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Date Posted: 06:59:09 08/25/12 Sat
Author: SWC
Subject: My Review
In reply to: Rick 's message, "Now Showing: The Pursued: Part 1" on 16:40:02 08/23/12 Thu

Rick asked me to repost my review of this famous episode of Bonanza, as well as some research I did on the Mormon Church, (as a non-Mormon who just wanted to know more about it). First, the review:

The Cast

Heber Clawson is a successful rancher with a reputation for breeding excellent horses. He is played by Eric Fleming, most famous as the trail boss Gil Favor on the long-running series Rawhide. Fleming was born in Santa Paula, California on the 4th of July, 1925, as Edward Heddy, Jr. He suffered at the hands of an abusive father who beat him up to “toughen him up”. Fleming said that as a result of this abuse he was a “twisted” man inside. He grew up to be a taciturn actor with a deep voice, very good at playing authority figures but lacking a light touch, (he was never very good at comedy roles).

After some rough teenage years, (he was later re-united with his mother), he joined the Navy and wound up in the Seabees, in a consturction battalion. He sustained injuries to his face in an accident which required extensibve plastic surgery. They did a good job. He was at least a part-time male model after the war, (I have a copy of a magazine page from the late 40’s that has him posing in a business suit for an advertisement). He also became an actor and appeared in some plays in Chicago and on Broadway. He moved to Hollywood but the best he could get were leads in low-budget films, including the famously bad Queen of Outer Space with Zsa Zsa Gabor as the Queen of Venus.

But adult westerns were becoming big on TV and they provided opportunities for handsome, athletic-looking, deep voiced actors to play good guys who were in charge of towns, ranches, forts, wagon trains or trail drives. Fleming got the role that made him famous and successful when Rawhide debuted as a replacement show in Janurary 1959. I have the first seaosn on DVD. The first epsiode is about an enclosed wagon for prisoners that comes through where the herd is resting. The prisoners mutiny and shoot the Marshal and his deputy. The cowhands subdue them. Gil Favor and Rowdy Yates, (a young Clint Eastwood) decide have to take over and take them to prison. At one point they have to ford a river and one of the prisnors, played by Tom Conway, suggests they be allowed to ride on top of the wagon. He says “Drowning isn’t the most pleasant way to die.” Eric Fleming, as Favor, replies “I sure wouldn’t want to see anybody die an unpleasant death.”

Fleming was fired from the show after it’s 6th season, allegedly for being a “troublemaker”. He said it was because of his salary and declining ratings. He and Clint Eastwood, per a TV Guide article, had taken such an instant dislike to each other that they decided to duke it out on the first day. They were persuaded to wait until the end of the days filming and tempers had calmed down by then. They wound up working together for six years. I have always thought that Eastwood’s flinty-eyed acting style, (said to be the opposite of his real personality), was heavily influenced, if perhaps indirectly, by Fleming, (for whom it may have come naturally).

On September 28, 1966, at age 41, he drowned in a river in Peru while filimg a movie called High Jungle there.
Wikipedia: “Fleming's dugout canoe overturned in the Huallaga River. Actor Nico Minardos managed to swim to safety, but Fleming was swept away by the current and drowned. (He was not devoured by piranhas as rumored, nor was he "eaten by an alligator" — a rumor spread by Rawhide director, Ted Post, who detested Fleming).”
IMBD: “During the shooting of location shots on the Huallaga River on September 28, 1966, Fleming dove (intentionally?) from a dug-out canoe after paddling it beyond the rapids. His body was lost in the turbulent water and was not recovered until three days later…..The canoe they were in tipped over and both Fleming and Minardos were thrown into the river. Minardos managed to swim to shore, but Fleming drowned.”





He planned to marry his ong-time companion, Lynn Garber two days later and they were to retire to Hawaii after the filiming, which was almost done. I wonder if he might have been offered the role of Steve McGarrett in Hawaii Five-O had he been living there when that series started two eyars later. Instead, his last completed performance, (I haven’t seen any indication that High Jungle ever saw the light of day), was as Heber Clawson in the two part Bonanza episode “The Pursued”, which was broadcast on October 2-9, 1966, just days after his death.

