Gunsmoke (TV Series) Lover Boy (1963) User Reviews

Ken Curtis struts his stuff

[grizzledgeezer · 8/10 · 8 August 2013]

"Lover Boy" gives Ken Curtis a chance to show what a good actor he is. Shorn of facial hair, he plays a charming and heartless rogue who loves 'em and leaves 'em. (In real life, he would have seduced the women, but this is only vaguely suggested by his first conquest being sufficiently humiliated that she becomes a saloon girl.) Curtis shows how good he is at creating characters almost entirely by facial expression.

Consider John Anderson, Royal Dano, and Morgan Woodward, veterans of many TV Westerns. With few exceptions, each is instantly recognizable. Not Ken Curtis. You'd have to think a while before recognizing Curtis as both Kyle Kelly and the original Festus. (The latter Festus is even more distantly removed.)

Curtis started out as a conventionally handsome man, with vapid good looks. (It's easy to see why John Ford's daughter was so hot for him.) He got better looking as he matured and his features grew more angular. In an unintentional bit of humor, one of his conquests complains that her husband is "nearly 50". * So was Curtis -- he was 48 when this episode was shot! ** He was nearly 60 when the series ended.

Though Festus and Chester were "similar" characters, Festus had the athleticism Chester lacked. *** In fight scenes, Curtis is quick and nimble -- you wouldn't want to get on his bad side. And in an early Festus episode, when he and Slim Pickens are about to be strung up in a stable, Curtis leaps up off his horse and wraps his legs around the beam.

An above-average episode -- strongly recommended.

* 50 was considered "old" in the 19th century -- retirement age, essentially.

** In "Lover Boy", he looks closer to 60 (or even older). Strange as it might seem, the Festus whiskers shave a good decade off his apparent age.

*** Dennis Weaver supposedly suggested Chester have a stiff leg, as he didn't find it plausible that an able-bodied young man would take a poorly paid job as the marshal's assistant.

Hard to image Ken Curtis as a heartthrob- but it works well

[kfo9494 · 8/10 · 14 December 2012]

For the fans of 'Gunsmoke' this is a time where you get to see Ken Curtis play a role before being cast as the lovable Festus that we all know and love. The fine acting ability of Mr Curtis come through in this program as we, the viewer, get induced into the story that for this one hour Ken Curtis is lover boy Kyle Kelly and not the Marshal's deputy.

The episode begins as Kyle Kelly goes by to tell Ms Terry Lee that he is moving on in his life. This comes to a surprise and displeasure of Ms Lee since she thought Kyle was there to propose marriage. Kyle tells her that he can never settle down with just one woman.

Move on a few years and Kyle is in Dodge. A nice enough fellow that everyone seems to like. He runs into this young woman, Avis Fisher, that is loading the wagon. He sweet talks her until she advises that she is married to a much older Ab Fisher. Soon Kyle makes his way to the Fisher farm when Ab was in town. He puts on the charm and by the time the scene changes he has Avis in a kiss with more things on the way.

In the meantime Kyle goes into the Lone Branch and happens to see Terry Lee now working as a saloon girl. He gets into a fist fight with Luke Ryan and is knocked out. The next day he goes out to see Luke and kills him. Ab happens up on Luke and Luke says that Kyle Kelly killed him. However Ab will not tell the Marshal because he does not want to get involved.

Avis wants to run off with Kyle so they hatch a scheme where Ab thinks the Marshal is after him in Luke's death. So when the Marshal comes to visit Ab shoot at Matt. Matt, having done all he could, has to kill Ab.

Now the two can move to Colorado to start a new life. But then Kyle tells Avis the same words that he told Terry years ago, he just can't settle down with one woman. Avis takes these words much worse than Terry.

A good story that was interesting to the end. Ken Curtis was great as Kyle and even Sheree North as Avis gave a fine performance. There was other in the script seemed ill placed but overall a good show. As we are approaching the end of the show not many people will be thinking about Festus. They will be all involved with the lover boy Kyle Kelly.

