User Reviews

I've seen this episode a couple of times and the acting is good enough to hold my interest each time. The Judge takes in hire Hank, (played by Chris Robinson), the eldest son of a good friend. His friend, well acted by Lloyd Nolan, pleads with the Judge to take his son back to Shilo and make him a man. At a ranch where he is not the owners son.

Once at Shilo, The Virginian heads out and Trampas is stuck with the chore "to make Hank into a man". Hank is a square peg who works overtime to become more square with every word and act. He becomes impossible for anyone to even talk with. The reason becomes plain in watching Lloyd Nolans role develop, he is a class A jerk.

It all comes to a head in the first weekend when the angry and bitter Hank leaves Shilo, and of course goes to town. It all comes down to a bar room gunfight with Hank drawing on Trampas who has his back turned to leave the bar. Trampas turns and shoots Hank dead on the spot. After the fight, the Judge wires Lloyd Nolan about the gunfight and his sons death.

Lloyd Nolan does what you might expect and uses his surviving son, a young Ryan O Neal, to gun down Trampas in revenge. Watch the episode to see the ending. This is a good episode and well worth watching. The episode is well written and the acting is quite good. Enjoy, my friends.

Top notch viewing with outstanding performances from all. Ryan O'Neal... a particular surprise departing from his often easy going, not overdemanding roles. Here he works with with an excellent script requiring changes within his complex and bullied character. Incredibly overlooked actor Chris Robinson once agains shines as a meanspirted / angry young man matched only by ill tempered Lloyd Nolan who, as mentioned by others, always brings a great performance and especially shines in villianous / antagonist roles. Plus his scenes with Lee J. Cobb are a priceless joy of realistic acting. Every aspect of this episode is convincing and riveting......

Lloyd Nolan who was never bad in anything he did plays a hard driving father of half brothers Chris Robinson and Ryan O'Neal. They don't know they're half brothers or that Robinson's mother was a Crow Indian.

But he does know and he thinks Nolan is ashamed and so is he. Robinson has a wild streak and Nolan hopes some time with his old friend Judge Henry Garth can straighten him out. But Robinson gets into it with Doug McClure and that sets the stage.

It's a pleasure to see two old pros like Nolan and Lee J. Cobb, their scenes together give this story the bite it has.

A lot of things aren't really fleshed out in the script, but Nolan, Cobb and the rest cover the rough spots.