Search - Legends of the Old West - Stories of the Century on DVD

Enjoyable Western, but questionable history

Robert Huggins | Suburban Philadelphia, PA United States | 03/19/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The ongoing adventures of Matt Clark, railroad detective, and his female detective sidekick were featured in "Stories of the Century," a syndicated Western series that was originally broadcast from January 1954 to March 1955. A total of 39 half-hour episodes were produced for the two seasons. The show's gimmick was to place Matt Clark and his sidekick into situations that involved historical characters of the Old West. One week he might be facing off against Billy the Kid, the next week he might be trying to help capture Geronimo, etc. While Clark's involvement in these historical events is fictional, it does make for an entertaining Western adventure series. Jim Davis stars as Matt Clark. Davis was a veteran of many B-movie Westerns and is quite good in this series. Fans of the series "Dallas" will remember Davis' portrayal as Jock Ewing, patriarch of the Ewing clan. The female detectives were portrayed, first, by Mary Castle as Frankie Adams and, later, by Kristine Miller as Margaret "Jonesy" Jones.Platinum Disc Corporation's two-disc DVD set is watchable, but there has been no restoration work performed on the prints used for this release (other than enhancing the audio tracks for 5.1 sound). So, you'll find the usual specks, scratches and some audio hiss on this release. Of the 21 episodes included on the discs, 18 of them are bonafide episodes of "Stories of the Century," while the remaining three episodes are from an unrelated 1955-56 Western series "Judge Roy Bean," starring Edgar Buchanan. The "Judge Roy Bean" episodes were filmed and are presented here in color, an unusual practice for television shows in the mid-1950s.Here are the episodes included on the two discs:Disc 1:Doc Holliday
Geronimo
Black Jack*
Johnny Ringo
The Eyes of Texas*
Jack Slade
Belle Star
Tiburcio Vasquez
Ben Thompson
Burt Alvord
Quantrill and his RaidersDisc 2:Black Bart
Harry Tracy
Apache Kid
Cattle Kate
Clay Allison
Little Britches
The Younger Brothers
Sunburnt Gold*
Tom Bell
Milt Sharp* "Judge Roy Bean" episodes"