The Night of the Hangman

"The Wild Wild West" is one of those shows that's so "out there", it's really rather amazing that CBS, (at the time the show was produced, still known as "The Tiffany Network"), actually bought the show! But I, for one, was thankful they did. The "WWW" was a rather strange amalgam of a standard TV Western and a VERY imaginative Science-Fiction show - not exactly the sort of thing one would think of coming from the network that brought you Gunsmoke. In this outing, "The Night Of The Hangman", a man is shot in front of dozens of witnesses. The man accused of the murder swears he didn't do it. At first glance, it looks like he's a liar. But the combined brain power of West and Gordon of the Secret Service end up proving what he ("Dean" Stanton) says is true. Sure, there are a few things in this show that are a bit out of their actual time (check the other review for the years the Daguerreotype was actually in use, for example). Be that as it may, the script was clever, and just take a look at this cast! A young Harry Dean Stanton (before he used the "Harry"), The Rifleman's Paul Fix as The Judge, just to name two, work together with West and Gordon to make this show a great one!