 611 - LAST OF THE WILD HORSES
Genre: Dated Western (1948, B&W)
Synopsis: This very dated western starts with our hero, a former outlaw named Duke (not
the Duke, just Duke), stopping some men from attacking someone trying to catch a few wild horses.
Duke rides into the local town of Jacksonville and is threatened with arrest because the men he stopped work at the largest ranch in the area, the Double C ranch.
Duke is released to do ranch work for Terry (i.e. Girl #1) and Remedy (i.e. Comedy Relief #1
– yes, there, unfortunately, is another comedy relief old
coot), who vouch for him.
Duke then meets Jane who is the daughter of the crippled old Charlie Cooper who owns the Double C (get it now?) and flames of love start between Duke and Jane.
The wheelchair-bound Charlie Cooper’s main man is Riley who is obviously the heavy in this movie, because he wears black and looks sinister.
Anyway, the grouchy old man refuses to stop rounding up wild horses, even though
it’s over-harvesting the herd and the other ranchers are opposed to him.
Eventually, it takes his daughter chewing him out to get him to agree to stop.
But the evil Riley has other ideas as he secretly continues to round up wild horses and rile up all of the neighboring ranches.
Somehow the old man is oblivious to this until he overhears Riley discussing his evil plans with a sidekick.
Riley and the sidekick kill the old man and frame Duke for the murder.
Duke is tried and convicted but escapes with some help from Terry and Remedy.
He hides out with their help but the whole conviction for the murder of her father has cooled things down with Jane for now.
Luckily, Remedy is delivering mail and just happens to open and read a letter to Riley from his co-murdering sidekick that says that they actually killed the old man.
Remedy rides off to take the letter to the sheriff but Riley chases and shoots him first.
But, unfortunately, the old coot is not dead and he manages to get back home to his ranch.
The others see the letter so Duke rides out to confront Riley man to man.
They have their “showdown” fight and the movie can finally end as Duke hooks up with the now very well-off Jane and the comedy relief morons do something stupid.
Don’s Review: This episode is best known for the spoof of the original
Star Trek series episode “Mirror, Mirror” in which there is an alternate universe that some of the crew get switched with.
In the MST version, Tom Servo and Gypsy are switched for their alternate universe counterparts.
And in this alternate universe, Mike and the Bots perform the experiments on Dr F and Frank.
So the first part of the movie is riffed on by Dr. F and Frank and they do a decent job, but not as good as M&tBs.
At the first break, we switch back to the real universe with the alternate Tom and Gypsy and the riffing from then on is by Mike, Crow, and alternate Tom.
So the riffing is decent and this episode is reasonably enjoyable overall, although a western related host segment
could’ve been really funny (just imagine how funny a Remedy spoof
would’ve
been). But the “Mirror, Mirror” spoof is a lot of fun and definitely has a novelty attractive for MSTies due to the Mads actually riffing a segment of the movie.
Don’s Rating: 
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