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Bonanza Day of Reckoning (1959–1973) Online

Bonanza Day of Reckoning (1959–1973) Online
Original Title :
Day of Reckoning
Genre :
TV Episode / Western
Year :
1959–1973
Directror :
Richard Bartlett
Cast :
Lorne Greene,Pernell Roberts,Dan Blocker
Writer :
Laurence Heath,R. Hamer Norris
Type :
TV Episode
Time :
1h
Rating :
7.1/10
Bonanza Day of Reckoning (1959–1973) Online

When an Indian saves Ben Cartwright's life from a near fatal knife attack by another Indian, Ben later gives the Indian and his pregnant wife a strip of fertile farming land. Unfortunately the land is next to and very racist farmer and things turn deadly.
Episode cast overview:
Lorne Greene Lorne Greene - Ben Cartwright
Pernell Roberts Pernell Roberts - Adam Cartwright
Dan Blocker Dan Blocker - Eric 'Hoss' Cartwright
Michael Landon Michael Landon - Joseph 'Little Joe' Cartwright
Ricardo Montalban Ricardo Montalban - Matsou
Madlyn Rhue Madlyn Rhue - Hatoya
Anthony Caruso Anthony Caruso - Lagos
Karl Swenson Karl Swenson - Ike Daggert
Roy Engel Roy Engel - Dr. Paul Martin
Gail Bonney Gail Bonney - Martha Daggert

Guest stars Ricardo Montalban (Matsou) and Madlyn Rhue (Hatoya) would again team up in the 1967 first season "Star Trek" episode "Space Seed" in which Montalban played the part of Khan Noonian Singh and Rhue had the part of Lieutenant Marla McGivers. Also, Anthony Caruso (Lagos) would appear in the 1968 second season "Star Trek" episode "A Piece of the Action" as Bela Oxmyx.

Copyright has expired and is now in the public domain.

Lorne Greene would later go on to star as Commander Adama in Battlestar Galactica (1978) and Ricardo Montalban would later go on to star as Khan Noonien-Singh in Star Trek: Space Seed (1967) and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982).


User reviews

Bort

Bort

I just watched this Bonanza episode on a $1 DVD which has one episode each of several Westerns like Bonanza, Rifleman, Lone Ranger, etc.

I was not surprised to see Ricardo Montalban in a guest role. When I first saw his character's wife, I thought she looked familiar. For good reason! Madalyn Rhue played Lt. Marla McGivers who had a fatal attraction to Montalban's Khan character in the Star Trek episode "Space Seed." Of course this episode was the premise for Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan.

In all these years of reading Trek trivia, I had not come across anything pointing out the two actors having played together previously.

As for the dramatic critique, there are the usual archetypes of the Western TV of the day. I highly doubt that a real life 19th century rancher of Ben Cartwright's stature would have given land to an Indian, even in return for his life. Also, another hole in the story is why Ike wasn't arrested for murder after he shot Hatoya. Ironically, it is revealed in Trek II that Lt. McGivers, who had become Khan's wife, had been killed by parasitical creatures on the planet where Captain Kirk had marooned them. Matsou's anger toward Ike is IMHO quite like Khan's anger with Kirk. There is one line by Matsou that made me think of Khan's "He tasks me and I shall have him..." rant in Trek II.

All said I must give it a 6.

I wonder if Madalyn Rhue's MS was the reason that Lt. McGivers was written out of the Trek II script? She had developed it a few years before that movie was made.
Coiwield

Coiwield

This is one of those episodes that makes a person go...wow! We watch as an Indian tries to do the right thing. After saving Ben's life, he talks them into taking some land and becoming farmers. He's not too happy with the idea, but, but his beloved wife whom he loves very much and believes in God talks him into it.

This is one of those episodes that really tells the facts of life. We may think they are getting along, but are they really? When a person is raised to believe one thing, can they really change their beliefs enough to live a different way?

The events near the end are shocking and sad. But that's reality, folks. That's one think I like about Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and Rawhide - the truth is that sometimes the good guys don't win in the end.

Dead: 3
Opilar

Opilar

I thought that Day Of Reckoning might be a Bonanza episode with elements of Romeo and Juliet in it. If it had stuck to that plot the cast could have given it good performances. Unfortunately the story line goes off on some unseen tangents and the ending was a total cop out.

Ricardo Montalban and Madelyn Rhue play an exiled Bannock Indian and his wife who are right now camped in a little used corner of the Ponderosa. Montalban is exiled because he took a wife who was a Shoshone and neither tribe wants them.

When Montalban saves Lorne Greene from a knifing at the hands of his elder brother Anthony Caruso, the Cartwrights are naturally grateful, but another neighbor Karl Swenson just doesn't like Indians of any kind. Before the film is over a lot of the guest cast is dead due to a lot of bigotry and hatred.

One of the things that made Bonanza so popular was many times the episodes had a strong moral value to them. This was one of them, but the execution left a lot to be desired.
Scoreboard Bleeding

Scoreboard Bleeding

This is a well-intentioned attempt from early in the second series of "Bonanza" to sell the idea of Amerindian equality to the mass TV audience, decades after pioneering Hollywood movies did it a lot better. The Cartrights tend to get their liberalism somewhat half-assed here. Matsou, a younger Bannock chief (Ricardo Montalban), and his wife Atoya (Madlyn Rhue), a Shoshone, are outcast from both tribes and live on their own in the rocky high country of the Ponderosa. When they save Ben from Matsou's older brother Lagos (Anthony Caruso) and nurse him back to strength, he offers them his best farm land so they can raise crops and stock and live as white people. Matsou is skeptical and reluctant but, urged on by his wife's Christian pleadings that it's the best hope for their people, he tries. A rabid Indian-hating settler, Ike Daggett (Karl Swenson), another homesteader adjacent who has been gifted land by the Cartrights, does all he can to destroy this initiative. In a confrontation at Daggett's wife's funeral, he grabs a rifle while Ben restrains Matsou and shoots pregnant Atoya dead: "An eye for an eye!" he cries in good Christian spirit. Matsou takes revenge on Daggett but cannot go through with it on Ben. He returns to his people, promising to return in friendship. (As if he hasn't learnt by now!) Montalban was a fine figure of a man at 40, before back problems set in. And Madlyn Rhue too was a dish.