A treat for fans of Ken Curtis

[Morganalee · 7/10 · 16 November 2010]

As a fan of Ken Curtis, I liked this one (despite its largely formulaic plot) because we see him in what I think is his last appearance on the show--after his debut as Festus in "Us Haggens" the previous season--as someone other than Festus. Indeed, not only is he not the character who would become the marshal's deputy here, but he's the villain of the piece. He's a true lady's man, a suave cad, as at ease with the ladies as he is attractive to them. His Festus drawl is not heard (it was also considerably less evident in "Us Haggens" than it was to become in the established Festus character) and he even seems to stand taller and to be more good-looking. I liked the rascal so well that it was a pain to realize that he must be dealt with in the Old Testament style so favored by screenwriter John Meston (and no doubt dictated as well by the Hollywood code of the time).

Good grief!

[pattiejs · 10/10 · 11 March 2019]

Took me a few minutes to recognize Ken Curtis. Didn't know he was so handsome! I always loved him as Festus and still love to hear him sing. (YouTube.) This episode really shows his range of character.

what a hypocrite

[niplips · 8/10 · 6 May 2020]

Well... that husband was so high and mighty about how there's nothing worse than an informer, yet he demands that his wife "inform" on who came to visit her. :)

Ken Curtis In A Wonderful Pre-Festus Role

[g-36829-34138 · 9/10 · 27 August 2022]

Wonderful pre-Festus episode which permitted Ken Curtis to show off his acting skills. Playing the ner'do well playboy drifter is Curtis at his best. Backed up by a great supporting cast this is one of Gunsmoke's best. The play between the wife and the older husband is very good. Loved the husband's style. Marshal Dillon's advice to the outraged husband.: 'You can't kill a man for free!" Quint sends Curtis to the Long Branch. Does he know the husband will be there, too? It all plays out as expected.

Curtis plays the camera with his classic facial expressions, as always, and makes it works. Final action in the Long Branch with his old flame Terry brings it all together at the end.

Legend has it that Ab Fisher's bay horse....

[hpringnitz · 9/10 · 28 April 2022]

....is still tied up outside the blacksmith shop in Dodge City with only two shoes to this very day. Ab sure did get back to his farm in one heck of a hurry after showing up to tell Quint about Luke's death anyway!

Fine performance by Ken Curtis as a slimy little lady killer. Though with the him being such a lousy fist fighter, it's hard to understand how he kept all those nice straight teeth.

Another fine episode!

Great showcase for the very talented Ken Curtis

[lrrap · 7/10 · 30 November 2020]

I remember seeing the film "Mr. Roberts" for the first time and wondering who was that charming guy with the great smile playing crew member Dolan; DANG! It was Ken Curtis who, in addition to his fine acting, was also one of America's greatest vocalists, as both Big-Band soloist and Western singer, most notably with the Sons of the Pioneers (check out his 1950 recording of "Little White Cross" with the SOP; beautiful, elegant singing).

Ken's charm radiates from the screen as "Lover Boy" but, after a brutal knock-out in a bar fight (Curtis was VERY athletic and was always getting the hell knocked out of him in his "Have Gun Will Travel" appearances), he very convincingly slips into "satanic" mode in his conversation with Dillon outside the saloon at night.

The rest of the show is pretty solid, but the ruse with which Sheree North convinces her nutty hubby (Alan Baxter) that Dillon is going to charge him with murder is REALLY contrived; sorry, it's just not believable.

Also, Sheree North's gigantic 1960's eyelashes really detract from the reality of the show; why did they continually do this?? The rest of the visuals are convincingly 19th-century Old-West, but the younger women-folk were always made-up and coiffed as if they were appearing on the Dick van Dyke show. Too bad.

Another fine score by Fred Steiner. LR

Blew Me Away ....

[janet-conant · 6/10 · 25 June 2022]

Not the script or the acting but that that was Ken Curtis as the sleazy 'lover boy' who kissed 'em and left 'em. I'm glad I didn't read any of the reviews first because I kept saying 'who is playing that guy, Kyle?' I saw Ken Curtis in the cast but figured he was Festus and not in this episode. I was so surprised to find that Ken played Kyle and sure enough did well. That was a real knee slapper when I saw it was Curtis and I'm usually pretty good at identifying an actor. I'm only now watching these episodes for the first time.

