User Reviews

This is actually Carolyn Jones story here, not Barbara stanwyck's, but they both play an important part in this 75-minute episode of "Wagon Train". Having been kidnapped by native Americans in a previous "Wagon Train" episode and in the movie "Trooper Hook", Barbara Stanwyck aids Carolyn Jones who is in that position in this episode, having been kidnapped by the Comanches when husband Ray Danton ran out as a coward, leaving her to defend herself and their baby alone. Stanwyck is described by the Wagon Train leaders as a kind and gentle woman, and then the camera pans to her as she screams over the delivery of broken glasses. She's a silver-haired Calamity Jane wannabe who breaks up an attempt to lynch Jones and her adopted son Fabian and takes Jones in, shocked to find out her story after Jones tries to kill her husband. Stanwyck however knows the truth to the saga and play as guardian angel to make things right and end the cycle of violence.

While this can be faulted for presenting the Comanche natives as savages, it is certainly a epic in many other ways, featuring intense performances by Jones and Danton and a wise, strong performance by Stanwyck. Some of the acting seems downright amateurish by the younger performers (particularly Brenda Scott), and that makes for a couple of awkward scenes. But when the veteran actors are on-screen, all eyes are on them. Stanwyck would later get a "Wagon Train" episode devoted to her character which of course lead right into "Tthe Big Valley".

An interesting side point is at the time, Danton was married to actress Julie Adams who would later play a friend to Jones character Myrna Clay, on the daytime soap "Capitol", sadly after Jones had to part of the show. Jones would also be married for a short time to Aaron Spelling who would later hire Stanwyck for several of his prime time shows.

One of the great joys of watching these old shows is picking out great actors in guest starring parts; it's especially fun to pick out rising stars who would go on to greater glory, And then there were those who were past their prime but who could still get the job done.

The Molly Kincaid Story features a great role for Barbara Stanwyck as a whip cracking, tough as nails woman boss of a town where the Wagon Train makes a stop for supplies. She and trail boss Chris Hale come to the aid of a pair of Commanche Indians, a mother and son played by Carolyn Jones and Fabian who have come to town and nearly gotten lynched for horse stealing. But things are not as they appear and what plays out over the course of this 90 minute episode is a family drama of guilt, grudges, revenge and redemption. Some of the dialog would be considered politically incorrect by today's culture; still, the story holds the interest even after all these decades.

Stanwyck could still command the screen, even if it was on a tiny TV set, and cuts quite a figure in a pair of jeans; impressive when you remember she was well past fifty at the time. Jones was a good actress in her own right, and plays an aggrieved wife and mother very well; she could do comedy as well, which would be proved true a few years later on The Adams Family. Fabian's time in the sun was pretty much past by the time this episode aired and the British invasion of 1964 would truly make him a has been, too bad because he had the chops to make it as an actor, at least on TV. There's also a good role for Ray Danton; if he's remembered at all now, it's for playing Legs Diamond. And that is Harry Carey Jr. as one of the cowboys who's set on stringing up Jones and Fabian.

All the Wagon Train regulars get plenty of screen time: John McIntire, Robert Fuller, Terry Wilson, Michael Burns and Frank McGrath. If any of them are known at all today, it's probably McIntire for his role as the Sheriff in PSYCHO.

It's worth noting that The Molly Kincaid Story first aired a little more than two months before the JFK assassination and is a good snapshot of what we considered entertainment just before the 1960's spun out of control and nothing was ever the same again. By the time the decade was done, shows like Wagon Train and most of the actors who played in it would be considered hopelessly irrelevant. But the shows and the performances still remain for those who remember.

This is an interesting, expanded episode of Wagon Train. In fact it was the first 75 minute offering made in color, at the beginning of the show's seventh season. These bigger episodes give the show a more cinematic appeal, and they're filmed in Pathe color with panoramic shots of the great outdoors. The seventh season also added Robert Fuller to the cast as Cooper Smith.

Bigger episodes mean a bigger budget. So instead of one or two well-known guest stars, the stories now have three or four. The main character in this offering is called Molly, and she is played by Carolyn Jones just before Jones began her celebrated run on The Addams Family. Her work in this episode shows what a skilled dramatic actress she could be. Barbara Stanwyck is on hand as a special guest in support of Jones. The women certainly work well together.

The plot is reminiscent of Stanwyck's earlier movie TROOPER HOOK, where she played a white woman who became a squaw and had a child in captivity. This time it's Jones' turn to do that. Molly's son Rome is played by Fabian, who is supposed to be 16 though the actor was in his mid-20s at the time. Ray Danton appears as Jones' estranged husband Robert whose cowardice years earlier had caused his wife to be kidnapped. To increase the drama, we learn Robert Kincaid told everyone that Molly was killed in the ambush by natives though he had no proof.