One of my favorite actresses is Lois Nettleton, who was ubiquitous on TV in the 50’s and 60’s. She had what I call “an actress’s face”: she was pretty, with penetrating eyes but not so wildly beautiful that it was distraction. She could dress up and be glamerous or dress down and be plain: whatever the role demanded. She had a “wounded flower” persona, gentle and sensitve but fragile and worried. She won a beauty contest in her native Chicago but wanted to be an actress and wound up at the actor’s studio and wound up under-studying Barbara Bel Geddes in Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”. She became one of Williams’ favorite actresses, both for her won talent and resemblence to a previous favorite of his, Miriam Hopkins. She married radio humorist Jean Shepard, also from Chicago and the author of “A Christmas Story“. Her most famous appearance was proably the Twilight Zone epsiode “The Midnight Sun”. She died in 2008 and the IMDB is full of tributes from people who met her and thought she was a wonderful person as well as actress. She plays Heber Clawson’s younger wife, Elizabeth.

Dina Merrill is the daughter of E.F. Hutton, (the financier that people stop everything to listen to), and Marjorie Meriweather Post, so she grew up in splendid surroundings. Nonetheless, she wanted to be a performer rather than just a socialite and dropped out of college to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After a decade on Broadway, she was hired to play Katherine Hepburn’s assistant in the Tracy-Hepburn movie “Desk Set” in 1957. She performed in many movie and TV roles after that. She married Cliff Robertson in 1966. Still going strong at age 86, she has gone on to be a producer and a major philantrophist. She plays Heber’s older wife, Susannah, who has developed a sisterly relationship with Elizabeth. This is probably the outstanding role I’ve seen her in, especially her final speech.

Vincent Beck was one of an army of rugged looking actors who got roles in various 60’s TV westerns and crime seires. He didn’t have a distinguished career but does a good job as the duplicitous and greedy Grant Carbo. This was clearly the highlight of his career although, because the episode hasn’t been seen much, he’s more famous as “Voldar” in the famous Grade Z film “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians”. Beck died at age 59 of cancer in 1984.

Booth Coleman has had along career on stage, in the movies and televsion. He plays the intolerant Parson Parley, who demands the Mormons “repent and be saved” or be burned. Booth is still acting at age 87. He has played Ebenezer Scrooge over 100 times in the Detroit area.

Bryon Morrow, a kindly, white haired actor, negates this image with his appearance in the final scene as the kindly, white-haired, Reverend Blaisdale. Byron used to play pro basketball in a league that included the Harlem Globetrotters. He died at age 94 at the Motion Picture and TV Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA, still white-haired and kindly.

Robert Brubaker planys a bigoted cow-hand named Menken who makes it his business to try Heber Clawson’s patience. Brubaker had a recurring role on Gunsmoke at the stagecoach driver, Jim Buck. Robert recently passed away at age 95.


The Story

Heber Clawson owns a very successful horse ranch in Beehive, Nevada. The name of the town bothered me at first- the name “Beehive” implied that it was founded by the Mormans- why would a Morman be persecuted by the residents of such a town? But the writers explain as the epsiode goes on that Beehive was created when Brigham Young sent people to various places around the west to set up Mormon communities but that everyone besides Heber returned to Utah at the time of the second Mormon War in 1857. He “rebelled against the church” but was forgiven. The town has now been populated by non-Mormons who are suspicious of Heber and his wives because of their religion. Heber wonders out loud if his troubles in this episode are punishment for his rebellion against the church. Beyond that the subject of the degree of his dedication to his religion is unexplored.

Heber lives with his two wives. The older one, Susannah, admits she “tried to hate” the younger one, Elizabeth, at first and there’s a strong indication that it’s at least painful to her that she was unable to have children but Elizabeth can and is pregnant with what will be the family’s first child. But a sisterly love has developed between them and Heber clearly loves them both of them evenly. They seem idyllically happy, despite the fact that their large horse ranch uses the same phantom ranch hands the Cartwrights do. Apparently, Heber does everything, except when he has to request the help of his neighbor, Grant Carbo, who owns much of the property in the area Heber hasn’t held onto, including the town. Carbo has been a “good neighbor” but has designs on Susannah and has remained close to the family to be close to her.

The town had a preacher named Reverend Morris who was tolerant of Mormonism such that Heber and his wives attended their church. But he has died and has been replaced by a new preacher named Parley. Parley is “self-ordained“, (perhaps the wrtier’s attempt to avoid accusing any specific sect of being prejudiced), and prefers being called “Parson”. He is initially friendly toward the Clawsons and even expresses shock when Menken, one of Carbo’s hands, thorws mud on Hever as he drives his buggy through town. (Carbo himself up-braids Menken. It’s interesting that both major villans start out being friendly toward the Clawsons. It seems to underscore the idea that there’s good and bad in all of us and that “bad guys” are the guys who lose the battle between them.)

Ben, Hoss and Little Joe arrive in Beehive after corresponding with Heber Clawson aobut buying some of his horses. Hoss and Joe are a little put off by seeing a man with two wives and, in private with Ben, they wonder about it, Hoss saying that Heber “seems normal”. Ben defends him, saying that he is, he just has different beliefs. He noted that 600 Morman men died due to their previous persecutions and that they had to resort to polygamy because of the lack of men for their women. (This appears to be an invention of the writers. Heber later says that 600 died at their winter quarters in Nebraska on the way to Utah. Per Wikipedia, 359 Mormons died there due to disease- mostly survey, tuberculousis and malaria. They weren’t all men. And Joseph Smith had practiced and taught polygamy long before this.) Ben notes that “Many a wagon train wouldn’t have made it excpet for the Mormon stations”. This is true enough, although Ben doesn’t mention the Francher party, which didn’t make it specifically because of the Mormons. It seems likely that Ben’s own journey across the western plains with Inger and Adam was probably helped out by the Mormons and he remembers that. He also might be thinking about the fact that he had multiple wives under different circumstances. It has to have occurred to him to wonder what it would be like to have Elizabeth, Inger and Marie all at the Ponderosa at once. Maybe, in the back of his mind, they always have been. It might have interesting to have him say something about that, but the writers didn’t pick up on that.

Ben and Hoss leave the ranch to look at a herd of horses that are “in the mountains”, leaving Joe behind with the Clawsons to look aftert the hroses they’ve bought from Heber. They will return at just the right moment. Pastor Parley has invited the Clawsons to church on Sunday. Joe goes along. Heber is concerned aobut acceptance by the new preacher. Things go well at first but, in the heated emotion of his sermon, Parley, (who said his previous assignment was “among the heathen Indians”), announces that they all must be “friends” of their neighbors and that the way to be a friend is to “extend our hand to those who have lost the way. When we save each other, we save ourselves!”. He tells his congregation that it’s their duty to “drive out the evil in those who worship a false God”, pointing right at the Clawsons, who then get up and leave. (One problem with this: the Mormons worship the game God, even if they do it in a different way. Parson Parley shouldn’t be calling God “false“.) Carbo comes out to apologize to the Clawsons but spends most of his time giving sympathy to Susannah.

Later, Heber and Joe are away from the house, dealing with rthe horses and Elizabeth is taking a buggy ride. Carbo, who has been observing the house, takes advantage of the moment to try to force his attentions on Susannah and suggest that she would enjoy being his lover rather than Heber’s. She gets him to leave by mocking him with laughter, which turns to tears after he leaves. Elizabeth arrives home and they comiserate while Carbo leaves humiliated, angry- and dangerous.

