¶ Episode #22 "Incident in the Middle of Nowhere" written by Louis Vittes story by Howard Rigsby and Louis Vittes directed by R.G. Springsteen music composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith guests: Cecil Kellaway, Fay Spain, Elisha Cook Jr, George Keymas, James Griffith, Charles Fredericks, X Brands, Olan Soulé, Ralph Smiley
It's a weird Favor/Yates tandem episode in which they pay a guide at the town of Endicott to show them a pass through Dead Mountains to get some water for their beeves because Indians keep a close eyes on any intruders while a strange old man—former scholar/engineer—uses them to own the gold of the mountains. But the episode appears to be a gold rush/gold treasure hunt led by two crooks and a woman cheat that they call MacKay's gold and not "McKenna's Gold" (1969). Act 1 starts with an unusual scene at night: Favor and Yates stop their horses when they hear some chamber music in the middle of nowhere and they decide to follow the sound and discover a company of ballet dancers performing for an old eccentric gold owner named MacKay. Act 5 ends up with a number of French Can Can that Rowdy Yates enjoys very much especially when a Can Can dancer rushes towards him to show him the back of her panties.
The sherry on top of the cake is that that Jerry Goldsmith's 1961 Rawhide score foreshadows the rhythmic leaning of the 1964 film score Rio Conchos.
Rio Conchos was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the titleof this thread. I've always been interested to hear how themes composed concurrently sound similar--or not at all alike. I'm looking forward to watching this episode as I had no idea Jerry even worked on this series.
Rawhide is one of the great forgotten western series--well, sort of; the theme and Clint are of course, legendary. The quality of guest stars, photography, and "adult" themes make it a superb program for those overexposed on the more famous western series of that time. I can't help but feel thatRawhide is unjustly dismissed because it's in black & white, and you know we can't have that in this day and age!
I just watched this (I am on s.3 dvd collection)!!!
I immediately recognized Jerry's early 60's style(Think TWILIGHT ZONE) and was delighted that he actually received a composer credit at the end. I believe this is the first time the score composer got mentioned in addition to Tiomkin's weird "created and composed" credit bruce
