Matt and U.S. Marshal Bob Hargraves team up to hunt a family of particularly sadistic outlaws.Matt and U.S. Marshal Bob Hargraves team up to hunt a family of particularly sadistic outlaws.Matt and U.S. Marshal Bob Hargraves team up to hunt a family of particularly sadistic outlaws.
Photos
- Townsman
- (uncredited)
- Townsman
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- William Keys
- Norman MacDonnell(uncredited)
- John Meston(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- GoofsMills Watson's character's first name is Harley - everywhere but in the closing credits, where he is called "Charley."
- Quotes
Newly: You know, it's gonna be kinda nice riding on that train instead of horse-backing, especially as cold as it's getting around here.
Festus: Cold? Why Newly, you young scutters don't know what cold is. Did I ever tell ya about the time I wintered up in Wyoming Territory? It was so blame cold it'd freeze the horns right off of a bull buffalo. I recollect one mornin' I put a pot of water on the stove and whilst I was a-fryin' up my eggs, this here pot started to boilin' over. Well, I just took a-hold of it and opened up the door, gonna set 'er out there and let 'er cool off a mite. Before I could set that there pot down it'd froze plumb solid, so blame fast that the ice was still warm.
Newly: [pause] You know, Festus, you're amazing. All the things you've done and seen in your lifetime - you're plumb amazing.
This gang has been scattered over several states for some time, but they are having a demented family reunion not too far from Dodge City. They plan to rob and kill their way through Kansas, and then hightail it to Mexico.
U. S. Marshal Bob Hargraves has made apprehending the members of this group of lunatics his personal mission after some of them killed two of his deputies, one of which Hargraves loved like a son and the ruthless gang roped and dragged through cacti while naked before subjecting him to carving with a knife.
Hargraves manages to catch up with Crazy Harly, Jacob, and Tobin at a campsite. He kills Jacob and wounds Tobin, but Harly gets away. Since Dodge is the closest town, Hargraves takes Jacob's body and the wounded Tobin there.
Matt Dillon and Bob Hargraves are old friends, of course. When Marshal Dillon learns the Sutterfields are nearby, he decides to go after them. Matt is apprehensive about allowing Hargraves to join him due to concern over whether his fellow Marshal is willing to act according to law, or if he is merely out for revenge. However, Hargraves convinces Matt he will act in accordance with his duties as a Marshal.
This primary plot device that propels the story from this point forward is the continued pursuit of the gang by the two law men.
Actor Glenn Corbett appears for the third and final time in the series. Corbett plays Bob Hargraves, the U. S. Marshal intent on avenging the murder of his deputies.
Anthony Caruso's involvement with Gunsmoke was extensive and varied, and it goes all the way back to Season 3's "Born to Hang" episode. He plays the incorrigible Elton Sutterfield in this story. Elton Sutterfield is not much different than the Pappy Quinn or Talley characters Caruso played in the previous two episodes in which he appeared.
Mills Watson can be seen in small parts in several Gunsmoke episodes. His final participation in the series features him in a more prominent role as the Crazy Harley character. The other gang members are played by actors Morgan Paull, George Keymas, Frank Corsentino, and Stuart Margolin as a character that prefaces most sentences he speaks with the annoying phrase, "It's like I always said..." This is Paull's first Gunsmoke appearance and the last for Keymas, Corsentino, and Margolin.
Actress Zina Bethune portrays Jonnalee Simpson, a runaway that is held against her will by Sutterfield under the threat that he would hunt her down and kill her if she tries to escape from the miserable existence he has imposed. Bethune was a talented dancer who appears in several television dramas in the 1960s and 1970s. This is her only Gunsmoke role.
This story is about as formulaic and predictable as they come. It is not especially awful, but it offers nothing in the way of much intrigue. It promises a lot but delivers little. Sutterfield is supposed to be a fiendish psychopath, but he is too stupid to be good at it -- and he is the brains of the outfit! He treats the woman he holds against her will with abusive disdain (he even refers to her as "trash"), and it is insinuated that he allows the rest of the gang to use her for sex as it suits him. (Such relationships were naturally not explicitly described in 1974 television, but the implication is there.)
This is also one of those episodes where it is clear there was not enough material to fill the time, so there are several obvious time killing scenes. For example, Marshals Hargraves and Dillon spend a considerable amount of time climbing some bluffs, and Sutterfield and his group prove quite adept at talking about how much they hate Matt Dillon, threatening one another, and discussing how mean and ornery they are.
The acting is solid, of course. A portion of the story is set in Dodge City, and we get a few glimpses of most of the regular cast.
Watch closely for a scene inside the Long Branch Saloon with the Matt Dillon and Kitty Russell characters. Kitty refers to the Roniger's having another baby -- their eighteenth. This is a reference to the Roniger family first introduced in Season 13's "Baker's Dozen" episode. Bess Roniger, the (apparently) extremely fertile mother, also appears in Season 17's debut episode "The Lost."
- wdavidreynolds
- Oct 12, 2021
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