The Rifleman (1958-1963)
Posted: April 21st, 2007, 1:57 pm
After catching up with The Rifleman on the Encore Western channel about 45 years after the show ceased production, I've begun to notice certain things:
Directors and their Interesting Storytelling Differences:
Joseph H. Lewis: Most of the time, of the 51 episodes directed by him, the action was well-paced, the relationships among the characters were terse, and expressed in a meaningful glance more than a line of dialogue. Lewis, a journeyman director for much of his career, beginning in B Westerns at Universal, was known as "Wagon Wheel Joe" due to his penchant for framing shots through the spokes of a wagon wheel, a visual motif that you can see time and again in The Rifleman.
Mr. Lewis' episodes were a marvelously entertaining blend of action and human stories, as evidenced by one of my favorite episodes so far, "Baranca" in which Cesare Danova played an avenging angel of sorts for a chicano family who had been burned out by racists near North Fork. The interesting story element of injustice and the conflicts between law, order (embodied in Micah & Lucas) and a desire for vigilante justice(Danova), were resolved when McCain & Danova's characters joined forces to give the yahoos a thumpin'. The drama is climaxed by a magnificently swift staging of a dual leap by Connors & Danova over and down behind a trough! With the simplest of dramatic elements, Lewis created a very memorable sequence while utilizing two highly skilled actors/stuntmen (though, if you saw the moment during the tv show, it's hard to see where the actors might've been substituted by stuntmen.).
Joseph Lewis was also responsible for the legendary, extremely dark noir, The Big Combo (1956), though many of his episodes of this series are little gems as well, and among the best in the series.
Richard Donner:
The other director whose action style served the show well, imho, was Richard Donner, who went on to guide many episodes of the best of early '60s tv, such as The Fugitive, Route 66, and the fine Combat series. Donner also directed some highly profitable films such as Superman & Lethal Weapon, as well as an interesting, less well known film, Radio Flyer. Donner's work on such Rifleman episodes as the one about Lucas McCain's doppelganger, "Deadly Image" are distinguished by the intensity of the action & violence, and the relatively complex psychological relationships of characters.
Gene Nelson:
A notable dancer on Broadway and in movies, such as Oklahoma (1955), Nelson directed several interesting episodes with a particular emphasis on the characters over the action. Some of my favorites so far are "First Wages" in which Mark McCain (Johnny Crawford), insists on earning money on his own, despite his father's protests. This ep gave Crawford a nice opportunity to dramatize the inevitable conflicts between a loving father and son as the boy begins to assert his independence.
Another enjoyably funny episode helmed by Nelson was "Knight Errant", about a rather unfriendly chess match between some flamboyant old comrades of McCain. Some of the participants in this episode include Sean McClory, Lawrence Dobkin(who's very amusing as a man who prefers to live in the 1500s rather than the 19th century), as well as the inimitable Jack Elam, (who is allowed to be alot smarter than he appears in this installment). Btw, several of Gene Nelson's episodes feature a familiar figure from '60s tv, Ed Nelson, which makes me wonder if they're related.
Maybe I'll write a bit more sometime about guest stars and writers who regularly show up on The Rifleman, among them the haunted looking character actor, Royal Dano, wonderful John Anderson, and a guy named Peter Whitney, who played a remarkable number of varied and different characters. Here's a picture of Mr. Whitney:
Directors and their Interesting Storytelling Differences:
Joseph H. Lewis: Most of the time, of the 51 episodes directed by him, the action was well-paced, the relationships among the characters were terse, and expressed in a meaningful glance more than a line of dialogue. Lewis, a journeyman director for much of his career, beginning in B Westerns at Universal, was known as "Wagon Wheel Joe" due to his penchant for framing shots through the spokes of a wagon wheel, a visual motif that you can see time and again in The Rifleman.
Mr. Lewis' episodes were a marvelously entertaining blend of action and human stories, as evidenced by one of my favorite episodes so far, "Baranca" in which Cesare Danova played an avenging angel of sorts for a chicano family who had been burned out by racists near North Fork. The interesting story element of injustice and the conflicts between law, order (embodied in Micah & Lucas) and a desire for vigilante justice(Danova), were resolved when McCain & Danova's characters joined forces to give the yahoos a thumpin'. The drama is climaxed by a magnificently swift staging of a dual leap by Connors & Danova over and down behind a trough! With the simplest of dramatic elements, Lewis created a very memorable sequence while utilizing two highly skilled actors/stuntmen (though, if you saw the moment during the tv show, it's hard to see where the actors might've been substituted by stuntmen.).
Joseph Lewis was also responsible for the legendary, extremely dark noir, The Big Combo (1956), though many of his episodes of this series are little gems as well, and among the best in the series.
Richard Donner:
The other director whose action style served the show well, imho, was Richard Donner, who went on to guide many episodes of the best of early '60s tv, such as The Fugitive, Route 66, and the fine Combat series. Donner also directed some highly profitable films such as Superman & Lethal Weapon, as well as an interesting, less well known film, Radio Flyer. Donner's work on such Rifleman episodes as the one about Lucas McCain's doppelganger, "Deadly Image" are distinguished by the intensity of the action & violence, and the relatively complex psychological relationships of characters.
Gene Nelson:
A notable dancer on Broadway and in movies, such as Oklahoma (1955), Nelson directed several interesting episodes with a particular emphasis on the characters over the action. Some of my favorites so far are "First Wages" in which Mark McCain (Johnny Crawford), insists on earning money on his own, despite his father's protests. This ep gave Crawford a nice opportunity to dramatize the inevitable conflicts between a loving father and son as the boy begins to assert his independence.
Another enjoyably funny episode helmed by Nelson was "Knight Errant", about a rather unfriendly chess match between some flamboyant old comrades of McCain. Some of the participants in this episode include Sean McClory, Lawrence Dobkin(who's very amusing as a man who prefers to live in the 1500s rather than the 19th century), as well as the inimitable Jack Elam, (who is allowed to be alot smarter than he appears in this installment). Btw, several of Gene Nelson's episodes feature a familiar figure from '60s tv, Ed Nelson, which makes me wonder if they're related.
Maybe I'll write a bit more sometime about guest stars and writers who regularly show up on The Rifleman, among them the haunted looking character actor, Royal Dano, wonderful John Anderson, and a guy named Peter Whitney, who played a remarkable number of varied and different characters. Here's a picture of Mr. Whitney: