The Rebellion

I've seen other episodes of "Cheyenne" that feature the title character on an adventure in Mexico, but "The Rebellion" (Season 4 / #3) may be the best. Cheyenne has to contend with a former friendly adversary, bandit Luis Cardenas (Rodolfo Acosta), who now leads the revolutionary forces in northern Mexico working with Benito Juarez in opposing the French-backed regime of Emperor Maximilian in the year 1867. Cheyenne has been assigned to escort an American agent who is captured early on by the French and, as he tries to determine the fate of the agent, seeks to stay as uninvolved as possible. However, he is eventually forced to confront the increasingly power-mad Cardenas. It all culminates in a plot against Juarez that only Cheyenne can thwart.

There's a strong cast of guest stars topped by Mexican actor Acosta, who has one of the juiciest roles in his long career of acting in Hollywood westerns, both big and small screen. Others in the cast include Faith Domergue, John Marley, Joe De Santis, Carlos Romero, Paul Dubov and, in the role of Juarez, Frank DeKova, who is quite good. There is occasional stock footage from the 1939 Warner Bros. feature, JUAREZ, which starred Paul Muni as Juarez. I watched this as part of the Encore Western Channel's afternoon lineup of TV westerns.