Heber comes home to find his wives in tears. The next scene is in Beehive, where Heber goes to avenge himself on Carbo, (if you read between the lines, the impression arises that Carbo got more than the kiss he forced on Elizabeth). They have an extended fistfight. Menken tosses a gun to Carbo but Joe arrives in time to shot it away from hiom and to hold Carbo’s men off while he and Heber settle things. Heber wins the slug-out, with Carbo unconscious at the feet of Parson Parley, who denounces Clawson for being a dangerous, violent man. He announces that the Cartwrights must be Danites- gunmen hired by the Mormons to kill their enemies. He urges the town to purge itself of the Clawsons and the Cartwrights. Later we see Heber trying to buy supplies from shopkeepers he has delat with for years. They are afraid of being seen with him and slam doors in his face. Parley shows up at the ranch and begings trying to “save” the women by beseeching them to repent their sins. Heber gets home and throws him out.

Meanwhile Menken and a few of the boys have spotted Heber and Joe driving a herd of horses and decided to stampede them for fun. Joe confronts Menken and they have a fight. Menken gets decked but pulls a gun. Joe whips his pistol out and shoots him dead. He and Heber order Carbo’s other men to take the body to town for burial.

Parley then incites the town to destroy Heber’s ranch, kill Heber and the Cartwirghts and “save” the women. Carbo provides most of the manpower, realizing that this will “free” Susannah to marry him. Part 1 ends with a battle at the ranch, Heber and Joe against Parley, Carbo and a small mob, mostly Carbo’s men. The women escape and Heber and Joe follow them while Parley glories in the firey destruction of the ranch as an example of God’s vengance. The last image of the first part shows him, framed by a burning post, looking skyward. (In previous scenes the ranch house is a large adobe building but at the time of the burning, it seems to have been made entirely of wood.)

Part 2 is an hour-long chase, as befits the title. Joe and the Clawsons have to head for the desert, slowed down by the wagon the women took and Elizabeth’s pregnancy. It takes Joe and Heber a while to catch up. When they finally do, Heber, who has been emotionally distraught, is heartened by his wives and their willing news to go wherever they must with him and by the fact that Elizabeth will be giving birth soon. Heber tells Joe that he’s decided that they should go back to Utah and live in Salt Lake City and believes their trails are amessage from God that he wants them to be there with their own people. This is one of two scenes that suggest aparallel between mromons and jews. In an earlier scene Heber notes, sardonically that “we Mormons are known for being shrewd bargainers”. The industriousness of the Mormans allowed them to accumlate wealth, or what passed for it back then, faster than most westerners could and created an extra layer of jealously and suspicision and likely fueled speculation aobut their level of greed and business practices, something that plagued the Jews through the ages. Add to that the search for a land “of their own” where they could be the rulers and thus protected from persecution and you can see the parallel.

With difficulty, Joe convinces Heber to leave with the women while he’ll try and hold off Parley, Carbo and the others. Joe shoots at them from a concealed position for a time but they finally realize that he’s the only one there and beging to move out. Joe gets on his horse and gallops off, the bad guys in pursuit, beginning the most exicitng sequence. Using cutting techniques pioneered by DW Griiffth, who was master of bulding suspense with cross-cutting, the director, (William Whitney), shows us Joe riding from the mob, the mob, up close, galloping intimidatingly toward the camera, Heber and the women moving as fast as they can- but not fast enough, and now Ben and Hoss, driving a herd of horses they have bought from a dealer “in the mountains”. The shots go back and forth, back and forth and the tension and excitement build. Ben and Hoss slowly realize who that is galloping away from the mob and they spur their horses forward, using them as “cavalry”. Joe see them and lets out a big ’Whoop!” and leads his pursuerers directly into the horses. The collison creates such confusion and raises so much dust that Joe escapes. He, Ben and Hoss join up with the Clawsons and prepare for the final battle.

As the two groups shoot at each other, we see Carbo’s men asking each other what stake they have in this battle, other than their wages. Meanwhile Elizabeth’s time has come and Heber retreats to the wagon to be with her. Carbo gets a good shot at him and plugs him in the back, killing him. Carbo begins to tell Susannah that “it was the only way”. Elizabeth rushes him in anger and he tosses her aside. Joe comes up and shoots it out with Carbo, (strangely, he has his gun out but puts it in his holster so he can outdraw him). Joe wins but the distraught women scream at the continued violence.

