This is the first episode of the 1957 to 1959 western series, Trackdown. Robert Culp stars as a Texas Ranger who wanders the State putting the grab on various wanted types. The series ran for a total of 70 episodes.Texas Ranger Robert Culp is on the trail of four wanted brothers, the Marples. Culp and another Ranger had caught up with them a while back and wounded one of the foursome. Culp’s fellow Ranger though had been fatally wounded.Culp has now tracked the Marple brothers to the small town of Stockton. The men have holed up in the town church. They have hostages, the local Sunday school group. They want a doctor pronto like or bodies of the Sunday school bunch will start to pile up. They have already killed one man to make their point.Ranger Culp now arrives on the scene and takes charge. He has the local Sheriff, Roy Engel, keep an eye on the local men to make sure they do not do something stupid. Culp heads to the church to see about the women and kids being held inside.A deal is reached with the villains to get the wounded brother to the town doctor. James Griffith, the eldest brother, tells Culp everyone will be okay if the townsfolk play ball. They just want their brother patched up and a head start on a getaway.Needless to say, several of the local men decide to make a stab at a rescue. The fat is soon in the fire and bullets are flying every which way with a few finding live targets. After the smoke clears, three of the outlaw brothers are toes up, ready for Boot Hill and the other in cuffs.This is a pretty nifty episode for a series starter. The cast is all top flight and includes, besides, Griffith and Engel, James Best, Jan Merlin, Gail Kobe and Tom Pittman.Behind the camera, we have a pair of b film and television veterans, director, Thomas Carr and cinematographer, Guy Roe. Fans of film noir will know Roe from the excellent B noir, Trapped, Railroaded, The Sound of Fury, In This Corner and Armored Car Robbery.
Meet McGraw was a Private Investigator television series that starred Frank Lovejoy as P.I. McGraw. The show started as a stand-alone episode of the popular Four Star Playhouse in 1954. It took until 1957 before the actual series hit the airwaves. It ran for 42 episodes between 1957 and 1958. This particular episode is the 23rd of the series run.While visiting Reno, Private Investigator McGraw (Lovejoy) is hired by mobbed up gambler, Harry Landers. Landers would like McGraw to keep an eye on his wife, Angie Dickinson. Landers tells Lovejoy that Dickinson had seen a killing back in Detroit and she is in danger. A fistful of hundreds tossed on the table quickly find their way to Lovejoy’s wallet.Lovejoy introduces himself to Dickinson and explains that her husband has hired him as a bodyguard. Dickinson is not impressed and tells Lovejoy to blow. It seems that Dickinson is in town to get a quickie divorce from Landers. Dickinson and a friend, Jeanne Bates are staying in town till the divorce is settled.Lovejoy takes his job seriously and sticks like glue to Dickinson. Dickinson however pulls a fast one and bolts out of the hotel garage in her car. Lovejoy follows the woman up into the hill country. There, he sees another car run Dickinson’s automobile off a handy cliff. The car needless to say goes up in a big blaze, leaving little to id the corpse.The Police are called and are not sure what to make of Lovejoy’s story of another car. They write the incident off as a spot of poor driving by Dickinson. Lovejoy of course smells a rather smelly rodent in the old cheese cupboard. He roots around tracking down various leads.He discovers that Dickinson is very much alive and staying at a country cabin. The crispy critter in the car had been her friend, Jeanne Bates. It appears that the whole thing was a play by Landers to kill his soon to be ex-wife. He could not handle that she was dumping him. He had run Bates off the road thinking it was Dickinson in the car. The Police are summoned and Landers is soon up for a long fall with a short rope.A pretty good episode that has a few nice curves tossed at the viewer. William F Claxton directs with Joe Novak handling the cinematography duties.Interesting to see Dickinson before she went blonde, the dark hair suits her very well. The then 26 year old is quite the looker!
