Aaron Spelling shared the story credit for this television episode with Howard Dimsdale (using a pseudonym). It was broadcast in 1961 which was the final year of "Dick Powell's Zane Gray Theater."

It is great fun to see Thomas Mitchell and Lon Chaney acting together. With a twenty-three minute running time there isn't much subtlety. Mitchell plays a visitor named "Nick" while Chaney's neighborly and moral village blacksmith is named "Michael."

While set in the old West, the teleplay is a thinly disguised and simplified remake of the 1949 feature film "Alias Nick Beal." Of course, there is no reference to the screenplay by Jonathan Latimer and Mindret Lord whatsoever. Mitchell played a leading role in "Alias Nick Beal" opposite Ray Milland, Audrey Totter, and George Macready.

The director of this episodes was former actor Don Taylor, who appeared in "The Naked City."

I believe that I wrote about this television episode sometime ago, but I recently rewatched it. One of the pleasures of viewing this series is that Dick Powell acted as the host and introduced many episodes. Another plus is that as an anthology series, "Zane Gray Theater" featured many major Hollywood stars as guest performers. For example, Joan Crawford, Edmund O'Brien, Hedy Lamar, Walter Brennan, James Whitmore, all appeared in the series.