The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (TV Series) The Mysterious Cowhand (1958) User Reviews

Wyatt as a cowboy

[BrianDanaCamp · 11 June 2020]

This exciting episode takes place away from Dodge City and entirely outdoors as Earp tracks down the man who stabbed his cousin to death and is among a group of cowboys leading a herd of cattle in Oklahoma. Earp pretends to be a drifting cowhand from Alabama and asks for a job but balks when assigned to help out the cantankerous cook and quickly gets into a fight with the cook. So the trail boss (Robert Anderson) hurriedly assigns Earp to work alongside some rough customers hired as "tail-enders" to keep the end of the herd from drifting or straggling. Earp is sure one of the murderers is among them. He handles himself very well and gets tough when he has to, which is pretty often, and we're graced with a lot of genuine cowboy lingo. Don C. Harvey plays Jumbo, one of the tail-enders, who makes quite an unlikely ally. He and Anderson are old hands at this kind of thing and they play it expertly. There is plenty of stock footage of cattle drives from earlier, more expensive westerns.