I agree that Ab was dumber than a bag of rocks thinking that Dillon was coming to arrest him for murder. Just tell Matt who killed Luke in cold blood as he spoke his dying words. His wife was just no good and should have left him years ago instead of plotting his murder although he thought it was commendable that he never beat her.

The best was Ken playing Kelly and although not really handsome he certainly had a way with women but way too old for that cute girl in Wichita.

So, Ab Fisher....

[YoungHorse45 · 5/10 · 24 October 2022]

Is upstanding enough and honorable enough to never be an informer on anyone, yet he is dishonorable enough and stupid enough to try to murder a US marshal right in the middle of town and continue to try to do so after the Marshall shows up at his house, all on the contrived story of his wife whom he already knows is not an honorable and virtuous woman herself.

This is one of those episodes that leaves me wondering why, when John Wayne gave the introduction for the series, he described it as "realistic".

There are many great episodes of Gunsmoke, but this is not one of them. The insistence of Fisher to not tell who the murderer is and then to go on and try to murder a US marshal himself (whom he knows to be an honorable man) because of the foolish story his wife gave him (which contradicts the good character of Marshal Dillon, character Fisher is well aware of) is ridiculous.

I gave it a 5, and I was being generous.

Familiar Viewing

[gary-64659 · 7/10 · 17 April 2019]

This is not anywhere near up to writer John Meston's and director Andrew McLaglen's usual standards. Sheree North (as another hard-done-by, bored, unfulfilled prairie wife, Avis Fisher) and Carol Byron (as fallen saloon gal Terry Lee) are lovely to look at. They're about the highlight of the whole thing, looking sexily sullen as they do throughout. I'm thinking Meston should have passed it on to women's writer Kathleen Hite at the scenario stage. Much more should have been made of Terry's reaction to old flame Kyle destroying her life for a second time - by the original betrayal and now the murdering of her fiance. But, nothing. Ken Curtis overdoes it as the ever-smarmy villain "irresistible lady-killer" Kyle Kelly -- acting all through like he should have had a moustache to twirl. And Ab, Avis's 50-something husband, is just too dumb to live -- I'm amazed he has lasted this long alive in the world. Terry's fiance isn't too bright either, facing Kyle unarmed and with a welcoming smile to the ranch after the villain has threatened his life the night before. It's more than a little unbelievable. Comic relief from Chester/Doc very sadly absent too.

Before Ken Curtis got his Strother Martin imitation

[TheFearmakers · 7/10 · 23 December 2020]

Ken Curtis is a kind of Man of a Thousand Faces in the televised Western genre and here he's far from the scummy looking, Strother Martin imitating Festus, a real charmer who uses woman, and he's really not good looking enough for that. His face looks like a shield. He played opposite a sort of standard-handsome lead on the series Ripcord, which ended around this time. On the verge of a decade long gig, this is Curtis's verge into stardom. It's like seeing Harry Morgan playing the conceited General on MASH before he'd become a regular. And it's nice seeing Sheree North.

Before Festus

[chchurch · 7/10 · 17 February 2024]

Gary and Younghorse are right.... Ab Fisher is unbelievably stupid and his character really flaws the entire story line. Maybe they should have let Katharine Hite polish this script. I just found myself thinking this is hard to believe, can they fix the logic somehow. No, they could not.

That said, it's an interesting episode just to see Ken Curtis as a clean shaven ladies man, a bit of a stretch but quite entertaining compared to him in "Us Haggens" earlier and Festus later. However, I always preferred Dennis Weaver's Chester to Festus if for no other reason than Festus looked like a runt next to Matt. Chester stood 6'3" and matched up about as much as one could with freakishly tall Marshall Dillon.

Sheree North to replace Marilyn Monroe.

[LukeCoolHand · 30 May 2022]

I read that Sheree North was known for being one of 20th Century-Fox's many intended successors to Marilyn Monroe. WHAT ??? In this episode of Gunsmoke she was only 31 and looked about 45 with those unusually wide set eyes and funny lips and teeth. They must have been desperate for a Marilyn Monroe successor to think this craggy looking woman was the one. However Monroe never looked that great to me either compared to actresses like Sophia Loren and Joan Crawford(HA ha just joking about Crawford) . LOL. Otherwise a fair episode with an unshaven Ken Curtis as a playboy type.