There's always a time in a champion's reign when a challenger tries you out. Early in The Big Valley, Miss Barbara Stanwyck/Victoria Barclay meets up-and-comer Jeanne Cooper, later to become a heavyweight in The Young and the Restless. Both rise to the occasion.
Heath Barclay (Lee Majors) is a son of the late Mr. Barclay but not Victoria's. Obviously, in a dynasty (whoops!) that's a problem.
In order to understand Heath's life better as Stockton plans a memorial for her late husband, she travels back into his past to find facts. She instead finds a beaten town, and Jeanne Cooper and John Anderson, an aunt and uncle, as Mel Brooks would describe them "prime Western trash". Jeanne's character is especially good as the emasculating, tempestuous hot mature woman stuck in a dead town.
The story plays out interestingly with old documents, a slightly dotty but earnest former maid, and inferences that Miss Cooper has had more than a little direct influence on Heath's past, most of it not good. Take care to liisten to Victoria and the maid's testimony and you'll see what I mean.
But the crackle here is the dukes-up between Cooper and Stanwyck. Jeanne holds her own against one of the toughest and strongest female actresses Hollywood ever produced. That, and Jeanne's I'll-do-anything drive to get paid by the Barclays and/or get out of Strawberry. It's a treat.
Heath Barclay (Lee Majors) is a son of the late Mr. Barclay but not Victoria's. Obviously, in a dynasty (whoops!) that's a problem.
In order to understand Heath's life better as Stockton plans a memorial for her late husband, she travels back into his past to find facts. She instead finds a beaten town, and Jeanne Cooper and John Anderson, an aunt and uncle, as Mel Brooks would describe them "prime Western trash". Jeanne's character is especially good as the emasculating, tempestuous hot mature woman stuck in a dead town.
The story plays out interestingly with old documents, a slightly dotty but earnest former maid, and inferences that Miss Cooper has had more than a little direct influence on Heath's past, most of it not good. Take care to liisten to Victoria and the maid's testimony and you'll see what I mean.
But the crackle here is the dukes-up between Cooper and Stanwyck. Jeanne holds her own against one of the toughest and strongest female actresses Hollywood ever produced. That, and Jeanne's I'll-do-anything drive to get paid by the Barclays and/or get out of Strawberry. It's a treat.