Have Gun - Will Travel (TV Series) The Lady of the Fifth Moon (1963) User Reviews

Almost classic

[pensman · 7/10 · 18 November 2016]

An odd entry on several levels. Looking back, you could applaud Richard Boone, star and director here, for an episode that was meant to project a positive image of Asian culture during the early 1960's. Also, the episode has a narrator who tells of story after the events have passed. Then there are the big questions being asked, "What is happiness, what is sadness, how do we respond to duty? Then most of the story takes place at night giving everything a slow dreamlike quality. And at the end, the dream becomes the nightmare. All in all, a nice fable. But what spoils this episode is the choice of actors. There must have been any number of qualified Asian actors with SAG credentials, so why William Schallert and Bethel Leslie? This could have been a standout episode but for the casting; and at the very end the director has a lapse: he gives Paladin the lines that rightly belonged to the narrator. So close, so very close.

Butterfly Dreams

[cougarannie · 10/10 · 28 December 2015]

This episode is actually narrated by one of the supporting characters -- perhaps our first clue that this is best seen as an "Americanized" fairy tale. Certainly all the Archetypes are present -- a beautiful princess, a fatal curse, and princess's stalwart protector, who falls completely under her spell.

I have as yet found no reference to "The Lady of the Five Moons", represented in an exquisite statuette Paladin accepts in exchange for escorting the daughter of a slain friend to a rendezvous with the ship that will return her to her aristocratic family in China, before a vengeful Tong appropriates her as payment for her father's gambling debts -- or simply kills her. But this story does manage to incorporate one of the most famous musings of the Chinese Philosopher Chuang Chou regarding dreams, men, and butterflies.

Kudos to Bethel Leslie for her performance as both the young Kim Sing and as the elderly matriarch determined to save both her granddaughter and her Family's honour. And to the equally talented William Schallert, as the faithful retainer who sadly watches events unfold and move slowly to their inevitable conclusion.

Sad way to end a series.

[Bronco46 · 1/10 · 15 October 2017]

Sad to see an episode like this come this close to the end of this otherwise excellent series. I found it difficult to follow the story-line every time they went to William Schallert as a Chinamen. It's just too silly. There were many fine Asian actors in Hollywood in this era. Why in Gods name would they do a whole episode involving Chinese people and have all the Chinese speaking parts go to Western actors. It looked ridiculous and sounded ridiculous. They had a few Chinese actors at the beginning purely as window dressing. Williams Schallert was a fine actor. But, watching him in this role was almost unbearable. The actors attempts to do Chinese accents failed miserably. And putting Schallert in some kind of Chinese (?) clothes and sticking a ridiculous hat on him. Did nothing to make him the least bit convincing. This is an episode that should not have been made.

What a joke!! I guess they couldn't find any East Asian actors in Hollywood.

[Progger1953 · 2/10 · 25 June 2021]

You would think Richard Boone would have some input on this show because this is the last season. But you never know, maybe he was fighting with the producers and didn't care anymore. And it's soon to be the last show. This is a sad way to end a great series.

amazing performance by the idiot producers

[david_weinstock · 2/10 · 14 October 2017]

considering that the show had kam tong and lisa lu in recurring roles, it is really stupid and offensive to everyone, not just asians, that they put bethel leslie in as a Chinese woman, in fact, two Chinese women. this is the same kind of crap that cost bruce lee the role that went to carradine. carradine and leslie just don't look Chinese. i know white men have played othello for years and that is stupid and offensive, too. is this a spoiler? no. the producers and casting directors spoiled the shows.

Phoned in, for certain ~

[cranvillesquare · 5/10 · 11 March 2023]

For its first five years, HGWT rivalled Maverick as a quirky, offbeat yet thoughtful Western-themed series. Mr. Boone wanted to end the series after five years, going out on top...but NOOOO, the producers talked him into a sixth and final season wherein he obviously did what little he had to do to put out episode after episode - and it shows. Some productions approached those of previous seasons; this one was preposterous. Bill Schallert and Bethel Leslie as Chinese ethnic nationals?? Give me a break. (Philip Ahn and Nobu Atsumi McCarthy would have been a casting home run.) The story line was tedious, the acting lame and the epilogue predictable. It's been suspected by some Hollywood higher-ups that Mr. Boone sabotaged Season Six out of sheer spite - he was kept from doing other projects for a year merely from the unnecessary prolongation of HGWT. After viewing this presentation, I wouldn't dispute the conjecture.

Should of been a comedy

[arngny · 1/10 · 5 May 2022]

The Americans portraying Chinese in this episode was totally laughable and poorly acted. Why would anyone accept a role in this is beyond me. I have gone through HGWT episodes of using white people as native Americans (Indians), but this one was too much to bare. This episode should be kept in a vault collecting dust.