The Adventures of Kit Carson: The Teton Tornado

The Adventures of Kit Carson: The Teton Tornado

Originally broadcast in first-run syndication on Saturday, December 8, 1951.

Plot: Kit and Toro try to bring a horse swindler to justice, but problems arise when the suspect ends up being an old friend of Kits’.

Analysis: Recently, when the subject of Kit Carson came up on a message board, I read a remark that the producers of Carson were lucky they were not sued given how similar it was to Cisco Kid. In as much as we have two friends working together to solve crimes and bring down the bad guys, that may be true. But, honestly, it would seem a lot of Westerns are going to borrow ideas from others. This would seem to be especially true in this sort of middle Western period, as the serials are dying out, but before the Western boom of television had really taken hold.

Judging this particular episode of Carson on its merits, it is better than some of the stuff we had seen on Cisco and the previous episode of Carson we have already covered. Even when it is clear what is going on, the story does not just coast to the finish, even if a gunfight at the end might as well have a trademark stamped on it. Dare you not to whistle an Ennio Morricone tune just watching it. All and all, this is not too bad and not a bad way to spend a half hour.

A word or two on our star, Bill Williams, if I may: born in 1915, he got his start in movies in 1944 after a brief stint in the U.S. Army during World War II. Unfortunately, he did nothing truly star making between 1944 and 1951 when Kit Carson got started on television, which is where he began to get more steady work. We have a few more episodes of Carson ahead of us, plus more guest shots, so you will see what I mean.

The Bottom Line: Teton Tornado is not a bad sampling of either Kit Carson or a 1950s Western. Like I said above, if you have a half hour to kill and looking to be entertained, you could hardly do worse than this.

Teton Tornado is included with nine other episodes on Adventures of Kit Carson (http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Kit-Car....3430238&sr=1-17). The collection is pretty inexpensive and I would be shocked if you could not find it for less at discount stores.

Next time, another I Love Lucy.