Sat 14 Oct 2017
A TV Western Series Review: FRONTIER DOCTOR “Strange Cargo” (1959).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV Westerns[4] Comments
FRONTIER DOCTOR “Strange Cargo.” Syndicated; Hollywood Television Service. 23 May 1959 (Season 1, Episode 35). Rex Allen as Dr. Bill Baxter. Director: William Witney.
For a small town western doctor and a relatively short career, Dr. Baxter certainly seems to have gotten himself involved in a good many dramatic medical crises. The single season of 39 episodes had one each and every week, and I don’t know, but the one in “Strange Cargo” may have topped them all: Bubonic plague. The Black Death.
It begins with the death of a sailor on a ship heading from the seaport town of Vista, Texas, to New Orleans, then the trail leads to a pair of unscrupulous trappers back in Dr. Bill’s home town of Rising Springs. Along the way there were three deaths caused by the plague, one brutal shooting, a furious fist fight in the back of a runaway wagon, and a huge fire in a warehouse full of infected furs.
Bill travels in a two horse buggy to get around, but don’t let that fool you. He’s pretty handy with his fists as well. Either they hired a lot of extras for a few scenes or they used stock footage from other films to a very nice advantage. All in all, a good way to spend 25 minutes of western adventure time, William Witney style. (He directed all but two episodes of the entire series.)
October 15th, 2017 at 12:12 am
Several surprisingly entertaining episodes with Allen and Witney a good team. Nice to see these around again.
October 15th, 2017 at 9:11 am
Truth in blogging. The photo image at the top of the review did not come from this episode. Take it as typical, representing the entire series.
Most if not all of the series has been released on DVD by Alpha Video, in single sets of four episodes per disk.
October 15th, 2017 at 12:03 pm
It bears re-mentioning that Hollywood Television Services was another way of saying Republic Pictures, and that Frontier Doctor was part of their effort to bring their vast library of stock footage to the home screen (and thereby make a few more bucks off of it).
Surprisingly, only two Westerns resulted: Frontier Doctor and the better-recalled Stories Of The Century, which has been written up here before.
I dare say that if you did a frame-by-frame comparison of the two series, you’d probably find many of the same chases and fight scenes …
October 15th, 2017 at 12:40 pm
Rex’s home town, Willcox, AZ, has (or had, the last time my wife and I traveled through there in 2003) a Rex Allen Museum with beaucoup memorabilia, including (if memory serves me) the outfit shown on the cover of the FRONTIER DOCTOR comic book.