Gunsmoke (TV Series) Widow's Mite (1958) User Reviews

Wet pancakes??

[george-841 · 6/10 · 20 January 2013]

OK episode. I do find myself wondering what did happen to the $10,000 whose pursuit led the gambler to marry the bandit's widow and then torture her for days to disclose where her dead husband hid the money. She consistently claimed she didn't know and since she kept living in that nasty little shack for weeks afterwards, I suspect she's telling the truth. Anyone knowing where $10k was to be had would have been hustling out of Dodge on the next stagecoach! There's one line of Chester's which defies comprehension even more than typical for Chester, who comes out with some doozies from time to time. When Matt and Chester are staking out the cabin to see what happened to the widow woman, at one point Chester laments how long they're stuck out in the sun. Matt advises him to to take a nap. Chester responds, paraphrased a bit, "No, Mr. Dillon. I don't like to sleep in the sun. When I wake up I feel like I just ate a bunch of wet pancakes." Matt doesn't bat an eye. Either he gets the metaphor or he's just so accustomed to Chester's non sequiturs that he resists commenting.

Anyone know what waking up like you just ate a bunch of wet pancakes means?!

Matt knew something was amiss

[kfo9494 · 7/10 · 10 July 2013]

This is rather a sad tale about a widow that is used for the sole purpose of someone wanting to get rich. And the only victim of the entire story is a woman that should expect more than life has to offer.

It begins in a odd manner as Marshal Dillon has information that Zack Morton held up the express office. When Matt confront Zack it comes down to a face off which results in Zack Morton's demise. However the money from the robbery has not be recovered and some people, including a dandy man from St. Joe named Leach Fields, believes that Ada Morton knows the whereabouts of the stolen money. When Fields suddenly marries the widow Ada, Matt gets suspicious. It will be when Doc Adams is treated unkindly that Matt knows something is amiss.

Another example of how women were treated in the earlier west. Even from the beginning the viewer knew how this story would progress yet still got an entertaining show out of the lot. Nothing really remarkable but a nice show to watch.

The Smell of Money Does Things To People, Even Good People

[jamdifo · 8/10 · 20 July 2013]

That line by Chester really sums up this episode. Last episode, Dillon was able to get all 3 villains taken alive and put in jail. This episode, he kills all 3 villains, unable to take any of them alive. This episode marks Dillon's 59th, 60th, and 61st confirmed kills on the show. The 60th kill we only heard the shootout, but Dillon confirms the killing to Chester.

This episode has the familiar theme of greed and what men will do for it. In the middle of this is Katherine Bard, who loses 2 husbands in what seems like a month apart. Marshall Thompson plays a gambler and you just know he's not the gentleman he appears to be. In the end you find out he's not a nice guy at all. I wondered why Dillon didn't just knock him out in the head when he came thru the door, I guess a shootout was in the script.

This episode had two good shootouts. I also like when the episode begins with Dillon at Boot Hill. Here, he talks about men dying due to greed, and they sure do in this episode.

Never trust a Gambler

[dougdoepke · 22 June 2011]

Matt has the goods on thief Zack Morton, but Zack won't go peaceably, a dumb move that leaves a plain-faced widow (Bard). So why does polite, well-dressed gambler (Thompson) up and marry this prairie-hardened widow so soon afterward. Matt has his suspicions, especially after rumors circulate about Zack's hidden loot.

There's some droll byplay between Matt and Doc, as Matt lounges along Front Street. In a key role, Thompson makes a boyishly unlikely gambler, but I guess that's the point. Nothing special here, except maybe the realistic frontier shack. And when Matt and Chester ride off from it at the end, the series' pensive note is again felt.

Revenge

[darbski · 10/10 · 23 August 2017]

I gave this one a 10 because I liked the idea that one way or another, the widow would get her just reward. I think that she absolutely knew where the dough was. I think that she was patiently biding her time till she could get out of the area and away from suspicious minds.

Look at it this way: her dumbass old man decides to take on Matt; he loses, so does his partner, and nobody knows what happened to the loot. The popinjay gambler pulls into town, and fouls things up by courting and then marrying her.

She was stuck with TWO dummies before, and now she's stuck with a greedy brute who was willing to starve her to find out where the money is. She's tough, patient, and she's decided to play it one way. If she tells Leach where it's at, it's a lead pipe cinch that she'll be dead ASAP. If she waits it out, who knows?

People today have NO idea just how tough and resourceful these frontier women were. I've referred to this before; the Time-Life Old West series of books it is a great reference for those armchair historians who would like to pick up a little knowledge about our forefathers and Mothers. One of these volumes is called "The women" I recommend it completely for a little insight. There are many books about the lives and encounters of and by women in the old west; go to your local library and check a couple of them out. I say it worked out for her.

The greedy idiot was primed up to make a colossal mistake, and it rolled in with Matt Dillon. They only had HER word that he'd completely starved and tortured her for a long period of time. After dirtbag was buried, she stayed at the cabin long enough to satisfy local curiosity, got out the funds, and moved out to a better life, somewhere else. Incidentally, $10Gs in 1880 is worth about $225Gs today; a very nice stake for starting over, especially if you're tough, savvy and not afraid to get down and dirty.

Marrying For Money

[StrictlyConfidential · 6/10 · 17 April 2021]

(*Marshal Dillon quote*) - "Well, I guess there's no use putting it off for any longer."

Gambler, Leach Fields proposes marriage to recent-widow, Ada Morton.

Marshal Dillon becomes suspicious of Field's intentions when it is revealed that Ada may know the location of $10,000 in stolen money.

Fields puts Ada through a prolonged torture session to find out what she knows.

Matt kids Doc for being a quack !!!!

[LukeCoolHand · 5/10 · 30 October 2020]

Other reviewers have given good comments about the plot so I'll just discuss one little scene when Matt and Doc are jockeying little put downs back and forth. I know that in a lot of episodes you have this type of banter between the main characters at times for some comic relief, but this time it seemed a little over the top mean. Doc mentions that Matt has killed a lot of men and Matt tells Doc that Doc has killed more than he has. Matt says that when Doc takes a persons temperature, he usually winds up dead. This banter was out of character and unnecessary.

This episode was not one of the best but Chester's comment about wet pancakes was the high point