Written by JOHN D. F. BLACK  Directed by  IRVING J. MOORE  Guest Cast LEE VAN CLEEF  by Mike Kelly [Fallon] STANLEY ADAMS as Bartender ROY ROBERTS as Preston "Press" Wasco

In this low-budget homage to High Noon, Reese plans a party to celebrate the Captain’s 4th year leading Company B.  His plans are disrupted by a robbery, the lack of a cook to bake a cake and finally by Mike Kelly who challenges Parmelee to a gunfight at quarter past eleven.  The robbers are taken care of by splicing tracking and shoot-out footage from “Yahoo” [ep. 3] & “Three’s Company” [ep. 5] into backlot closeup scenes.  When the Rangers find out about Kelly, they go to the saloon where he’s waiting and let him think they’ll shoot him in the back before they let him kill the Captain.  As the two men meet in the streets, Kelly hears the sound of three guns being cocked behind him.  He gives up and turns tail. The Captain is a little suspicious but distracted by the party which goes off as planned despite the odd results of Reese's attempt at cake baking.

Lee Van Cleef was, of course, one of the four men waiting to kill Gary Cooper in "High Noon".  He was an unbeatable villain until William Smith started exploring his cinematic dark side after Laredo.

NiteOwl Review:  A good episode although not one of our top ten.