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 2.16 [046]
"Roar From The Mountain"
Original NBC Broadcast-8 January 1964

Revue Productions
Executive Producer Frank Price
Teleplay By Carey Wilber
Story By Carey Wilber and Franklin Barton
Directed By Earl Bellamy
#
Starring:
(shown on the ride-in)
Lee J. Cobb as Judge Henry Garth
Doug McClure as Trampas
Gary Clarke as Steve Hill
and
James Drury as The Virginian
#
Guest Stars
Jack Klugman
Joyce Bulifant
#
Full ending credits
#
Co-Starring
Emile Genest as Louis Dubois
#
Blair Davies as Doctor Saddler
#
Virginian Theme
Percy Faith
#
Directory of Photography . . . Ray Flin
#
Story Editor . . . Cy Chermak
#
Art Director . . . George Patrick
Film Editor . . . Edward Biery
Assistant Director . . . Ben Bishop
Set Decorators . . . John McCarthy and Perry Murdock
Sound . . . Earl Crain, Jr.
Color Coordinator . . . Robert Brower
Color by Pathé
#
Editorial Dept. Head . . . David J. O'Connell
Musical Supervision . . . Stanley Wilson
Costume Supervisor . . . Vincent Dee
Makeup . . . Leo Lotto, JR.
Hair Stylist . . . Florence Bush
The title "The Virginian" by permission of EMKA, Ltd.
#
Series regular characters appearing in this episode:
Judge Henry Garth, Trampas, Steve Hill, The Virginian
#

Detailed Synopsis:

"Funny, I'm not sure of anything. Just that I know he's out there in front
of me someplace and I got this feeling I've got to catch up...at least once
I've got to see him. He's pug marks in the loose dirt... he's rustle in the
bushes... he's dead silence that falls over the forest whenever he passes
through...a roar from the mountain. He's...I don't know what he is."

Judge Garth, Steve Hill, and some of the Shiloh hands meet up with the
Virginian who is waiting for them after returning from Louis Dubois' place.
They ride together to Big Springs where Trampas is waiting for them. After
Trampas uncovers the body of a man killed by something unknown, Judge
Garth asks the Virginian what he makes of it. While the Virginian is
answering the Judge, Steve walks a short distance away and leans down
and notices tracks. Steve angrily picks up a clump of dirt and spats out
bitterly and harshly, "COUGAR, BIG ONE! Big as I ever saw. He's a limper,
you can tell by his tracks he's favoring one foot."
"You talk like you know these cats," replies the Virginian. "I've hunted
them," says Steve disdainfully. "I know something about them."

Louis Dubois (pronounced Louie) arrives with his dogs. Anxious to track
the cat, the men begin at once. Sometime during the night the men are awakened
by the sound of the cougar. The dogs become excited and two
of them break loose and run into the night. Louis tries calling them back
but to no avail. He is certain he will find them tomorrow, dead. Louis'
intuition is correct. The next day they find the dead dogs and the will of
the hunt goes out of Dubois and he tells the Judge he is quitting. "I am
taking my dogs and going home." Judge Garth tells the men to take a
30-minute break for "coffee and beans " hoping it will give Dubois a chance
to rethink his decision. When he doesn't change his mind, he tells Dubois
they are still going on.

The Judge walks over to where the Virginian is sitting and kneels down
beside him. Giving him Dubois' answer, the Virginian tells the Judge that
without the dogs, they don't have much of a chance of catching the cat.
Wisely he tells the Judge "a bunch of men crashing through the bushes, the cat
would know where we were before we did, stay way out in front." Agreeing
with him, the Judge won't stop the hunt either. "I keep seeing some child
out by a stream or in a schoolyard, playing."

While the two men are talking, Steve is listening a short distance away.
"I'll go after him. Alone, I have a better chance." "Alright," the Judge
agrees, but with concern in his voice. He cautions Steve to take his time
and not take any chances. The Virginian notices the look of concern on the
Judge's face for his top hand and friend, and reassures him, "Steve
will be fine Judge. He knows the most about cougars, except for Dubois,
 and he's running scared."

