Since the mob killing of his wife years ago, old man Wakefield has gone on murderous rampages with his sons. Now the Wakefields are trying to run down and kill Matt in the freezing mountains... Read allSince the mob killing of his wife years ago, old man Wakefield has gone on murderous rampages with his sons. Now the Wakefields are trying to run down and kill Matt in the freezing mountains.Since the mob killing of his wife years ago, old man Wakefield has gone on murderous rampages with his sons. Now the Wakefields are trying to run down and kill Matt in the freezing mountains.
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- Doc
- (credit only)
- Festus
- (credit only)
- Newly
- (credit only)
- Esau Wakefield
- (as Bill Lucking)
- Director
- Writers
- Ray Goldrup
- Norman MacDonnell(uncredited)
- John Meston(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- GoofsMatt is arm wrestling with Esau against a knife. There is no blood on either side, after Matt wins.
- Quotes
Abraham Wakefield: I did it for her! Because they killed my lady. Them righteous, psalm singing hypocrites who come out here to squat on the land and try to bend every livin' thing to their way of doin'... Well, I showed 'em I don't bend.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Jeopardy!: Episode #26.10 (2009)
This is a straightforward, not entirely original story. Matt Dillon has pursued Laban Wakefield since he robbed the bank in Dodge City and killed a clerk. The outlaw manages to make it back to his family's cabin in the mountains before the Marshal catches up with him. When ordered to surrender, Wakefield chooses to shoot it out. Marshal Dillon kills the young man.
(Why is Laban in Dodge away from his marauding father and brothers? His father later makes the statement that Laban ran off against his wishes. Why rob the bank? Of all the banks scattered throughout the plains, choosing the bank in Dodge City would seem to be quite ill advised.)
Soon afterwards, the remaining members of the Wakefield clan arrive. Abraham Wakefield is the patriarch. His sons Esau, Abel, Isaac, and Jacob accompany him. (Anyone with any knowledge of the Bible will recognize these names from the Book of Genesis. Laban's sister Rebekah married Isaac, and they had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Abel was the son of Adam and Eve, who was killed by his brother Cain.)
The Wakefields possess a notorious reputation for the raiding and murder of settlers from Kansas into the Dakotas. Abraham claims this is in retaliation for the murder of his beloved wife several years earlier. (It is never clear why Abraham Wakefield thinks killing isolated settlers throughout the plains is vengeance for his wife's murder.)
When the remaining Wakefields discover Matt has killed Laban, they take him prisoner. Being outlaws, they hold any member of law enforcement in great disdain. Furthermore, Abraham blames a group of law men for the death of his wife. Abraham declares the Marshal will be set free with no coat in the frigid air of the mountains so he can be hunted and killed by him and his sons. Abraham wants Matt to suffer in the cold and know how it feels to be pursued and killed. At this point, the story becomes a familiar cat-and-mouse game where the Wakefields pursue Dillon.
However, there is a twist of sorts with this conventional story: Abraham Wakefield's hate has consumed him to such a degree that he is extremely mentally ill, even to the point of being unable to function at times. Abraham has descended into a Hell of his own madness. His sons Esau, Issac, and Abel all share and even amplify their father's hatred and sadistic tendencies. (Abraham's sadism is born from the lingering grief and subsequent hate following his wife's death. Three of the sons are sadistic monsters who merely take pleasure in inflicting pain and death on others.) Only Jacob shows any measure of love or compassion to his father and brothers.
Morgan Woodward makes his eighteenth and final appearance in the series with this tour-de-force performance as Abraham Wakefield. Not since Woodward's performance in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Dagger of the Mind" has he played a stark raving mad character like Abraham Wakefield. Even though Gunsmoke fans have seen Woodward play several different characters during the show's run, he has never been more menacing or terrifying as he is here at times. In a particularly chilling scene, Abraham tells Abel and Isaac he is going to be "turrible hard" in inflicting punishment on them with a horse whip. It is chilling, even after repeated viewings.
This episode features a small cast. The brothers are played by Frederick Herrick as Laban (Herrick's only appearance in the series), Joseph Hindy as Jacob (Hindy's second and last episode), William "Bill" Lucking as Esau (Lucking's only role in the series), Henry Olek as Isaac (Olek's second and final appearance), and Douglas Dirkson as Abel (Dirkson's sole involvement in the series). Elaine Fulkerson has a small non-speaking part as Annabel Wakefield, Abraham's deceased wife, in a scene where Abraham is re-visiting his past. This is her only Gunsmoke appearance.
This episode takes place away from Dodge City. There are no other cast members present, other than James Arness. This follows a trend of "Matt only" season debuts in many of the latter seasons of the series.
Over the course of twenty seasons, the Gunsmoke writers frequently included families of incorrigible, sadistic characters as story elements. Season 8's Strunk family ("Phoebe Strunk"), Season 9's Ginnis clan ("No Hands"), the Stone family from Season 12 ("The Jailer"), the Picketts from Season 16 ("The Witness"), the Sutterfields from Season 19 ("A Family of Killers"), and the Cassingers from the upcoming "In Performance of Duty" all come to mind. The Wakefields in this episode are as despicably monstrous as any of them. The common elements among these sinister characters is their ability to exist outside the law, the depths of their depravity, their arrogant overconfidence in their ability to do whatever they want, and the way their hatred for others consumes them.
This story moves along quickly, and the tension runs high throughout. It makes for an immensely entertaining episode.
This is the first of five Gunsmoke episodes directed by Victor French, all in Season 20. In fact, this is the first episode of any television show or movie directed by French. It was much more common to see French playing a character in an episode than directing. He would go on to direct episodes of several other series including Dallas, Little House on the Prairie, and Highway to Heaven.
In many ways, this episode is a remake of Season 12's "The Jailer" with some modifications. Both families feature only male offspring. Etta Stone in "The Jailer" is replaced with Abraham Wakefield in "Matt Dillon Must Die." Stone wants to make Matt suffer before she kills him as an act of vengeance for her husband, who was hanged after Marshal Dillon arrested him. Wakefield wants to make Matt suffer before he kills him because Matt killed his son Laban. All but one of the Stone sons are unrepentant outlaws who delight in inflicting pain and suffering on others, as is the case with the Wakefield sons. All the sons are terrified of their parent's wrath. The one son in each family that has any measure of conscience is the youngest member of the family.
The Gunsmoke television series started airing before I was born, and I was too young to see many of the earlier episodes during their first run. Gunsmoke was required family viewing in our home, though, and I clearly remember this episode. It still holds up after many years of repeated viewing. It is worth watching for Morgan Woodward's performance alone.
- wdavidreynolds
- Oct 24, 2021
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- CBS Studio Center - 4024 Radford Avenue, Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA(Filming location for this episode is Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah)
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