With Marshal Matt Dillon away, Dan Whelan and his rogue gang ride into Dodge City and quickly take control of the town. They lock Newly O'Brien and Festus Haggen in the jail. They rob everything and everyone. The point to the visit is more than simple robbery, though. They intend to kill Marshal Dillon when he returns.
They establish a center of operations at the Long Branch Saloon, naturally. Since they must wait for Matt's return, they decide to pass the time playing poker. Kitty Russell recognizes an opportunity to use the card game to level the playing field with Whelan and his men.
Actor Robert Burr portrays Dan Whelan in this story. Burr's acting career featured sporadic appearances primarily in television shows until the early 1970s when he started gaining more roles, primarily as villains. This is his only guest role in a Gunsmoke episode.
Whelan's gang of bandits is comprised of several familiar actors, the most famous of which is Harrison Ford in an early acting job. This is the second and final appearance in the series for Ford.
Anyone that watches many episodes of Gunsmoke will recognize William Bramley. Here he plays the sadistic, lecherous, card-cheating gang member named Loomis. Bramley excelled at playing this type of character. This is the final appearance by Bramley in the series. He appears in nine other episodes.
This is the only Gunsmoke appearance for Noble Willingham, who plays the character Tuck. Willingham enjoyed a successful acting career in both films and television. He appeared in notable films The Last Picture Show, Paper Moon, and Chinatown. Many years later he was a regular on the series Walker, Texas Ranger with Chuck Norris.
Gerald McRaney has a small part in this story as the character Gentry. McRaney would appear twice more in the series, including Season 20's "Hard Labor" where McRaney is the last person in the show's history to face Matt Dillon in a gunfight. McRaney would go on to star in the television series Simon & Simon and Major Dad. He also played a recurring character in the HBO western series Deadwood.
Actor Frank Ramírez appears as one of Whelan's men. The character is only identified by the name "Breed." Ramírez appeared in several U. S. television shows in the 1970s, but most of his career was spent acting in his home country Columbia. His final role before his death in 2015 was playing the character Héctor Salamanca in the Columbian version of the series "Breaking Bad," which was titled "Metástasis" in Columbia.
As a standalone entry in the series, this story is immensely entertaining and suspenseful. However, similar stories have been done at least three times before in Gunsmoke history. The Season 11 debut "Seven Hours to Dawn" is most similar with the outlaws systematically riding into town and taking everything in sight. The difference with that take on the theme is Matt is present at the beginning. Season 14's "The Long Night" includes a similar theme where several series regulars are held hostage in the Long Branch while they await the Marshal's return, although the primary motivation of the intruders in the story is revenge against Matt Dillon. Season 15's "Morgan" again uses the theme of outlaws taking over Dodge and awaiting the Marshal's return.
The difference in this story and the other comparable stories is the poker game angle with Kitty Russell as the focal point. The "honor among thieves" aspect to this episode is a bizarre, unexpected twist that is telegraphed from early in the episode. (You will have to watch it to understand.) The Tuck character even acknowledges the gang will steal and murder, but they always honor their bets. There is also a definite "the ends justifies the means" aspect to this story that becomes clear at the conclusion.
Amanda Blake is once again outstanding in the Kitty Russell role in this episode. A common element to this kind of story is that the townspeople are usually terrified and completely at the mercy of the intruders. In this case, Kitty exudes confidence and defiance. She never lets Whelan and his men think they have intimidated her.
Episode writer Ron Bishop cleverly manages to remove most of the series stars from the story, so the episode focuses almost solely on the Kitty Russell character. Festus and Newly are locked in a jail cell. Matt is out of town. Doc Adams is kept on the periphery of the story by the gang who forces him to retreat to his office and stay there.
(Side note: I find it interesting that Matt questions Kitty so intensely about what has transpired overnight in Dodge. It strongly suggests there have been some previous discussions about Kitty's prowess with cards.)
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