold hidden aboard the wagon. Just like the Old Testament prophet Jonah fleeing God aboard a ship of innocent sailors, Perry brings calamity upon the innocent people aboard this prairie schooner. And the calamities keep on coming.
After besting Perry in a brutal battle with tree branches, Bud lets the Monroes and Perry travel on. It's just a ruse, however, so Bud can dispatch his gang (to their eternal reward or merely on a fool's errand is never made clear). Perry, instead of being grateful for being alive, is increasingly consumed by greed and a gold lust that drives him to turn his gun on Clayt after he and Kathy reject his proposal that they steal it. Perry and Clayt then have their own scrap that keeps everyone distracted long enough for Bud to get the drop on them. He wants the gold all to himself (foreshadowing Akins' awesome 1970 Western A MAN CALLED SLEDGE).
There's a curse that follows other men's--or women's--gold, as both greed-crazed crooks discover. Bud barely hits the ground before he's declared dead, but Perry persists long enough to reference Aesop's fable about the tortoise winning the race, feebly atoning for his earlier slighting of Clayt for being slow and steady. Clayt takes that as an invitation to mount a soapbox and proclaim the admirable aspirations of the Monroes to make something good in the West with no ill-gotten gain, which I'm sure is exactly what Perry wanted to hear as he shuffled off his mortal coil.
It was a good story and I weighed giving it nine stars . . . until the epilogue cast a pall over the good that preceded it. Fast forward days later, mission accomplished, and Clayt is reaming Mae Duvall for not telling them about the gold shipment. Not only is Clayt downright rude to and unforgiving of Mae--an out of character misstep by the writer--but he is willfully ignorant of Perry's pivotal role in all that befell them on their journey. Had Perry not run afoul of Bud, had Clayt not invited Perry along, and had Perry not tried to steal the gold, their dangerous assignment would have been the most mundane of assignments because Bud and his outlaw band would never have pursued them. Mae isn't the villain of the piece, Perry is. His rejection of and contempt for his small-town Illinois values and eager embrace of the dog-eat-dog me-firstism he wrongly believed typifies the West was a fast-acting cancer that consumed him.
