Tue 9 Dec 2014
A TV Western Review by Jonathan Lewis: THE RIFLEMAN “The Apprentice Sheriff” (1958).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV Westerns[7] Comments
“The Apprentice Sheriff.†An episode of The Rifleman, 9 December 1958 (Season 1, Episode 11). Cast: Chuck Connors, Johnny Crawford. Guest Cast: Robert Vaughn, Edward Binns, Russell Collins. Written by Barney Slater. Director: Arthur Hiller.
The ABC western television series, The Rifleman, may have starred Chuck Connors, but in “The Apprentice Sheriff,†a compelling first season episode, it’s a young Robert Vaughn who steals the show.
Vaughn portrays Dan Willard, a green lawman who has temporarily assumed the job of marshal while Micah Torrence, the “real marshal,†is away. Willard’s got a lot to prove. Because of his poor vision, he had been kicked out of West Point. So to say that he’s got a chip on his shoulder is an understatement.
We first see Willard (Vaughn) as a reflection in a mirror, with him watching himself handle his guns, the tools of his new trade. It’s the type of scene typically seen more in films noir than in Westerns. It has an immediate unsettling effect upon the viewer, who realizes that he is being told that Willard’s character is going to be the focal point of the episode.
Willard’s determination to prove his toughness is put to the test when he decides that he’s going to enforce order in town. His immediate targets: a bunch of rowdy cowhands who have just gotten paid. Willard ups the ante with the would-be outlaws when he both puts up a notice requiring they register their firearms and then personally shoots and kills one of the cowhands.
Lucas McCain (Connors) acts as the voice of reason, trying to convince Willard that wearing a badge doesn’t mean giving up one’s judgment. McCain realizes that Willard is less interested in law and order than in proving his manhood.
The plot is nothing new, but Vaughn is on the top of his game here, giving a much better performance than in Roger Corman’s Teenage Caveman, which I reviewed here. In this episode, he’s not quite the actor that he would be in his halcyon The Man From U.N.C.L.E. years, but he definitely demonstrates why he had a long future in television in front of him. It’s worth a look.
The full episode can be watched on Hulu here.
December 9th, 2014 at 10:19 pm
I never cared for THE RIFLEMAN, but I recall this episode and felt the same about Vaughn. He did a similar one on THE WESTERNER with Brian Keith that stuck with me as well.
I don’t usually think of him as a western star, but he was fine in THE MAGNIFCENT SEVEN in what I thought was a fine performance as a gunfighter losing his nerve and finding it again in a cause.
December 9th, 2014 at 11:54 pm
I agree with both of you, David and Jonathan, about Vaughn’s fine performances here; and with David about Vaughn’s performances in THE WESTERNER and especially in THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN.
I also liked him as the smarmy bad-intentioned D.A. in BULLIT, truly a politician worthy of detestation..
It’s odd that as much as I enjoy Vaughn that I’ve never seen his Supporting Actor Oscar-nominated performance in THE YOUNG PHILADELPHIANS.
He first made an impression on me–I was in junior high school–when THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. debuted. Ironically other than as Napoleon Solo, the was typecast as weak, venal, or both. (He was a weak-willed son of one of the Philadelphia power brokers in PHILADELPHIANS from what I’ve read.)
I was never much of a fan of THE RIFLEMAN. Perhaps I would have liked it better with a whole lot less Johnny Crawford…
December 10th, 2014 at 1:56 am
I think that Vaughn’s role in Bullitt was excellent as well.
December 10th, 2014 at 2:23 am
Vaughan was excellent as the elderly con-man in the British TV show HUSTLE. Still smooth, still charming, and still very much the star as he coasted towards his 80s. Before he returned to the USA he also made an appearance on the soap opera CORONATION STREET. The sight of Vaughan singing AIN’T SHE SWEET? whilst accompanied by Stephanie Cole on the banjo is one of those moments where you really have to pinch yourself to reassure that you aren’t having a very peculiar dream.
December 10th, 2014 at 2:03 pm
During the final (or next to final?) season of the 1980s action show, THE A-TEAM, Vaughn joined the cast as Stockwell, a sort of semi-rogue general/spook who employed the A-TEAM to run operations for him and for the U.S. government.
Vaughn couldn’t save the show’s eventual demise, but he portrayed a great character
I recently watching the first episode in Season 5 when his character is introduced. It’s very good and worth seeing out on Hulu
December 10th, 2014 at 6:44 pm
THE YOUNG PHILADELPHIANS (the book by Richard Powell is THE PHILADELPHIAN) is a good film with a nice little mystery element regarding Vaughn as a disabled soldier abandoned by his family and he holds his own in a good cast and opposite Paul Newman.
The film is fairly slick and soap opera in the approved fifties style, but Vaughn is wrenching in the scenes that won him the nomination.
Vaughn did a pilot not too many years before UNCLE were he played a natty private eye known as the Boston Terrier. It wasn’t bad and of course he was good in it.
December 10th, 2014 at 7:41 pm
You might be interested in this clip of Vaughn discussing Newman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcTCZS6yzIU