Nina Foch

            On Saturday I spent a lot of the day working on my review of Shab-e She’r.

            I had ham and cheese on a bagel for both lunch and dinner but at dinner I also had a can of Creemore while watching Rawhide.

            This story was extremely unrealistic. The trail drive is surrounded by a large pack of wolves that don’t seem to be afraid of guns or bonfires. They run in to kill cows and they jump and kill one of the drovers. The thing is that a lot of the “wolves” that the producers of the show use are just dogs, some of which are just German Shepherds and other large breeds. Did they think the audience was that stupid? The drovers desperately need a wolfer and some wolf traps. Pete is sent into the nearest town to try and find them. He doesn’t locate any wolf trappers or traps but he does find an old flame named Nora that’d run out on him a long time ago. He pleads with her to let him get her out of the saloon business and send her home. She tells Pete to get out but a minute after he leaves, a man named Brad comes into her room. They are obviously lovers but she refuses to give him money. She melts into his arms though when he proposes to her and he tells her what a pretty necklace she’s wearing. Since Pete has been so long in town Gil and Rowdy go looking for him. They meet him on his way back from town and on the way back to the drive they discover a shack with lots of wolf traps. They are about to take them when a woman with a shotgun shows up and lets them know they are on her property. Gil explains the situation and Madrina agrees to let him use her wolfer and her traps. Her wolfer turns out to be Brad, who arrives with Madrina’s sister Paula. When Brad is alone with Madrina he proposes marriage and gives her the necklace that we saw earlier on Nora. Later the sheriff comes out to the drover campsite near the wolf shack and arrests Pete because he was seen leaving Nora’s room twenty minutes before she was found strangled to death. The sheriff recognizes that Madrina is wearing Nora’s necklace but Brad explains that he’d bought it from a peddler in town. Gil agrees to let Pete be taken into custody because he needs Brad to help trap the wolves but he plans to be at Pete’s trial the next day and he insists that Brad be there too so they can look for the peddler. The wolves are killed. Paula has also been Brad’s lover and she won’t let him go and so he kills her and buries her under the floorboards of the wolf shack. The next day, just before going into town with Gil Brad arranges for an accident that causes the horses to stampede and he escapes. He goes to Madrina and asks her to elope with him right away. Madrina wonders what happened to Paula and Brad tells her that he put her on a stage and lent her the money because she had none. As Madrina is packing to run away with Brad she discovers money in Paula’s drawer. She realizes that Brad has done something to her sister. Madrina runs out of her house just as Gil and Rowdy arrive. Brad comes out and draws his gun but is shot by both drovers.

            Brad was played by Gerald Mohr, who looked a lot like Humphrey Bogart. His grandfather was an associate of Sigmund Freud. Mohr always got typecast as smooth bad guys.

            Madrina was played by Nina Foch, who was nominated for an Oscar for Executive Suite, though she didn’t think her performance was that great.

            Paula was played by Jane Nigh.