Dick Powell headlines this episode of the top flight anthology series, Four Star Playhouse. This series ran for 130 episodes between 1952 and 1956. Each week, one of either, Dick Powell, Charles Boyer, David Niven or Ida Lupino would be the lead in the episode. This one is the 5th episode of season 4.In this episode, a western, Dick Powell rides into a small town and ties up his horse. A local, Raymond Hatton, recognizes him as a fast with the gun Lawman. Hatton figures there is going to be trouble in town, as just a few hours earlier Robert J. Wilke had ridden into town. Wilke is also a fast gun, but he is anything but a law abiding type.The town Sheriff, Art Space is soon calling. It turns out that Sheriff Space and Powell are friends. They had worked together years before. Powell and Space’s daughter, Jean Howell had been an item for a while. Powell tells Space that he is no longer a Lawman. He is just in town on a personal matter. He did not even know that Space and Howell were in town. He also adds that he wants nothing to do with gunman Wilke.We now find out that Powell is in town to see an eye doctor. His sight is going and everything over 20 yards away is a blur. This is why he quit being a lawman. Now Powell and Wilke bump into each other. Wilke asks Powell to have a drink with him. Powell says maybe later. Wilke wonders why the man is in town.Local Raymond Hatton, tells Wilke that he saw Powell pay a visit to the eye doctor. This of course gets Wilke to thinking. While Wilke is pondering this bit of info, Powell is paying his former girl, Howell a visit. He tells the pretty Howell that he is there to get a set of glasses. He wants nothing to do with gun play anymore. He is willing to settle down.Needless to say this plan goes south in a hurry. Gunman Wilke decides to call Powell out for a quick draw. He figures that killing Powell will help his reputation as a top drawer gun hand. Wilke intends to keep a fair distance between himself and Powell. Guns are pulled and Powell, the quicker of the two, fans his gun and sprays lead towards the blur. The smoke clears and Wilke is face down in the dust, gun beside him. It looks like Powell lucked out. He walks off arm and arm with Howell.There are shades of Liberty Valance here as the viewer finds out that maybe someone else had fired the killing shot.This is a top notch episode all around. The always villainous Robert Wilke, as usual, is in great form as the gunman. Well worth a look.
Gordon Gates
Riding the High Country 
Thanks very much for this. I’m a big Culp fan but have never caught any episodes of TRACKDOWN – especially interested in the one(s) he wrote.
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Like other Four Star productions overseen by Dick Powell, TRACKDOWN is a strong series judging by the episodes I have seen, including The Marple Brothers one.
It has that same vibe with quite menacing music as THE RIFLEMAN , also Four Star.
Not seen MEET McGRAW but I like Frank Lovejoy so would be interested, I feel sure.
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Thanks for the reviews. Would love to see more of the Lovejoy series.
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Of these shows I’m only familiar with Four Star Playhouse, although not the episode you featured, Gord.
The show with Robert Culp interests me too, I like his screen presence.
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Is there anyone out there who does not like Robert Culp ? The TRACKDOWN series is excellent. I find it strange that it never played more seasons. Good acting, good stories, and good camera work. A winner in all areas in my opinion. I also quite enjoy the MEET McGRAW series with Lovejoy. Seen about half of them so far.
Gord
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TRACKDOWN did run for 71 episodes, Gord, so I would say it had been a pretty successful series. It made a ‘name’ for Robert Culp and he we t on to even bigger things with I SPY.
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I SPY is the one 60s TV spy series that just didn’t work for me. I guess I’ll have to give it another try at some stage.
I liked Robert Culp a lot in HANNIE CAULDER as the gunslinger who teaches Raquel Welch how to become a killer. A great unfairly neglected movie.
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Never saw Trackdown. Never knew it existed. Flew by me like the Texas wind.
Maybe I can catch a couple of episodes on YouTube …
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Jerry
On TRACKDOWN, I mean I wish it had lasted longer than the two seasons it did. LOL. I could of used another three or for years of the show. The best stuff always seemed to me to have a shorter run than I wanted.
Gord
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All
Last night I took in a Randolph Scott film I had never seen before. This was
THE NEVADAN from 1950. Besides Scott, the cast included Forrest Tucker, George Macready and Dorothy Malone. Jock Mahoney, Frank Faylen and Jeff Corey are involved as part of the black hat bunch. Not bad at all with the always solid Gordon Douglas handling the direction chores.
