User Reviews

Boy, this one really surprised me. It was the meanest, hardest hitting episode yet. I have been making my way through all of them starting at the beginning and this one tops them all. Some marauding, backwoods bandits who happen to be one big happy, evil, murdering family are making their way west when they approach Dodge City. The rob and murder whenever they encounter someone vulnerable. They never leave any witnesses. That's how cold blooded they are. One young woman is unfortunate enough to have two encounters with them. Both times she loses a family to the lecherous creeps. The woman who played "ma" did a fantastic job of convincing me she was the epitome of evil. Gave me the creeps watching this band of immoral miscreants do their dastardly deeds.

I won't mention how it ends, I want to leave you somewhat of a surprise.

The gritty and visceral black and white episodes that pull no punches are the way it was in the wild back then are refreshing and honest stories minus the politically correct fluff we are forced to watch today. It amazes me how some reviews say the episodes are too depressing etc. Just recently in the news a man kidnapped a young girl who he took a fancy to just watching her get on a school bus. He followed her killed her parents and kept her prisoner. This episode had great character actors all well known to me, and to see Marshall Dillon and Quint put an end to the abduction was great. Marshall Dillion to the rescue is something us Gunsmoke fans never get tired of.

Watching this episode I began thinking that I really do not remember so many good people getting killed in a 'Gunsmoke' show. But we have nearly a fist full in this tale of a sweet beautiful girl and an gang of hillbillies.

Annie Shields, played by the beautiful Joan Freeman, is with her parents just outside Dodge. Annie goes a few hundred yards to fish by the creek. While she is gone a group of hillbillies led by Phoebe Strunk (Virginia Gregg) and her four boys come up on Annie's parent. They rob and murder them while setting their wagon on fire.

Annie is able to get away and happens up on Sam and Rose Kinney's place. They are a nice husband and wife that takes a shine to Annie and actually wants to adopt her as their own.

But before that happens Phoebe and her boys confront the Kinney's and take Annie away. They leave the Kinney's dead to later be found by Marshal Dillon and Quint.

Matt and Quint pick up their trail and follow them to their camp. It will be two against five as Matt tries to rescue Annie from the grips of the Strunks.

Two items really stood out in this episode. First was the beauty of Joan Freeman and the fine acting of Virginia Gregg. Seeing Ms Gregg in many 1960 era shows, I was never impressed with her. But her portrayal of the female leader of the clan was excellent.--This is not an outstanding show by any means, but a episode that keeps the viewer interested till the end.

I thought I had seen the meanest, scummiest, non moral clan of people Gunsmoke had to offer. But NO !!! It has topped itself with this episode. The mother Phoebe Strunk and her 4 hillbilly sons take the cake. I thought the hillbillies were bad in the episode "No Hands" but these make those seem like Choir boys. These hillbillies murder at least 4 good people and steal whatever they want with no feelings at all. Prepare yourself before watching this nasty episode. And I agree with another commenter - the silly comical music does not fit with this serious nasty episode. You have been warned.

If I were to rank this episode "objectively", I'd give it a 6 -- maybe even a 7, if I were in an especially good mood. But its treatment of the material is so shallow and unoriginal, that it needs a really hard kick in the teeth.

I //like// nasty stories about nasty people coming to nasty ends. John Meston was the master of such stories, and wrote a lot of them. Here he's simply going through the mechanics of a story that we've seen before -- a family of retarded sons is lead by a psychopathic parent. *

The problem is that there's nothing of dramatic interest. You might be able to get away with this omission in a half-hour story, but not in an hour-long episode. We know right from the start how it's going to end. Phoebe and her "brood" will rob and murder **, and Matt will track them down. The end is hardly a surprise, with Matt and Quint taking out two of the sons, with one of the others accidentally killing his mother.

Where have we seen this before?

John Meston was not particularly gifted at dialog; his was often clunky and quotidian. This was generally overlooked in a series notable for its believably-banal dialog. But here this weakness is all-too obvious. Klunk, klunk, klunk.

Then there's the music score. I prefer the scores from the earlier episodes, which were often assembled by Gene Feldman from the CBS cue library. Feldman was talented. His work usually shows imagination and taste. Here Feldman slips badly, using a comic woodwind Leitmotiv to represent the Strunks. Given the story's viciousness, it's in poor taste.

This is an extremely disappointing episode that plods along with no surprises. Even seeing the mother killed isn't enough to make up for the "thinness" of the proceedings. Unless matricide appeals to you, you can probably skip this episode.

* "The Rifleman" did a fine version of this, with an unrecognizable Buddy Hacket (!!!) playing the psycho dad. (He was an exceptionally good actor, by any standard.)

** "Gunsmoke" rarely refrained from showing vicious murders, but in this case, the producers must have felt that showing two loving couples wiped out was going too far.

It is way too far-fetched the way the married couple takes in this young lady they have never seen before like she is their daughter. Also, guest McLiam is horrible in this ep as a good guy. He made a better sneak or creep in a show.

Where to start with this one? I don't have the same objections earlier reviews state, e.g., violence and sadism. My problem is that--in spite of its intended dramatic effect--the episode struck me as silly and unrealistic.

1. Our protagonist looks to be twenty but is treated as if she's ten.

2. Her parents are killed off by unbelievably bad outlaws.

3. Said outlaws include a mean mama and her stupid boys. They've never been caught before this?!

4. The protagonist--twenty!--is taken in by a childless couple who seem to be made from the same mold as her deceased parents. This couple wants to adopt her.

5. The antagonists happen to see her passing through town and decide they want her with them. They don't know she's already been victimized by them so what are the odds she becomes their next target?

6. Because they want her, they come to her new home and repeat the atrocities visited on her bio parents.

I'm going to stop here because the rest of the episode doesn't bug me enough to write about.

Two stars for a young and pretty Burt Reynolds.