Have Gun - Will Travel (TV Series) Three Sons (1958) User Reviews

Have Family, Will Squabble

[zsenorsock · 8/10 · 13 March 2007]

This episode is a nice mixture of comedy and action as Paladin comes to the aid of an old man (Allen's Alley Titus Moody and Pepperidge Farm spokesperson Parker Fennelly) whose crooked sons John and Ed (Warren Oates and Kevin Hagen) are trying to have the court declare him incompetent so they can take over his land. There's also a great shootout scene in an alley at the end of this episode.

Fennelly is great as the odd, yet sane old man and there's a real chemistry between him and Boone that makes me wish he could have been a regular character on the show. Oates is also terrific as the low life son who's ready to do anything to get his father's land. Even at this early age, Oates is an actor that demands your attention. Less so is Paul Jasmin who plays the good brother, Hank. Watch him standing next to Boone in the early scenes. Either Boone was really tall or Jasmin is very tiny!

King Lear of the Wild West

[hudecha · 7/10 · 10 September 2018]

A rather weird story reaches its strong moment only at the very end. The character of the quirky father is slightly less endearing that the script would have us believe it. The real interest lies in the strongly impersonated couple of evil but not so bright half-brothers, and their eventually fatal unhealthy relation with each other. Paladin having a gift for almost any role, this is one of the episodes, with The Silver Queen, where he comes unexpectedly to act as an eloquent self-styled unofficial lawyer for the defense. It is well within his oratorial talents.

Howdy, Bub!

[cranvillesquare · 10/10 · 14 September 2023]

Parker Fennelly, "Titus Moody" of Fred Allen's "Allen's Alley" repute - and the voice of Pepperidge Farms Bakery commercials from the 1960s and '70s ("Pepridge Fahms remembahs!") was one of those voices everyone knew and whose face few people saw. He bore a striking resemblance to Percy Kilbride of the famed Ma & Pa Kettle movie franchise, and assumed Kilbride's starring role in the last Kettle movie when Kilbride died before production started. I would recognize Fennelly's voice a mile away; it's the Ellsworth/Friendship/Bucksport/Mt. Desert Island central Maine Coast accent and dialect. (Most of my dad's mother's ancestors are from that area, and it's so easy to slip into it from my western Massachusetts way of speaking.) He's that same type of actor as Arthur Hunnicutt in the two Bonanza presentations featuring Obie and Walter...low-key and screamingly funny. Mr. Fennelly takes a shovel pass from the writers and runs it 80 yards for a score. I'm not much on posting reviews for the most part, but this definitely is worth the watch. I enjoyed it and recommend it to any and all.