After Matt exposes gambler Ben Sissle as a cheat, Sissle attempts to exact revenge by giving brain-damaged Cooter Smith a gun and telling the marshal that Cooter plans to challenge him to a ... Read allAfter Matt exposes gambler Ben Sissle as a cheat, Sissle attempts to exact revenge by giving brain-damaged Cooter Smith a gun and telling the marshal that Cooter plans to challenge him to a gunfight.After Matt exposes gambler Ben Sissle as a cheat, Sissle attempts to exact revenge by giving brain-damaged Cooter Smith a gun and telling the marshal that Cooter plans to challenge him to a gunfight.
- Director
- Writers
- Sam Peckinpah
- John Meston(uncredited)
- Norman MacDonnell(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaKitty sports a new "beauty mark" (a small mole on her right cheek) that she keeps for the remainder of the series.
- Quotes
Marshal Matt Dillon: [Walks alone on Boot Hill, thinking aloud] There are a lot of ways a man can die, and maybe violence is the easiest. Fever in the brain is worse, or disease that fades him to skin and bone. And sometimes you see another thing. A man who's never lived at all, except to eat and sleep. A man whose mind is like a child's. Needs protection, even from himself. That's another job for me - Matt Dillon, U. S. Marshal.
After Pate kills a gambler in the Long Branch Saloon who had the audacity to question Sissle's honesty, Matt Dillon orders Pate to leave Dodge. Sissle is upset about Pate's departure because he has to run an honest game without Pate's protection. He concocts a plan to use Cooter to rid the town of the Marshal.
Strother Martin portrays Cooter Smith in this story. This is Martin's second Gunsmoke guest role, and he makes an appearance in another seven episodes. Martin is another one of a small group of actors that appeared in Gunsmoke episodes in both the first and last seasons of the series. Martin was so enamored with this story, he requested a copy of it.
Any serious fan of the westerns genre is familiar with Strother Martin's work. Sam Peckinpah wrote the screenplay for this episode. Martin appeared with his close friend L. Q. Jones (another frequent Gunsmoke guest) in Peckinpah's films The Wild Bunch and The Ballad of Cable Hogue.
Actor Vinton Hayworth makes the first of three Gunsmoke appearances in this episode. He provides a stellar performance as he projects an air of extreme self-confidence and arrogance as the gambler Ben Sissle.
Brett King was no stranger to television westerns throughout the 1950s and 1960s. He can be seen in many other westerns series, including Lawman, Yancy Derringer, Law of the Plainsman, Death Valley Days, Bat Masterson, Wagon Train, The Virginian, and many others. He appeared in four Gunsmoke episodes, including this installment where he plays the gunfighter named Pate, before he quit acting in the late 1960s.
Prolific and very recognizable actor Robert Vaughn makes the first of two appearances in the series as the gambler Pate kills in the Long Branch after accusing Sissle of cheating.
Sam Peckinpah wrote the screenplay for this John Meston story, which was written for the radio broadcast. Peckinpah adds his own touches, of course. One small but disturbing detail Peckinpah adds is that Chester Goode is quite amused by Cooter Smith's actions and ridicules the man. Even after Sissle provides Cooter a gun, Chester thinks it is funny, while Matt and Doc realize nothing good is likely to result from Cooter carrying a gun.
(It is interesting that Chester, who is not exactly a mental giant, thinks so little of Cooter that he cannot believe Sissle trusts him, while Sissle, who is deviously shrewd, thinks so little of Cooter that he is confident he can manipulate the man into doing whatever he wants.)
Cooter enters Meston's story only after Pate has left Dodge, while the screenplay introduces Cooter early as Sissle's personal flunky. In Meston's version of the story, Kitty Russell is relegated to little more than a bystander, but in Peckinpah's screenplay, Kitty openly loathes Sissle and does what she can to undermine his sinister efforts. (Amanda Blake's glaring stare at Sissle conveys so much emotion, which, of course, was not possible for Georgia Ellis to execute on the radio broadcasts.)
There is nothing formulaic about this story. That, along with a guest cast that is perfect, makes this episode one of the outstanding episodes of Season 1.
- wdavidreynolds
- Dec 9, 2021
Details
- Runtime30 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
- 4:3