Carbo’s men have had enough of this and stop shooting. Parley beseechs them to “continue their work”. They just ride away while he runs after them. Eventually falling down onto his face. He tells the women that he was just trying to do what was right.

Joe rides for a doctor and finds one. He examines Elizabeth and announces she is dying. If she dies before the baby is born, it will have little chance to survive. Meanwhile another preacher, Reverand Balisdale, arrives wityh his wife, saying they’d heard of the trouble and came out to see if they can help. A baby is crying. The doctor tells them that Elizabeth fought to survive so the child could be born but doesn’t have much time left. She and Susannah want to be alone with their child. Elizabeth asks Susannah to read Heber’s favorite “Article of Faith”, (a list of which appears in an 1842 letter by Joseph Smith), #13, which reads: “We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul "we believe all things, we hope all things," we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.” Elizabeth begins repeating the words and then dies.

Susannah then emerges from the tent they had constructed and is told by the Blaisdales that they will be willing to take her child. Elizabeth then explodes in rage, telling them that the Clawsons are a family and that this is their child. She makes a long speech about what it is to be a Mormon family, letting all her emotions come out at a world that won’t let them alone. The Balisdales then tell her that they meant that she and the child could stay with them as long as they want, that they respect the Mormon faith and that it’s appropritate that Heber’s child be raised in his father’s faith. She calms down and goes off with them while the Cartwrights prepare to drive their horses back to the Ponderosa. Hoss says that there are still good people in the world. Ben agrees and hopes they they will comeday beable to create the world Heber Clawson wanted so much, (where people can believe what they want and get along with each other). Joe hopes that it will happen in time for his son to see it.

This episode is posted to U-Tube in ten parts, labeled Part 1-1 (through 5) and Part 2 1 (through 5). The print used is rather pixel-starved but watchable. It’s interesting that the copy Rick sent me has a line partially bleeped out that can be heard in full on U-Tube. In her speech to the Blaisdales at the end, Susannah says that they “wanted children but ______ wisdom sought to deny ,me that priviledge”. She says that Heber married Elizabeth so they could have children, implying that that was the only reason for his second marriage, although the church itself taught that plural marriage was a path to exhaltation- a means of elevation to the highest part of heaven. The blank phrase was, of course “The Lord in his”. Somebody didn’t like that and blanked it out of Rick’s copy. Pat Robertson didn’t like the whole thing and removed it from the package of episodes he owned at the time, (along with another episode that had a painting of a nude in it), which is why “The Pursued” is so rarely seen today.

Here are the episodes on U-Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhk12XUaLg
You can follow from one to the other by looking for Part 1-2, then Part 1-3, Part 2-1, etc. to the right. You can change it to ful screen by clicking on the box with the arrows in the lower right hand corner of the image.

Note the series of comments by “bsl103158”, who is well-informed about the teachings and history of the church but has chosen to give a negative interpetation to everything. He’s right that “The Pursued” presents a favorable view of polygamy with two pretty wives who get along famously and love their husband. He views that as a “whitewash” and insists that women caught up in a polygamous marriage were “often miserable.”. Again, I think that depends on the individuals. Eliza Webb Young represented the negative side of polygamy, Emmeline Wells the positive side. If the Bonanza writers had presented Heber’s wives as being “miserable”, that would have distracted them from the main theme of combating prejudice. It’s certainly possible that Heber Clawson could have two wives whom he loved and who loved him and who loved each other as sisters, (which is what Susannah calls them in her climatic speech). Writers can’t present all possibilities at once so they choose the one that tells the story they want to tell.

All in all, ”The Pursued” is one of the very best and certainly one of the most memorable, if least seen, (thanks to Pat Robertson), episodes of Bonanza.

Note: There is another posting of “The Pursued” now on U-Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TB9UhLg6k0
I’s a little better and has a few more seconds of the opening. The image of the tumbleweed is obviously symbolic of the Mormons who had to keep moving to find freedom and tolerance. It’s an implication that that search never really ends for any of us.

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