For an episode that is centered around the supposed return of militant abolitionist John Brown fourteen years after he was hug, the result is awfully pedestrian. His truth is not exactly marching o, but I suppose the concept is fairly clever. Poorly executed, but clever.A man claiming to e John Brown back from the grave uses his story to recruit all sorts of revolutionaries and cutthroats into an army that will destroy the cavalry’s presence in the southwest so they can loot the towns. Brown uses such clever devices asan asbestos suit to walk through fire unharmed and an early form of a Howitzer cannon to prove he has the power to destroy the US cavalry.
Jim I captured while investing Brown’s Harper’s Ferry compound while Artie fetches the cavalry. It turns out Brown is the nephew of the real Brown who is tired of living in his uncle’s shadow. He does not care if he even succeeds I his plan as long as he merit’s a bigger page in the history books. The pretty girl of the episode is a sketch artist constantly chronicling his exploits for posterity. she also handle rattlesnakes with ease. Talented girl.
Jim destroys the cannon before Brown can use it against the cavalry. Brown dies in the ensuing explosion, so history will ever remember him.
There is another glaring instance where, contrary to Robert Conrad’s insistence he did all his own stunts, it is obviously not him climbing up the fortress wall via grappling hook or falling off the other side after getting hit by a rifle butt.
I also laughed out loud at the stock footage of the cavalry rushing to the faux Harper’s Ferry. I do not know what movie it was from, but the cavalry was very clearly heading straight into battle with Indians and not taking a day long journey to a desert fortress. You would have to see the sequence to appreciate how inappropriately exciting it is. Dudley Doright would not have been so animated. It would have offended his Canadian politeness.
I do not care much for the episode. It is kind of dumb in the first place, but but executed to boot. There is not much to recommend it.
Rating: * (out of 5)
