Bonanza (TV Series) The Secret (1961) User Reviews

Very carefully framed

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 16 July 2020]

That pinto horse and lefthanded holster are a trademark for Little Joe Cartwright. In this Bonanza episode a very careful frame is used with those things to get Michael Landon accused of murder.

The victim is a rancher's daughter who was allegedly going out with Landon. All news to Little Joe. The story is a tragedy and the real murderer is some piece pf work.

You'll figure out who it is. Still a good story.

A minor goof:

[calderone1921 · 10/10 · 4 April 2007]

When Pete,the murdered girls brother,sneaks up behind Ben and Little Joe as they leave their house,Pete threatens them with a gun. Ben wheels around,fires his gun,and nicks Pete. However,you will notice that it appears Ben's gun goes off prematurely,looking like it goes off toward the ground right at a sprawling Little Joe. Whatever charge the film makers used to show smoke coming from the gun when the trigger was pulled,is clearly seen going off early, and it also seems as if Ben was pointing it right at Little Joe. Besides this minor goof, i found the episode to be well written, and very entertaining. I would say that it is very well worth watching.

Goof halfway through...

[schmidtkenn11 · 29 October 2014]

This is one of the very best episodes, directed brilliantly by the late Robert Altman, who most famously also directed Nashville, among others. The acting, writing and direction are extremely top-notch, even more so than usual. However, there is one very small moment that jumped out for me. Many of the shows in this series used flats and/or painted backdrops on the smaller sets or for one-shots (i.e., close-ups of a single actor) or two-shots. Usually it wasn't all that obvious, unless you were looking for it, and it was very common for a lot of series during this period to do this. In the scene in the sheriff's office about halfway through, when Jake and his sons come looking for Ben because he shot one of the sons, there is a painted drop of the street and the buildings across from the jailhouse, as seen through the open door. When Jake and his sons exit at the end of the scene, you can clearly see the shadow of the open door on the right falling on the drop, making it obvious that it's a drop and not an actual street set.