Welcome to Scenery Chewing 101. In this class you will develop the skills required to gnaw furiously on every fake bush, backdrop, matte painting, or building front on the set.
Up front, my apologies for the length of this review but there's a lot to discuss.
Although clearly not one of the best episodes of the series, The Return of Mr. Grimm is nevertheless extremely entertaining. So much scenery was chewed on this episode the studio had to post an orthodontist on set, and they had to swap some of the scenery out repeatedly due to the visible teeth marks. OK, maybe not. But then again...
Let's begin with the setup. In the process of bringing in Jud Grimm, Sheriff Cheyenne shoots him fatally when he attempts to run. The townspeople say ominously that there will be big trouble from Jud's powerful father, Nathaniel Grimm (R. G. Armstrong), an understatement of the highest order. When he arrives Nathaniel Grimm puts the entire town in a stranglehold while demanding Cheyenne be tried for murder.
It's entirely out of character for Cheyenne to shoot Judd Grimm dead rather than going after him to bring him back alive, but there has to be a reason to kick things off in the episode and this is it. As soon as Nathaniel Grimm arrives it becomes obvious within a few moments that major scenery chewing is imminent, and oh boy does this one deliver. Grimm and his entourage do not disappoint, resulting in one of the most amusing episodes of the series, completely unintentional of course. Despite the efforts of director Lee Sholem to deliver a serious episode, the humor cannot be denied. The result is something entirely different than what was planned originally, and The Return of Mr. Grimm emerges one of the most unique entries of the series' run - an episode that should have been deadly serious that ended up being unintentionally amusing.
As to the cast, R. G. Armstrong had a long history of playing vindictive characters. A substantial percentage of his roles were characters that were consumed with vengeance of some sort, and a good number of those roles were related to the death of a son. Starting with the film From Hell to Texas (1958), Armstrong appeared in numerous roles where he sought vengeance for the death of his son, and pretty much all of these sons were rotten to the core. They would inevitably be killed, and Armstrong would demand retribution. Lots of examples here...Laramie (pursuing Charles Bronson), Rawhide, Here Come the Brides, The Big Valley (with Robert Walker Jr., my personal favorite), and that list keeps going on and on. Occasionally those roles would skew one way or another, such as the Gunsmoke episode "With a Smile" (1963) or Death Valley Days, "Deadly Decision" (1963). Still, both involved murderous sons.
Anita Sands played Grace Evans. Starting in 1959 she landed numerous roles but she gave it all up in 1963 after only 18 appearances to become an astrologer and self-help guru. Her website is, well...interesting to say the least. Not much else to say here as I just don't know much about her.
Man, Sherwood Price just rocks. He appeared three times on Cheyenne and all of these roles were great, but his performance in this episode tops them all. His sneering, sarcastic gunslinger Hardy Russell was one of the best characters of the entire series.
Orville Sherman played Robert Garrison, Grimm's lawyer/hangman. He didn't say much but his contribution to this episode is substantial, standing at Grimm's side with a psychotic leer on his face while making a hangman's knot from a piece of rope. I can't recall any character that spoke so little but said so much as he did in this role.
And finally, Glen Stensel appears as Cheyenne's deputy, Vince. This is a role that deserves mention, as I feel it's the closest we got to the return of Cheyenne's sidekick Smitty. Stensel is basically playing Smitty, albeit without the continual wisecracking, but he does make a few barbed remarks. And Stensel even resembles L. Q. Jones somewhat.
SCENERY CHEWING! It wasn't on purpose, but the episode resulted in the highest level of scenery chewing for the series by far. Armstrong, Price, Sherman and Sands went off the rails with their performances, and I love every minute of it. I'd say that Armstrong's scenery chewing surpassed easily that of Andrew Duggan in two of his roles in the series, The Bounty Killers and The Angry Sky, and that's saying a lot. The dialogue lent itself easily towards overacting, and there were multiple grandiose speeches from not only the primary cast, but Maurice Manson (Mayor Stanley), Stephen Roberts (Judge Miller), Myron Healy (Wesley Mason), and even the Western Union clerk (Jim Hayward). The episode takes a rather pedestrian plot and elevates it to the upper echelons of the series due to multiple grandiloquent performances from the cast. As the episode progresses these performances are downright fun to watch, despite the attempts to present it as a serious story. And Armstrong kept delivering until the last moment of the episode when he kicked the bucket...gasping out one final chew in Grimm's death scene when he said "Why...didn't...you...tell me?" after Grace Evans reveals she's pregnant with his grandchild.
In closing, if you want to be entertained then kick back and watch The Return of Mr. Grimm, this one should not be missed. (chomp chomp)
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