Hard Labor (24 Feb. 1975)
"Gunsmoke" Hard Labor (original title)

Dillon is sentenced to a lifetime of hard labor by Judge Flood (Colicos), who uses an illegally constituted court to staff his private silver mine.

Director:

Bernard McEveety

Writers:

Hal Sitowitz (story), Earl W. Wallace (teleplay)

Stars:

Milburn Stone, Ken Curtis, Buck Taylor

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Milburn Stone	...	Doc
Ken Curtis	...	Festus
Buck Taylor	...	Newly
James Arness	...	Matt Dillon
John Colicos	...	Judge Flood
Hal Williams	...	Widge
William Smith	...	Latch
Kevin Coughlin	...	Elton
Ben Piazza	...	Fifer
Gregory Sierra	...	Osuna
Gerald McRaney	...	Pete Murphy
Don Megowan	...	Mike
Jackie Russell	...	Bar Girl
Lloyd Nelson	...	Jury Foreman
Fred Lerner	...	Guard

Storyline

Dillon is sentenced to a lifetime of hard labor by Judge Flood (Colicos), who uses an illegally constituted court to staff his private silver mine.

---

Genres:

Drama | Western

---

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 February 1975 (USA)

Filming Locations:

CBS Studio Center - 4024 Radford Avenue, Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

If the production number is correct, this was the last episode filmed.

---

Goofs

Matt tells Latch to "stay close to me" when he smashes in Judge Flood's saloon door, and Latch jumps into the room right behind Matt. But Latch isn't seen at all in the next scene, beginning one second later when Matt confronts Judge Flood (it also looks like the editor left in Matt's cue to step on his mark).

User Reviews

Matt is sentenced to hard labor in a silver mine by a corrupt Judge

Matt is after a fugitive and tracks him down to a silver town two days ride from Dodge. When Matt has to kill the fugitive, the man running the town, Judge Flood, puts the Marshal on trial for murder. After a brief ceremony Matt is found guilty and placed in the silver mine, at hard labor, for his guilt.

For the most part, the rest of the show is Matt's interactions between the rest of the prisoners and the guards. There really was no timetable of how long Matt was imprisoned before he plans an escape attempt but it had to be some time. With a little help from the cook, Matt is able to get a few supplies that will help him plan an escape. But he will also need the help of other prisoners to make the escape successful.

The good thing about this show is that James Arness is fully involved in this show. In fact he does more physical activities in the show than nearly any other episode in the season. But the problem was the slow action and the predictable results of each event. There really is no surprises in this show rather a long tale of being false accused before springing the coop. There was nothing new for the viewer to get excited about.