On the prairie, Matt meets up with a young boy who tells him that some men tied up and abducted his father the night before.On the prairie, Matt meets up with a young boy who tells him that some men tied up and abducted his father the night before.On the prairie, Matt meets up with a young boy who tells him that some men tied up and abducted his father the night before.
Photos
- Director
- Writers
- John Meston(uncredited)
- Norman MacDonnell(uncredited)
- Charles Marquis Warren(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- Quotes
Hattie Kelly: [upset about being left behind] You dirty rotten coward.
Web Cutter: That's about enough Hattie.
Hattie Kelly: I hate you. Get out. Get out! Go on, both of you get out! I wouldn't have either one of you.
Web Cutter: Either one of us?
Hattie Kelly: Why, you didn't think I cared did you? I would have had one of you shot the other before I was through. Mister pie don't cut three ways.
Meanwhile, Webb Cutter and his partner Rourke have taken Kelly out on the prairie with the intention of leaving him stranded to die of thirst and starvation. Cutter claims he has been having an affair with Kelly's wife, and they intend to sell Kelly's ranch and split the proceeds three ways between Cutter, Rourke, and Kelly's wife.
Matt subsequently finds the cabin Yorky shares with his father and stepmother. Yorky had already warned Matt that Hattie, his stepmother, should not be trusted. Hattie is one of those Women of Gunsmoke with a dubious past as a saloon girl in Abilene (a nice, 1958 television way of saying she was formerly a prostitute). She married the older Kelly to escape her saloon girl life. She tells Marshal Dillon her husband had willingly accompanied the two men. Of course, Matt will soon discover she is lying and is part of the nefarious plan to eliminate her husband.
With the story taking place out on the prairie, the cast is limited. Phillip Bourneuf portrays Kelly in this story. Bourneuf's only other series appearance was as the George Bassett character in the creepy Season 2 episode "Legal Revenge."
Phyllis Coates portrayed Lois Lane for one season in The Adventures of Superman. In this story, she fills the role of the treacherous Hattie Kelly -- quite a departure from Lois Lane.
Familiar character actor Murray Hamilton appears in this story as Webb Cutter. This marks the second of three roles he played in consecutive seasons 2, 3, and 4.
Like Hamilton, actor/director Robert Gist makes the second of three Gunsmoke appearances in this story as the character named Rourke. Gist was once married to actress Agnes Moorehead. They divorced around the time this episode first aired. Gist had some measure of success directing episodes of noirish television shows like Peter Gunn, Naked City, Route 66, and The Untouchables. He later directed episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series, Mission: Impossible, and Hawaii Five-O.
Child actor Paul Engle portrays Yorky Kelly in this story. Engle can be seen in many television shows of the late 1950s and early 1960s. This is the first of two Gunsmoke roles he filled. He was also a guest on Dragnet, The Lone Ranger, Trackdown, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Leave It to Beaver, My Three Sons, and many other shows of the time.
This is an engaging story of criminal opportunity and another John Meston interpretation of the harsh, often-lonely, isolated prairie life, especially for women. The Hattie character is clearly conniving, despicable, and willing to do whatever it takes and use whoever she needs to get what she wants. However, the reality portrayed in the story for the area and the time lends itself to a survival-of-the-fittest environment.
If not for the coincidence of Matt encountering Yorky on the prairie and the bumbling idiocy of the trio of Cutter, Rourke, and Hattie, Kelly would have died, and the criminals would have succeeded in stealing the ranch. It makes one wonder how often such incidents occurred in sparsely populated frontier areas where law enforcement was spread too thin.
- wdavidreynolds
- Jan 27, 2022
Details
- Runtime30 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
- 4:3