Beau Bridges has appeared in many television shows and films in his lengthy career. In the mid 1960s, he had guest starring roles in many westerns, and he often played a similar brooding, troubled character. In this Gunsmoke episode, he portrays a mysterious young drifter known only by the name Jason.
As the story begins, Jason stops at a farmhouse and asks the farmer Jed Woodard for some water for his horse. Woodard is a little too nosey for his own good and begins examining the belongings Jason is carrying on his horse. He notices a guitar, removes it, and begins asking questions and taunting the young drifter. Jason demands Woodard leave the guitar alone, which results in Woodard becoming even more threatening and belligerent. When Woodard begins acting as though he is going to damage the guitar, Jason stabs and kills him.
Jason begins digging a grave for the man he murdered, but he sees two people on horseback approaching in the distance. He quickly mounts his horse and rides away before the riders see him. He leaves Woodard's body and an empty grave behind.
In Dodge City, Kitty Russell, Festus Haggen, Matt Dillon, Thad Greenwood, and some other Long Branch Saloon patrons are celebrating Doc Adams's birthday. Jason has made his way to Dodge City and enters the saloon where Kitty invites him to play his guitar for the patrons. Jason plays flamenco guitar, a craft he learned from his father. The guitar originally belonged to Jason's father, and, as he later explains to Kitty, it is the only thing that belonged to his father that remains which is why he treasures it so.
Later, a traveling peddler named Sonny Starr rides into Dodge City. When he sees Marshal Dillon and Festus, Starr gets their attention. Starr has Woodard's body in his wagon. The peddler had stopped at Woodard's farm to collect a debt and found Woodard's body.
A couple of rowdy drovers named Dan and Jack ride into Dodge and get drunk at the Long Branch where Jason continues to entertain the patrons. When the saloon closes, the cowboys are asked to leave. They see Jason outside the saloon and demand he continue to play his guitar for them. When they threaten to take the guitar, Jason loses his temper and starts a fight with the men. Even though they are drunk, Jason is no match for the two men. Sam Noonan comes to Jason's rescue.
Doc Adams treats Jason's wounds in the back room of the saloon. Jason relates the story of his parents to Kitty. His mother and father were deeply in love, and when his mother died, his grieving father lost his will to live and soon passed away, too.
Matt Dillon arrests Dan and Jack for their actions. Thad notices a twenty-dollar gold piece among the drovers' belongings and remarks that it belonged to Jed Woodard. Suddenly, the two cowboys go from being loud nuisances to murder suspects.
Sonny Starr sees Jason in the Long Branch and tells him the two cowboys are likely to be convicted for killing Woodard. Starr invites the young guitarist to join him in his travels. Starr reasons having Jason along to play his guitar for people when they stop in different towns will help his business.
Jason knows Dan and Jack did not kill Woodard, so he helps them escape from the jail and then leaves town with Starr. While the cowboys are pleased about their release, they are curious and even suspicious about the reason Jason was willing to help them. They steal two horses and ride out of Dodge with Marshal Dillon in pursuit. Fate will bring the drovers and the guitarist together again for the conclusion of the story.
This is the first Gunsmoke episode directed by Robert Totten. Totten eventually directed a total of 25 episodes over the remaining years of the series. He also portrayed characters in a few episodes. He was quite recognizable with his massive beard. Totten was considered by many to be a tough, gritty director in the same vein as Sam Peckinpah. Like Peckinpah, Totten was often extremely demanding of his actors. Also like Peckinpah, Totten had a reputation as a hard-drinking, temperamental person with a short fuse. Unlike Peckinpah, Totten never achieved great acclaim as a director.
(In the book The Boys Ron Howard wrote with his brother Clint, Howard credits Totten's advice and influence on his directing career when Totten directed the Howard brothers in the film The Wild Country. In addition to Totten, the film was written by and starred numerous people who were involved with Gunsmoke over the years.)
This is also the first Gunsmoke story written by Hal Sitowitz, although he would contribute 11 more scripts before the series ended. Totten and Sitowitz would team again for the Season 11 episode, "My Father, My Son."
Another first for this episode is the Gunsmoke appearance by the well-known character actor Dub Taylor. He would go on to appear in a total of seven episodes of Gunsmoke. Dub was the father of Buck Taylor, who would become a regular cast member as Newly O'Brien in the later seasons of the show.
William Bramley fills the Jed Woodard role. Bramley was no stranger to Gunsmoke, as this is the third of his 10 appearances in the series. Steve Ihnat is the drover named Jack in this story. Ihnat was a familiar face on television and in films during the 1960s and 1970s. He suffered a heart attack and died at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972. He was only 37 years old at the time of his death.
Charles Dierkop is another recognizable face from classic television and films such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, both starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman. Dierkop also had a recurring role as a detective on the television series Police Woman. Here Dierkop plays the drover named Dan.
In the end, this is an atypical Gunsmoke story where there is no typical "black and white" delineation between the characters. Jason's guitar means more to him than human life. Jason is a murderer and quite possibly a psychopath. Yet, Jason is not a typical "bad guy." He is not amoral. His actions leave him feeling guilty and remorseful. He is portrayed with a level of pathos. In contrast, Dan and Jack are boorish and rude, but they are basically what many would call "good ol' boys." They do not intend any harm to anyone. They are victims of their circumstances.
Under the supervision of people like Norman MacDonnell and John Meston in earlier years of Gunsmoke, tragic endings were commonplace. As Philip Leacock and John Mantley took over the production of the show, story resolutions tended to be more optimistic. Those factors make this story a bit of an outlier during the second half of the life of the series.
