Matt Dillon Must Die (9 Sep. 1974)

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.

Director:

Victor French

Writer:

Ray Goldrup

Stars:

Milburn Stone, Ken Curtis, Buck Taylor

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Milburn Stone	...	Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams (credit only)
Ken Curtis	...	Festus Haggen (credit only)
Buck Taylor	...	Newly O'Brien (credit only)
James Arness	...	Matt Dillon
Morgan Woodward	...	Abraham Wakefield
Joseph Hindy	...	Jacob Wakefield
William Lucking	...	Esau Wakefield (as Bill Lucking)
Henry Olek	...	Isaac Wakefield
Douglas Dirkson	...	Abel Wakefield
Frederick Herrick	...	Laban Wakefield
Elaine Fulkerson	...	Annabel Wakefield

Storyline

Matt is trapped at a mountain cabin occupied by murderous Abraham Wakefield and his sons. The embittered Wakefield detests lawmen because of his wife's killing years earlier, and he decides that it would be sporting for him, his sons, and their vicious dog to hunt the Marshal like an animal in the bitter cold.

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Plot Keywords:

character name in title

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Genres:

Drama | Western

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 September 1974 (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

In a "Gunsmoke" fiction book published in 2005, James Arness wrote about the show in the introduction and said that Ben Bates, his stunt double, collapsed after running through the snow for multiple takes and was hospitalized for two days. Arness did not specifically identify this episode, but it's the only one that would fit the description.

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Connections

Referenced in Jeopardy!: Episode #26.10 (2009)

User Reviews

Morgan Woodward is brilliant in this entertaining episode

In 20 years of 'Gunsmoke' episodes, Morgan Woodward makes his 19th appearance in the series. Mr Woodward does what he does best as he plays a aging man that feels like he is being mistreated. This is a role that he plays to perfection. An aging widower, Abraham Wakefield, who's wife was killed by renegade lawmen now he hates all people that carry a badge. He has five sons with four of them just as dangerous as their father and one much more mild mannered. But all have high respect for their father.

Marshal Dillon has tracked one of the son that has robbed a bank to their cabin in the mountains. Matt has to kill Wakefield's son and then is captured by the family. After Abraham goes through dialog of letting the viewers try to understand his position we find out that they will treat Matt like a game.

Just like hunting animals, they let Matt loose in the cold mountains and the family will track Matt down and kill him. But as you can already guess things do not go the way Abraham wanted. Abraham may lose everything he loves if he cannot let his hatred about his wife's death rest.

James Arness was at his best in this episode as he was performing from being to end of this show. Morgan Woodward is also brilliant as the aging family man that is nearly eaten alive by his wife's death. When the end comes it will be powerful and also heartbreaking. This episode was as entertaining as any in the series.

NOTE- In the trivia section of this episode it says that James Arness stunt man collapsed during filming. That episode in question was 'Snow Train' and not this episode.