Tate Stopover
Directed by Ida Lupino. With David McLean, Peggy Ann Garner, William Tennant, Vaughn Taylor. Tate rides into town with the body of a wanted outlaw he’s just killed, and presents it to the sheriff to collect the bounty. The sheriff sends Tete to the saloon to wait while he fills out the paperwork and since he doesn’t like bounty hunters he decides to take his time about it. Meanwhile, at the saloon Tate runs into a young hothead who’s itching to put a notch on his gun and decides that Tate’s going to be it. Thanks to Frank Fob for writing this summery review.
Tate is an American Western television series that aired on NBC from June 8 until September 14, 1960. It was created by Harry Julian Fink, who wrote most of the scripts, and produced by Perry Como’s Roncom Video Films, Inc., as a summer replacement for The Perry Como Show. Richard Whorf guest starred once on the series and directed the majority of the episodes. Ida Lupino directed one segment. David McLean starred as Tate, who lost the use of his left arm during the American Civil War. Because he was injured at the Battle of Vicksburg in Mississippi, Tate’s arm is covered in black leather and a glove and supported by a sling. Tate is a widower, but the cause of the death of his wife, Mary, is not specified in the series, although a gunfight seems likely. Tate had left his hometown as a teenager because of such a fight. At the urging of Marshal Morty Taw, whom viewers meet in the pilot episode, “Home Town”, Tate arrives to help Taw hang an old childhood friend who has murdered four people.