Wagon Train (TV Series) The Naomi Kaylor Story (1963) User Reviews

The Merry Widow of the plains

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 23 December 2013]

The Wagon Train horses have gotten into some loco weed and have become useless and sick. John McIntire has a friend in a local rancher and he sends Terry Wilson with a letter of agreement to buy 50 horses at ten dollars a head with the cash to buy.

But Wilson arrives just in time for the man's funeral and to see a genuinely grieving daughter in Natalie Trundy and a trophy second wife in Joan Fontaine.

Fontaine has no intention of honoring that letter and neither does her boyfriend, foreman Fred Bier. They want far more money to pay for the expensive lifestyle she's become accustomed.

But lawyer James Bell brings news of a fresh will that leaves the ranch to Trundy and an allowance of 30 silver dollars a month for Fontaine to live on. I think her late husband was trying to tell her something.

Good thing Terry Wilson is around because a target goes right up on Trundy's back.

In the end a just punishment is given to Fontaine and the writers must have been familiar with British history and the story of Robert Carr, the Duke of Somerset.

On that cryptic note I commend this Wagon Train episode to you and for you to enjoy Joan Fontaine in this role. She's some piece of work.

Disappointed in Joan Fontaine

[SusanJL · 7/10 · 21 September 2022]

At first I was super excited to see that Joan Fontaine was in this episode..but not for long!!! I loved, loved, loved her in Jane Eyre, Suspicion, Rebecca, and Ivanhoe. Her acting in this episode is about as subtle as a brick. I've never seen her chew the scenery like this, yikes!!!! Just awful. Reminded me of Cinderella's wicked stepmother or Snow White's evil queen stepmother in the Disney cartoons. The episode would have been so much better if she could have hidden her unconcern about her husband's death while around step daughter Grace and others. She constantly dripped insincerity to the point of absurdity.

Too much talk and not enough action

[LukeCoolHand · 3/10 · 11 February 2022]

I thought I liked Wagon Train when I was very young. Thought is the operative word here. As a very grown man I am starting to lose interest in it fast. A lot of episodes are like this one. Not much action and talk, talk, talk. That 10 second scene with the rattlesnake couldn't save it. And to boot the talk is not very interesting. And it seems like a lot of them were slanted more towards women like this one. Apparently a lot of people feel the same way because not many people are reviewing the series. Not near as many are reviewing this as another great western I won't mention the name of, but will disclose it had a twenty year run. Well maybe the next one will be better.