In the end, this episode falls short of some of the better episodes in the series. The acting is great, but the story fails to give the viewer anyone to support or to want to see succeed.
As the story begins, Jason stops at a farmhouse and asks the farmer Jed Woodard for some water for his horse. Woodard is a little too nosey for his own good and begins examining the belongings Jason is carrying on his horse. He notices a guitar, removes it, and begins asking questions and taunting the young drifter. Jason demands Woodard leave the guitar alone, which results in Woodard becoming even more threatening and belligerent. When Woodard begins acting as though he is going to damage the guitar, Jason stabs and kills him.
Jason begins digging a grave for the man he murdered, but he sees two people on horseback approaching in the distance. He quickly mounts his horse and rides away before the riders see him. He leaves Woodard's body and an empty grave behind.
In Dodge City, Kitty Russell, Festus Haggen, Matt Dillon, Thad Greenwood, and some other Long Branch Saloon patrons are celebrating Doc Adams's birthday. Jason has made his way to Dodge City and enters the saloon where Kitty invites him to play his guitar for the patrons. Jason plays flamenco guitar, a craft he learned from his father. The guitar originally belonged to Jason's father, and, as he later explains to Kitty, it is the only thing that belonged to his father that remains which is why he treasures it so.
Later, a traveling peddler named Sonny Starr rides into Dodge City. When he sees Marshal Dillon and Festus, Starr gets their attention. Starr has Woodard's body in his wagon. The peddler had stopped at Woodard's farm to collect a debt and found Woodard's body.
A couple of rowdy drovers named Dan and Jack ride into Dodge and get drunk at the Long Branch where Jason continues to entertain the patrons. When the saloon closes, the cowboys are asked to leave. They see Jason outside the saloon and demand he continue to play his guitar for them. When they threaten to take the guitar, Jason loses his temper and starts a fight with the men. Even though they are drunk, Jason is no match for the two men. Sam Noonan comes to Jason's rescue.
Doc Adams treats Jason's wounds in the back room of the saloon. Jason relates the story of his parents to Kitty. His mother and father were deeply in love, and when his mother died, his grieving father lost his will to live and soon passed away, too.
Matt Dillon arrests Dan and Jack for their actions. Thad notices a twenty-dollar gold piece among the drovers' belongings and remarks that it belonged to Jed Woodard. Suddenly, the two cowboys go from being loud nuisances to murder suspects.
Sonny Starr sees Jason in the Long Branch and tells him the two cowboys are likely to be convicted for killing Woodard. Starr invites the young guitarist to join him in his travels. Starr reasons having Jason along to play his guitar for people when they stop in different towns will help his business.
Jason knows Dan and Jack did not kill Woodard, so he helps them escape from the jail and then leaves town with Starr. While the cowboys are pleased about their release, they are curious and even suspicious about the reason Jason was willing to help them. They steal two horses and ride out of Dodge with Marshal Dillon in pursuit. Fate will bring the drovers and the guitarist together again for the conclusion of the story.
This is the first Gunsmoke episode directed by Robert Totten. Totten eventually directed a total of 25 episodes over the remaining years of the series. He also portrayed characters in a few episodes. He was quite recognizable with his massive beard. Totten was considered by many to be a tough, gritty director in the same vein as Sam Peckinpah. Like Peckinpah, Totten was often extremely demanding of his actors. Also like Peckinpah, Totten had a reputation as a hard-drinking, temperamental person with a short fuse. Unlike Peckinpah, Totten never achieved great acclaim as a director.
(In the book The Boys Ron Howard wrote with his brother Clint, Howard credits Totten's advice and influence on his directing career when Totten directed the Howard brothers in the film The Wild Country. In addition to Totten, the film was written by and starred numerous people who were involved with Gunsmoke over the years.)
This is also the first Gunsmoke story written by Hal Sitowitz, although he would contribute 11 more scripts before the series ended. Totten and Sitowitz would team again for the Season 11 episode, "My Father, My Son."
Another first for this episode is the Gunsmoke appearance by the well-known character actor Dub Taylor. He would go on to appear in a total of seven episodes of Gunsmoke. Dub was the father of Buck Taylor, who would become a regular cast member as Newly O'Brien in the later seasons of the show.
William Bramley fills the Jed Woodard role. Bramley was no stranger to Gunsmoke, as this is the third of his 10 appearances in the series. Steve Ihnat is the drover named Jack in this story. Ihnat was a familiar face on television and in films during the 1960s and 1970s. He suffered a heart attack and died at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972. He was only 37 years old at the time of his death.
Charles Dierkop is another recognizable face from classic television and films such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, both starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman. Dierkop also had a recurring role as a detective on the television series Police Woman. Here Dierkop plays the drover named Dan.
In the end, this is an atypical Gunsmoke story where there is no typical "black and white" delineation between the characters. Jason's guitar means more to him than human life. Jason is a murderer and quite possibly a psychopath. Yet, Jason is not a typical "bad guy." He is not amoral. His actions leave him feeling guilty and remorseful. He is portrayed with a level of pathos. In contrast, Dan and Jack are boorish and rude, but they are basically what many would call "good ol' boys." They do not intend any harm to anyone. They are victims of their circumstances.
Under the supervision of people like Norman MacDonnell and John Meston in earlier years of Gunsmoke, tragic endings were commonplace. As Philip Leacock and John Mantley took over the production of the show, story resolutions tended to be more optimistic. Those factors make this story a bit of an outlier during the second half of the life of the series.
In the end, this episode falls short of some of the better episodes in the series. The acting is great, but the story fails to give the viewer anyone to support or to want to see succeed.