Gordon
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Among my personal favourite Scott westerns, Gord.
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Jerry
Always a hoot to run into films I never knew about before.
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It’s one of Scott’s films that I came to quite late too. I will say I thoroughly enjoyed it though, good casting and a memorable fight scene.
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The last Ford film, SEVEN WOMEN, is coming up of TCM soon. I have only seen it once as a kid in the late 60s. All I recall is Woody Strode. LOL. So is it worth a look? There seems to be a big diff in positive and negative comments at various sites. You bunch here seem to always be on the spot opinion wise, so let me know what you think.
Gord
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I’m a fan. I like the look, the tone and the theme overall, and it ends in a powerful and affecting way. I’ve had it in mind to feature the film here at some point as it happens.
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Thanks Colin for the comment. Needless to say I will be recording it.
Gordon
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That last one sounds particularly like something I’d enjoy, as Robert J. Wilke is always a fun bad guy (just watched him face off with Clint Walker in a Cheyenne ep this week), and I am growing fonder and fonder of Dick Powell. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! I will have to keep an eye out for that series, especially that ep.
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Hamlette (Rachel)
I seem to be having trouble signing up to your site. Where is the sign up line at.
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Hi, Gordon! Are you trying to sign up for the blogathon I’m co-hosting? You can just leave a comment on the announcement post telling us what you’d like to contribute.
Or are you trying to follow my blog?
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I want to sign up so I can leave comments on films etc. Either I am going blind or I am missing the whole thing .
Gord
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Are you using a desktop/laptop computer, or a smart phone?
On a computer, down at the bottom of a post it will say something like “12 comments.” If you click that, it will open the individual post and display all its comments below, with a comment form at the bottom for you to leave your own.
On a smart phone, open the post you want to comment on, scroll down to the bottom, and the comment form should be right there.
Hope that helps!
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Rachel
I believe I got it figured out, thanks.
Gord
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Last night I took in the duster, THE BRASS LEGEND 1956, with Hugh O’Brian, Nancy Gates and Raymond Burr. A watchable mid range western with the always villainous Burr stealing the show.
Then I watched the 2020 production, THE COURIER, with Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead. A very good Cold War espionage film based on a true story during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was in grade 3 when this was going on. I do recall most of the adults being truly frightened the world was going to end.
Gordon
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I remember the Cold War vividly. Strangely enough I remember it as an era of peace and tranquillity. It never occurred to me that the world was going to end. I can’t remember any adults being worried about it.I don’t think my parents even noticed the Cold War. It was a time when grown-ups were in charge of the world and nobody thought for one moment that anyone would be crazy enough to start WW3.
Of course I was brought up in Australia which might have made a difference.
As a result I always had a different reaction to Cold War thrillers and movies. I always thought those “nuclear war is going to destroy the world” movies like On the Beach and Fail-Safe were really silly. I thought Dr Strangelove was funny rather than chilling.
I enjoy Cold War spy thrillers but to me the whole world of espionage is just an amusing game. I never saw such thrillers in good vs evil terms. I saw them as like a game of chess (or poker) – an enthralling game of skill but with nothing actually at stake.
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I agree completely with your take on Cold War thrillers and never had any interest in them. The difference between then and now is we live in an era of societal disruption bordering on insanity.
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Today we also live in a world in which nuclear war is far more likely than it ever was during the Cold War.
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Tonight I watched Ford’s STAGECOACH again for what seems like the hundredth time. It never fails to entertain, and I seem to find something new in it every time. A top ten duster!
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The ending….. back in civilization, wraps it up very nicely.
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Tonight’s film was a Stanwyck pre-code I had never seen before. I recorded a bunch of these off TCM last month. NIGHT NURSE – 31 was the title. Stanwyck, Joan Blondell and Clark Gable were the leads. Not a bad timewaster at all. I’ll take in another one tomorrow.
Gord
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Another pre-code film portraying the dredges of society at the time…….love it.
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If not for motion pictures, I would know far less about my American Heritage. As a general rule, the generations that followed no little squat about our Heritage thanks to anti-American sentiment. Shame.
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