Bonanza - Episode 21 - The Spanish Grant - The Cartwrights try to disprove the validity of a Spanish land grant to stop the De La Cuesta family from seizing part of the Ponderosa and all of the Carson Valley settlers' homestead lands.
The Spanish Grant
Director: Christian Nyby
Writers: Morris Lee Green (story), Laurence Heath (teleplay) (as Leonard Heideman)
Stars: Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker
Genre: Western
Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 6 February 1960 USA
Filming Locations: Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
Storyline:
The episode opens with a settler being evicted from his land by some Spanish vacqueros. When the couple insist they're not leaving, one vacquero moves toward the house. Mary Logan (Claudia Bryar) moves to stop him and is shoved to the ground. Her husband (John Frederick) comes to her defense and is shot in the back by Sanchez (Paul Picerni). Mary is warned to be off the property and an eviction notice is nailed to the porch.
The Cartwrights heard the gun shot and hurry to the Logan home, but they're too late. Mary is distraught. She doesn't want to leave the home she and her husband worked for five years. They're expecting a child now too, but her husband is dead. Ben convinces her to leave with them and stops Joe from chasing after the vacqueros.
Review:
"The theme of this episode is what happens when two rights collide. Many families have homesteaded on their land next to the Ponderosa, doing precisely what the law required and building functional farms with their sweat and blood. However, that area was taken over by the Spanish centuries earlier and the Spanish king had given subjects land grants in perpetuity. An heir of the person given the land by the earlier Spanish king has appeared and is claiming the land. A man claiming to be her uncle is with her and he has hired a group of gunmen to enforce her claim and evict the settlers. She is a beautiful woman with a royal bearing. When a settler tries to fight back, he is gunned down in front of his pregnant wife. While the claim only involves a few hundred acres of the Ponderosa, the Cartwrights become involved, for the people to be evicted are their neighbors. They pursue their counterclaims through legal means until the other side resorts to force. As would be expected, there is a sudden twist in the plot whereby there are questions as to the claimant's legitimacy. The ending is quite unexpected. What is most interesting about this episode is that it involves the historical fact that the American Southwest was once Spanish territory ruled by the King of Spain before it was part of Mexico. The timeframe of the Bonanza series is right after the American Civil war, only twenty years after Mexico ceded the territory to the United States and after centuries of Spanish claims to the land." Written by cashbacher on IMDb.com
"Film fans will no doubt recognize the plot of the classic Anastasia in this episode of Bonanza. Playing the heiress is the beautiful Patricia Medina who is of unknown origins and who adventurer Sebastian Cabot is trying to pass off as the heir to an old Spanish land grant. If successful they're going to rip off a whole big hunk of the territory of Nevada. The land grant that Cabot is claiming would also include most of the Ponderosa, something that Lorne Greene and his sons aren't about to tolerate.
As in the movie Anastasia the climax comes with the meeting of the grande dame of the DeLa Cuesta family played by Celia Lovsky with her alleged great niece Medina. Abbreviated though it is for television the scene is still well played.
A classic film adapted to the small screen setting of Bonanza, nicely done." Written by bkoganbing on IMDb.com
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