Have Gun - Will Travel (TV Series) The Long Night (1957) User Reviews

Have Rope, Will Lynch

[zsenorsock · 7/10 · 1 April 2007]

Paladin is riding along, minding his own business, when he is taken captive of a wealthy ranch owner named Louis Strome (Kent Smith). It seems his wife was killed when he caught her with a man and he's trying to find that man and hang him. Besides Paladin, Strome has also captured Andy Fisher (James Best), a young cowpoke with a guitar and Clyde Broderick (William Schallert), a Sharp's rifle rep. He tells them unless one confesses, he'll hang all three.

Tense, suspenseful episode with good performances from everyone in the cast. There's more to what happened at the Strome house than meets the eye and Paladin unravels the story bit by bit as he gets to the truth. There's also a terrific action sequence at the end, as Paladin darns near gets himself hanged.

Three for a Rope?

[gordonl56 · 7/10 · 13 April 2016]

HAVE GUN - WILL TRAVEL "The Long Night" 1957

HAVE GUN – WILL TRAVEL was a Western series that ran on television between 1957 and 1963. The series was very popular and was always in the top ten of the television ratings. The series ran for a total of 225 episodes. Richard Boone headlines as "Paladin", a gun for hire, if the cause is right. Working out of San Francisco, Boone places ads in newspapers offering his services. $1,000 and he is your man. While handy with a gun or fists, he tries to settle the problem without violence. (Not very successfully as a general rule)

In this episode, the 10th the series, Boone is riding through the Texas countryside when he is set upon by two men. The men get the drop on Boone and escort him to their boss, wealthy rancher, Kent Smith. Smith steps up to Boone and says, "She is dead." Boone asks what that is meant by the statement.

Smith says he is looking for the man who killed his wife. The man was dressed in a black shirt or coat and Boone matches the description. He is joined by two other men who fit the description, James Best and William Schallert.

Smith tells the three men he intends to hang all three unless one steps up and admits doing the deed. Boone can see that Smith is not quite all there in the head. He fires a barrage of questions at the man. It is soon established that Smith is the man who actually killed his wife. Smith claims that he had come home and caught a man climbing out a window. Smith was sure that his much younger wife must have been stepping out with the man. Smith blames this man in black for causing him to kill his wife. Smith killed the woman when she refused to cough up the man's name.

Smith had only seen that the man was dressed in black. The three men now attempt an escape but are quickly corralled again. It looks like the rope for all three. Boone, though innocent, admits to being the man. Boone whispers to Best and Schallert that they better make a move while Smith and company are getting ready to string him up.

Boone is soon stuck on a horse and a rope is being tightened around his neck. Best now clobbers one of Smith's men grabbing up his weapons. There is a quick exchange of lead with Best and company winning. Smith is captured by Best while Boone and Schallert chase the others into the brush. When they return, they find that Best has strung up Smith. It was Best who had made the night time visit to Smith's wife. Smith has now paid for murdering his wife.

Boone tells Smith's men to cut him down and bury him. He then mounts up and rides off.

An interesting episode that has the viewer wondering which of Best or Schallert is Smith's target.

Three men on a rope

[hudecha · 8/10 · 25 August 2018]

A strong episode as a whole, worth watching in particular for a really outstanding scene. The three men jealous husband Strome suspects of having been the one who courted his wife have created a sort of bond between themselves - and at a point, thanks to Paladin, they find a brilliantly improvised way out, as paradoxical as it is unorthodox. After one has started to reveal himself as the lover, the two others convincingly accuse themselves, one after the other, of being the guilty one. Doing so, they humiliatingly expose Strome for what he really is : an old patriarch who mistreated his young wife as a piece of property and whom she could have had strong reasons to leave with any reasonably attractive stranger. The seemingly absurd move might not have worked so well in the real world, but on screen it works wonders. Strome is suddenly exposed for a fake strongman. There still needs to be some twists, and Paladin taking big chances, for the three men to turn the tables on Strome and his henchmen. But this is the key moment when power of the will, if not yet of the guns, dramatically changes hands.

When Tough Was Cool

[Johnny_West · 10/10 · 28 January 2024]

Nowadays, everyone would have snitched on each other to avoid hanging. Back in the 1950s, the three strangers toughed it out, and the good guys won, and the bad guy died. That's what being a man was all about, in the days before sensitivity training.

Kent Smith plays a rich guy who thought his wife was cheating on him, so he killed her. He gets a few henchmen from his ranch, and he tracks down and kidnaps the strangers he finds, who look like they might have been giving his wife some undercover hijinks.

James Best, William Schallert, and Paladin are rounded up. Smith plans to figure out which one of them was cheating with his wife, so he can hang the cheater.

Best, who tried hard to be Elvis Presley in his early years, was the guy who had an attitude with Smith. Schallert, who usually played wimps and weasels in most of his TV appearances, actually does a good job as a possible cheater. At the end of this episode Schallert really steps up and becomes an action hero for the first and only time that I can ever recall.

Paladin is his usually cool self, prodding Smith with guilt and philosophical questions about revenge, love, and relationships. The three captured amigos discuss what to do, and plan their escape. One of them plans his revenge on Smith.

The finale is excellent. Lots of action, surprises, and someone gets revenge. Kent Smith killed his own wife and wanted revenge on her lover. The man that loved her wanted revenge on Smith. Who lives? Who died? One of the ten best episodes of Paladin.

Guessing Game

[dougdoepke · 12 September 2013]

Paladin is waylaid by goateed aristocrat Strome and his henchmen. Seems someone shot his wife, and Strome is sure it was one of the three men he's waylaid. The three includes handsome balladeer Broderick and distinguished gentleman Broderick. Question is which of the two- we know it's not Paladin-- is the guilty party. Strome plans to hang the guilty one, so what is Paladin to do.

If you can get past the rather implausible junctures in the story, it's a fun guessing game. Movie vet Kent Smith is excellent as the grim-faced Strome, while Boone is his usual commanding self. The ending is a little opaque, but maybe that's just me.

Tight Western Film Noir

[lexyladyjax · 9/10 · 17 October 2011]

A jealous husband searches for the man he thinks is his dead wife's paramour. With no more evidence than the man's black clothes and colour of his horse, he detains Paladin and two others on the road. Overnight this man insists he will hang all three of them unless the guilty man confesses and submits to one of the three nooses dangling from the tree.

Paladin, an excellent judge of character, soon solves a part of the mystery. Working with the other accused gentlemen, they fight back and all becomes clear at the end.

Kent Smith gives a proper skeevy tone to the character of Louis Strome. Strome is a man who thinks his wife is another piece of property to which he holds title just as he owns his land. Women were considered legal chattel under the law as were her children. Of course to treat a woman as such was considered bad taste.

When each of the three insists he is the man beloved by the dead woman it's Emmy-worthy. Boone's especially good when he steps up to be the fall guy for the madman.

Paladin's Horse: The guilty party was described as riding a black horse, so this horse must be black. It has a white star and white socks/boots on its rear hocks.

Paladin's Gear: Black concha hat, black Western button down shirt open at the neck, black pants, black holster with Colt, a single shot derringer. The spurs are back in this episode.

Paladin Shoots: One of Strome's lackeys.

Deaths: The lackey.

Paladin's Total Kills: Manfred Holt, Anonymous Jailbreak Team 3, Miguel Rojas, Strome's lackey Total Kills: 6