'The Molly Kincaid Story' aired in mid-September 1963. Stanwyck would return in January for a follow-up tale focusing on her character Kate. Here she is introduced as a friend of Chris Hale (John McIntire) who sells supplies to him and the people on his train. But she delays their departure from her town, because she needs Chris' help to prevent Molly from murdering Robert. It seems Molly escaped captivity with Rome and wants revenge on Robert. Kate may be rough around the edges, but she's a tender-hearted gal; she helps Molly gradually let go of the anger inside her in order to reconcile with Robert. In the meantime the men from the train attempt to civilize Rome with typically humorous results.

It's obvious Stanwyck is having a lot of fun playing Kate Crawley. Kate loves to walk down the street and crack a whip in order to break up fights and command attention. In fact she seems a lot less tame and civilized than Molly and Rome combined. Because she's not actually the "star" of this particular episode, Stanwyck is able to go all "character actress" on us, and the results are certainly memorable.

What a treat this 1963-64 season premiere must have been for fans of WAGON TRAIN, returning in color and expanded to a whopping 90-minutes (taking a page from THE VIRGINIAN playbook). And this opening episode proved itself a worthy addition to the annals of WAGON TRAIN.

Taking center stage is Carolyn Jones a year before landing her iconic role on THE ADDAMS FAMILY. She's outstanding as Molly Kincaid, the embittered wife of Ray Danton's Robert Kincaid, the man who thirteen years earlier panicked and ran out on her when Comanche Indians stormed their cabin. Molly is unforgiving and has been nursing a grudge all those nightmarish years (one harrowing scene shows Molly laying in a tent about to be gang raped by three lusty braves who come in while the aged medicine man stands by aloof shaking a rattle). Her sole reason for coming to the bustling town of Kincaid is to murder its founder and namesake, Robert.

As Robert, Ray Danton proves his range playing against type as a mild-mannered and emotional businessman, a far cry from his usual roles as suave playboys and tough guys like Legs Diamond and George Raft. When he first appears with his hair colored gray, I knew flashbacks were afoot, and they show exactly what took place that fateful day neither he nor Molly has been able to forget. Robert is branded a coward, but what he lacks in testicular fortitude, he makes up for with other virtues, ones not often held in high regard in the wild West--business savvy, sentimentality, generosity, and a skill for single parenting his daughter Martha, who, unbeknownst to Molly, survived that Indian raid thirteen years earlier.

Molly is at first a loathsome character, stealing, feigning ignorance of English, lying, and of course attempting to bushwhack her hapless husband. Consumed with hate, bitterness, and vanity--resenting the fact her once-beautiful face is ringed with ugly, raised Comanche tribal "tattoos," Molly is initially difficult to warm up to. But she too is revealed to have her virtues, such as her love for her adopted son, Rome, a white boy the Comanches kidnapped from a wagon train when he was about four. Molly raises Rome as her own, lavishing love and learning upon him, ensuring he knows English. In the story, Rome is about 16 when he escapes captivity with his 32-year-old adopted mother, but in real life the actor--Fabian--was 23 and Carolyn Jones 33, which led me originally to think they were a couple instead of mother and son.

Rome is soon relegated to the sidelines. Molly early on expresses concern and an interest in seeing him, but seems to forget him once she becomes embroiled in the domestic drama of reuniting with her husband and thought-dead daughter Martha. Rome becomes comic relief--resisting a bath, getting a haircut, and in a cross-cultural communications fail even attempts a Comanche marriage to the flirty Merrybell.

Playing a pivotal role is "special guest star" Barbara Stanwyck as Kate Crawley, a brassy whip-cracking supplier to the wagon train. She's gritty and hard-edged, but reveals a softer side as well, easing and facilitating Molly's reversion from Comanche squaw to civilized white woman, wife, and mother. I was especially impressed by Kate's encouraging Molly to seek God, religious faith being not only a key component of civilization but also something Molly needed to reembrace personally in order to move forward in life. Kate deserves credit for bringing Molly from cynically remarking she forgot how to pray while a prisoner of the Comanches to the humbled and forgiving woman ascending arm-in-arm with her repentant husband the steps of the church he built in her honor.

Stanwyck and Danton will return later in this season headlining separate stories. But this would prove to be Fabian's sole appearance, which was disappointing since Rome joined the wagon train at the end. What ever became of his romance with Merrybell? Did Chris, Charlie, Coop and Company ever smooth down Rome's rough edges? I thought Rome being written off at the end was a weakness of the story. He and Molly both seemed too quick to separate after all the years they persevered through together. But perhaps it was necessary if Molly was to forget the past and return to her former life and for Rome to begin a new life of his own. Their moments together at the end were a heartbreaker and never was parting such sweet sorrow.

Adding to my enjoyment was the fact I watched this episode on Easter Eve as the story's themes are forgiveness, reconciliation, and new life. A promising start to the seventh season.