The next day dawns bright and new as Steve watches his friends ride out.
The Virginian and Trampas turn and wave their last goodbyes.

The days for Steve roll into each other as he is tracking the killer cat.
One morning Steve rides up to a home out in the middle of nowhere. The woman
who is out in the yard walks
over to him. Lifelessly, Steve tells her, "I lost my grub, my packhorse 3-4
days ago and I've been too much in a hurry to hunt for food." She quickly
invites him in. Steve barely makes it through the front door and sits down
at the table. The woman, Nancy Mayhew, asks Steve how he lost his packhorse.

Steve answers her questions all at once. "I'm Steve Hill, I'm hunting a
cat, I'm from Medicine Bow." The woman interupts, "Why, that's in
Wyoming." "200 miles from here," answers Steve. "I haven't slept in weeks."
The exhaustion sets in and Steve falls asleep at the table and wakes up
hours later lying on the couch.

As Steve is cleaning himself up, Nancy hears a wagon approaching.
She goes outside to meet her husband Charles who has been away. She
introduces Steve as a hunter and with sarcasm in her voice, tells him why
Steve is in the valley. Later that evening Steve follows Nancy a short
distance away to a small grave. She tells Steve about the little sweet
child, Charles' son Robbie, who was killed by Steve's cougar and that
Charles was the person who had wounded the cat.
They hear the cougar and quickly walk back to the house and to Charles who
noticed they had left. After Nancy goes inside, Charles tells Steve the
remainder of the story. He froze when the cougar was dragging his son
away, and while he went back inside for his rifle, Nancy was running after
the cougar to save Robbie.

Charles sees Steve as a threat to himself and to his manhood. Steve is
everything he isn't~~strong, brave, handsome, and someone his wife is attracted to.
He begins a dislike for Steve that grows each day Steve is at their
house. Charles knows he'll find a way to kill Steve, even if he has to use
the cougar to do it, being the weak man that he is.

Waiting at the waterhole, Charles has the cat in his gunsight but decides not
to shoot. Instead he calls out to Steve. When Steve turns around, the cat
lunges onto him, knocking them both into the river. Charles shoots a few
shots into the air and scares the cat away. He drags Steve out of the river
and brings him home, injured with a rip in his right leg.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Steve hears his name being called, S-T-E-E-V-E, and slowly turns towards the
sound. The cat jumps on top of Steve from above, slowly. Steve and the cat
plunge into the river, the cat on top of him. Steve feels the pain of his
flesh being ripped away~~the cat is attacking him. AAAAAHHHHH~~~~~Steve, in
a cold sweat, screams out, opens his eyes and sees Nancy's concerned look on
her face. "Steve, you're having a nightmare."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Steve is almost well again, he leaves the Mayhew home and goes up into
the hills and finds Charles at the cougar's den. Steve glances into the den
and says they need bait but don't have any. With hatred towards Steve,
Charles hits Steve over the head with his gun butt, knocking him out.

Steve wakes up tied to a pole. He shouts to Charles with fear in his voice,
"cut me out of this! You can't use a man for bait. Are you crazy!!!!"
Calmer now, Steve reasons with Charles while working on his ropes. Steve tries to
convince Charles Nancy loves him when suddenly Steve quiets down and
listens. He tells Charles the cat is close by.
Charles stands up listening, agreeing with Steve. Turning, the cat springs
onto Charles knocking him down. Charles screams for Steve's help. Steve frees
himself and grabs a pole warding off the cat. The cat jumps for Steve.
Usingthe pole as leverage, Steve throws the cat into the pitfall. Walking over to
check on Charles, he helps him up and the two of them walk back over to the
pitfall and glance down. The cat is dead. Steve says to Charles, "Come on,
your wife's waiting".(arl)

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Main Contributor for this episode: Andrea Lopez [arl]