Bonanza (TV Series) Day of Reckoning (1960) User Reviews

What a find for a Trek fan! Khan and Lt. McGivers together before Trek!

[ronaldb8179 · 6/10 · 26 October 2006]

I just watched this Bonanza episode on a $1 DVD which has one episode each of several Westerns like Bonanza, Rifleman, Lone Ranger, etc.

I was not surprised to see Ricardo Montalban in a guest role. When I first saw his character's wife, I thought she looked familiar. For good reason! Madalyn Rhue played Lt. Marla McGivers who had a fatal attraction to Montalban's Khan character in the Star Trek episode "Space Seed." Of course this episode was the premise for Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan.

In all these years of reading Trek trivia, I had not come across anything pointing out the two actors having played together previously.

As for the dramatic critique, there are the usual archetypes of the Western TV of the day. I highly doubt that a real life 19th century rancher of Ben Cartwright's stature would have given land to an Indian, even in return for his life. Also, another hole in the story is why Ike wasn't arrested for murder after he shot Hatoya. Ironically, it is revealed in Trek II that Lt. McGivers, who had become Khan's wife, had been killed by parasitical creatures on the planet where Captain Kirk had marooned them. Matsou's anger toward Ike is IMHO quite like Khan's anger with Kirk. There is one line by Matsou that made me think of Khan's "He tasks me and I shall have him..." rant in Trek II.

All said I must give it a 6.

I wonder if Madalyn Rhue's MS was the reason that Lt. McGivers was written out of the Trek II script? She had developed it a few years before that movie was made.

The path to hell is paved with good intentions

[deforest-1 · 10/10 · 1 October 2013]

This is a well-intentioned attempt from early in the second series of "Bonanza" to sell the idea of Amerindian equality to the mass TV audience, decades after pioneering Hollywood movies did it a lot better. The Cartrights tend to get their liberalism somewhat half-assed here. Matsou, a younger Bannock chief (Ricardo Montalban), and his wife Atoya (Madlyn Rhue), a Shoshone, are outcast from both tribes and live on their own in the rocky high country of the Ponderosa. When they save Ben from Matsou's older brother Lagos (Anthony Caruso) and nurse him back to strength, he offers them his best farm land so they can raise crops and stock and live as white people. Matsou is skeptical and reluctant but, urged on by his wife's Christian pleadings that it's the best hope for their people, he tries. A rabid Indian-hating settler, Ike Daggett (Karl Swenson), another homesteader adjacent who has been gifted land by the Cartrights, does all he can to destroy this initiative. In a confrontation at Daggett's wife's funeral, he grabs a rifle while Ben restrains Matsou and shoots pregnant Atoya dead: "An eye for an eye!" he cries in good Christian spirit. Matsou takes revenge on Daggett but cannot go through with it on Ben. He returns to his people, promising to return in friendship. (As if he hasn't learnt by now!) Montalban was a fine figure of a man at 40, before back problems set in. And Madlyn Rhue too was a dish.

A mix of values

[mitchrmp · 9/10 · 24 May 2014]

This is one of those episodes that makes a person go...wow! We watch as an Indian tries to do the right thing. After saving Ben's life, he talks them into taking some land and becoming farmers. He's not too happy with the idea, but, but his beloved wife whom he loves very much and believes in God talks him into it.

This is one of those episodes that really tells the facts of life. We may think they are getting along, but are they really? When a person is raised to believe one thing, can they really change their beliefs enough to live a different way?

The events near the end are shocking and sad. But that's reality, folks. That's one think I like about Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and Rawhide - the truth is that sometimes the good guys don't win in the end.

Dead: 3

Good Elements Go Haywire

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 7 November 2010]

I thought that Day Of Reckoning might be a Bonanza episode with elements of Romeo and Juliet in it. If it had stuck to that plot the cast could have given it good performances. Unfortunately the story line goes off on some unseen tangents and the ending was a total cop out.

Ricardo Montalban and Madelyn Rhue play an exiled Bannock Indian and his wife who are right now camped in a little used corner of the Ponderosa. Montalban is exiled because he took a wife who was a Shoshone and neither tribe wants them.

When Montalban saves Lorne Greene from a knifing at the hands of his elder brother Anthony Caruso, the Cartwrights are naturally grateful, but another neighbor Karl Swenson just doesn't like Indians of any kind. Before the film is over a lot of the guest cast is dead due to a lot of bigotry and hatred.

One of the things that made Bonanza so popular was many times the episodes had a strong moral value to them. This was one of them, but the execution left a lot to be desired.

I just have to remember it's 1960 Hollywood

[reb-warrior · 5/10 · 20 March 2024]

I hardly know what to say about this one. I know it's 1960, so I guess I can give some leeway as to the portrayers of Native Americans not being actual Native American actors.

As it is, Matsou and. Hatoya along with other Indian characters don't seem very accurate, IMO. It's a common misconception that Native Americans did not farm. But they, in fact, did. As for the attack, it was Buffalo Bill who said "Every Indian outbreak that I have ever known has resulted from broken promises and broken treaties by the government." That is missing here. I believe that Matsou himself would never have willingly cut his long black hair no matter what. I believe their hair was considered a symbol of pride, strength, and identity.

I think what is also missing is the actual true aspects of Native American culture. When the story begins they have left their tribes and his wife followed the bible.

Ben and his family as the great white saviours couldn't see how helping Matsou and his wife this way would lead to bad consequences. They basically tried to turn them white. Even calling Matsou, Matt.

The commendable part about this episode is that Ben and his sons stood up against bigotry against Native Americans and genuinely wanted to help. Unfortunately their "help" ends up in death and tragedy. Don't get me wrong. I do like the idea of Ben somehow helping/rewarding Matsou for saving his life. But his solution was the wrong answer. 5/10.