This is absolutely one of my favorites, if not my favorite black and white western. The righteous Marshal Dan Troop played by John Russell disposed of a reasonable number of baddies each episode. Sometimes he polished them off with a philosophical sigh.

It also had a great opening theme song.

John Russell might have been typecast as an effective villain in too many Westerns (director William Wellman's 'Yellow Sky,' 1946, or as Nathan Burdette in Howard Hawk's 'Rio Bravo,' 1959). In this 1958-1962 series, however, Russell proved he had the range also to convincingly portray men of principle. With his characterization as Clint Eastwood's gunsliger nemesis Stockburn in 'Pale Rider' (1984), one of the more creditable contributions in that movie, you sort of felt that Russell would have stolen the limelight from Eastwood had Stockburn been allowed more screen time; don't know how many of us thought that his shootout demise came too soon, too quickly - and too easily.