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The Restless Gun

1957 • 4.4 • Western • 30m

US • English

The Restless Gun is an American western television series that appeared on NBC between 1957 and 1959, with John Payne in the role of Vint Bonner, a wandering cowboy in the era after the American Civil War. A skilled gunfighter, Bonner is an idealistic person who prefers peaceful resolutions of conflict wherever possible. He is gregarious, intelligent, and public-spirited. The half-hour black-and-white program aired seventy-eight episodes. Jeanne Bates appeared in varying roles with Payne in five episodes of The Restless Gun. The Restless Gun theme song begins: "I ride with the wind, my eyes on the sun, and my hand on my restless gun..." The song composer is probably Paul Dunlap, credited as the primary series composer, but could have been contributed to by either of the two other series composers, Dave Kahn and Stanley Wilson, also. Two versions are currently posted on YouTube, but neither posting lists any composer or performance credits.

Cast

John Payne

as Vint Bonner

Episodes

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Duel at Lockwood

Vint Bonner meets an elderly woman who asks him to do something about her grandson. The young man has already killed two men and vowed to add Vint Bonner to the list.

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Trail to Sunset

After promising a seriously wounded outlaw that he will get him to town alive to stand trial, Bonner meets five men, including a doctor, who want to bring the man in. But then Bonner learns that the five have just taken part in a lynching, and he becomes concerned that they will do the same with this prisoner.

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Revenge at Harness Creek

E3 30m

When the man's hotheaded younger brother is killed in self defense, Vint fears that his sheriff friend is too bent on revenge to bring the man who killed him back alive.

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Rink

On the trail, Bonner meets a young boy who is looking to join his father. Bonner brings the boy to town, where the bank is robbed, and the sheriff kills one of the robbers---the boy's father.

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Jenny

Bonner finds a wounded man on the road, and brings him to the house of a an embittered woman who lives alone. He promises her he won't tell about the man at her place, but he later learns that the man is a wanted outlaw.

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The Shooting of Jett King

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Jody

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General Gilford's Widow

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The New Sheriff

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Man and Boy

E10

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Cheyenne Express

E11

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Thicker Than Water

E12

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Silver Threads

E13

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The Child

E14

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The Gold Buckle

E15 30m

Bonner and two strangers trail a pair of killers. Kit: Roy Roberts. Lex: Claude Akins. Bonner: John Payne. Emily: Madge Blake.

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The Coward

E16

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Friend in Need

E17

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Strange Family in Town

E18

A Quaker family encounters prejudice, hostility, and harassment from the residents of the closest town, who mistake their pacifism for cowardice. They also encounter it from the rancher Bonner has come to do business with, though the man's wife feels differently.

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Hang and Be Damned

E19

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Quiet City

E20

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Hornitas Town

E21

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Imposter For A Day

E22

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A Pressing Engagement

E23

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The Woman from Sacramento

E24

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Sheriff Billy

E25

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The Hand is Quicker

E26

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The Suffragette

E27

Emma Birch has organized the women of the town into a determined suffragette group; the men rebel and attempt to put the women in their place. Bonner becomes the reluctant mediator between the two groups.

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The Whip

E28

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The Crisis at Easter Creek

E29

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Aunt Emma

E30

Vint Bonner is wounded while trying to track down the Drake brothers. His elderly aunt nurses him back to health and tries to prevent him from going back after the Drakes when he has recovered.

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The Outlander

E31

Vint arrives in Prairie City, Kansas to visit friends and find that it has been taken over by a band of renegade Civil War veterans from Texas. They are lead by a man called Colonel Bromley.

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The Battle of Tower Rock

E32

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The Torn Flag

E33

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Hiram Grover's Strike

E34

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The Gold Star

E35

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More Than Kin

E36

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The Manhunters

E37

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The Peddler

E38

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Gratitude

E39

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The Hill of Death

Vint and the boy Robby are fishing by the riverbank. Vint tells the boy that the gun is a tool and goes on to tell the story of his grandfather, Jebediah Bonner. Vint's parents have been killed and he is brought up by Dr. Ken Ludlow and his wife. Jebediah, a retired marshall, arrives on the stagecoach to visit with his grandson and is confronted in the saloon by Jim Kenyon who holds a grudge from 20 years ago when he believes that Jedediah had not given his father a fair chance when he had killed him. Joe is consumed by hatred and is determined to exact revenge. Young Vint sees and hears of his grandfather being bullied and doing nothing. Jebediah decides that he must gain respect in young Vint's eyes and an exciting conclusion is played out.

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Dragon for a Day

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Mercyday

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Thunder Valley

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The Nowhere Kid

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Bonner's Squaw

Bonner persuades Chief Tashuka to honour the treaty with the white man by handing over two braves who are suspected of robbery. Unfortunately for Bonner, the chief's daughter Running Fawn takes a shine to Bonner and follows him to town. By Indian law Bonner is to marry the girl and reluctantly agrees to prevent a war. However when Bonner sees how beautiful Running Fawn is he uses an Indian custom to lose her to a brave.

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Tomboy

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Remember the Dead

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No Way to Kill

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Take Me Home

E10

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Multiply One Boy

E11

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Peligroso

E12

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A Bell for Santo Domingo

E13

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The Way Back

E14

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The Painted Beauty

E15

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Shadow of a Gunfighter

E16

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The Lady and the Gun

E17

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Blood of Courage

E18

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Better Than A Cannon

E19

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The Dead Ringer

E20

Vint is deliberately framed for a bank robbery and murder.

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The Last Grey Man

E21

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Melany

E22

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Ricochet

E23

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Dead Man's Hand

E24

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The Sweet Sisters

E25

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Incident at Bluefield

E26

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The Pawn

E27

An old friend of Vint's has been jailed after being caught with a band of rustlers, and is likely to be hanged if he doesn't tell where the other rustlers are. But he is unwilling to because he fears that his compatriots will harm his deaf-mute daughter if they think he's told on them.

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Four Lives

E28

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One on the House

E29

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Code for a Killer

E30

Vint Bonner arrives in the town of Toredo to be best man at his friend, Dave Regan's wedding. Vint soon discovers that Dave has been shot in the back and that the town, led by the new sheriff Ben Webster, are looking for his supposed killer, Vance Carter. It is left to Vint to find the truth and lay a trap for the real killer.

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Mme. Brimstone

E31

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Lady by Law

E32

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Ride with the Devil

E33

Bonner is sent for by Don Tomas Verdes, a Mexican ranch owner, to help him convince his son to stop riding with an outlaw gang. Bonner joins the outlaws to try and bring the boy to his senses.

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A Trial for Jenny May

E34

After Jenny May McElroy's husband was killed in a gunfight, no one in town would give her a job to support her children, except for the saloon owner, who hired her as a bookkeeper. Because of this some of the "proper" townspeople want to take her children and make them wards of the state.

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The Cavis Boy

E35

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The Englishman

E36

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A Very Special Investigator

E37