First of all,I want to say I like Rawhide. I haven't seen anywhere near all of them,there are 217 episodes and I've seen perhaps 50 of them. So I am reasonably familiar with the show and characters at least. Now on the other hand,for as much crazy news I've read about Robert Blake,I am still not very familiar with his work. Sure,I've seen him on The Little Rascals when he was a kid. Perhaps the show he is best-known for,Baretta 1975-1978,is but a vague memory to me as I don't think I watched it even once in my life.
So,I really had no opinion of Blake, either way,
previous to seeing this.
From what I saw,I think he did an fine job with his role in this episode. He convincingly plays a real snake of a character,'Hap Johnson',who causes problems for the wagon train when he tries to join them after he deserts the army. Complicating things is the fact that 'Hap' is also very charming,friendly, and a fast-talker. The guy is slick-whether you like him or not.. The army however is hot on his trail and the wagon-train gets jammed-up by the army over some army material that 'Hap' left/traded with the wagon train. It's a pretty intense and amusing episode I say,and I liked it a lot.
If nothing else,it is an undeniably different episode for sure.
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