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The Classic TV Archive - TV Western series
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 [04]  "The High Bridge"

Original NBC Airdate February 28, 1960
Stagecoach Productions

Opening Credits:
Starring
William Bendix [Kelly]
#
Doug McClure [Flip]

Ending Credits:
Directed by Harold Schuster
#
Teleplay by Martin Berkeley
Story by Samuel A. Peeples
#
Produced by Samuel A. Peeples
#
Executive Producer Nat Holt
#
Starring
William Bendix
#
Doug McClure
#
Co-Starring
Whitney Blake ["Cattle Kate" Maxwell]
#
with
John Anderson [Marshal]
Robert McQueeney [Jim Arville]*
George Wallace [Matt Doolie (?spelling) of the murderous Doolie Brothers
Gang]
#
Rex Holman [Tom, also called "Captain"--Bloodthirsty Gang Member]
Linda Lawson [Ruby, Saloon Girl]
Burt Mustin
James Bell
Nora Marlowe [Mary, Deputy]
Arthur Space
Duane Cress
#
AN OVERLAND STAGE-BILBEN PRODUCTION
filmed in hollywood at revue studios
mca tv exclusive distributor
#
Director of Photography William A. Sickner, A.S.C.
#
Art Director . . . Raymond Beal
Editorial Supervisor . . . Richard G. Wray, A.C.E.
Film Editor . . . James Caylor
Musical Supervision . . . Stanley Wilson
Sound . . . Earl Crain, Jr.
#
Assistant Director . . . George Bisk
Set Decorator . . . Ralph Sylos
Costume Supervisor . . . Vincent Dee
Makeup . . . Jack Barron
Hair Stylist . . . Florence Bush

Synopsis:
The Overland Stage is commandeered to take "Cattle Kate"
(Blake) to Denver to be hanged for murder and cattle rustling. When Flip
objects to the thought of executing a female and refuses to go along, Mr.
Kelly
tricks him into being deputized and has him handcuffed to the sweet-talker
with hopes of teaching him to "learn to tell the good from the bad,"
especially where women were concerned.

Historically speaking: From what I've been able to round up from various
sources, there actually was a woman named Ella Maxwell who was better
known as "Cattle Kate." Most sources say that she was given cattle in
exchange for favors with men. She and James Averill (the character in this
story
was Jim Arville) were accused of putting a large herd together by cattle
rustling (but there was no mention of the murders that led to the
sentence of hanging in this episode). Some sources did mention that Averill
didn't come by all his cattle through honest means, but it seemed the pair's
real
crime was going against the powerful Wyoming Stock Growers. Reader's
Digest "Story of the Great American West"'s only mention of her was the
caption
under her photograph which stated that her reputation as a hard riding
rustler was manufactured by cattlemen after they hanged her. "Cattle Kate"
was
hanged all right, but not in Denver. And James Averill was hanged
alongside her on the same tree by a bunch of cowboys that got tired of
his efforts to publicly denounce them as tyrants and land grabbers--he
wasn't gunned down trying to free Kate from the law as we would be led to
believe from this episode. Perhaps by calling the man Arville instead of
Averill (and having one of those "all characters are fictitious" disclaimers
at the end of the credits)
they could take the liberty of changing the means of his death. But
historically there is conflicting information about these two people
anyway, with one source stating there were a
couple of "Cattle Kate"s--an Ella Maxwell and an Ella Watson--while some
other sources suggested this was the same woman--Ella Watson Maxwell.(bj)
 

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