User Reviews

That was a saying said many times in this jam-packed episode that features Marshal Dillon making his way to Dodge City with a bandit named Waco Thompson (Victor French) that turns out to be a nice guy for an outlaw. But that is just the tip of the iceberg as Matt will meet with other challenges along the path back to Dodge.

It all starts the morning that Matt starts the trip with Waco. Some gang member come by looking for Ole Waco but find him missing. It seems that Waco was holding a strong box, from a robbery, for the gang and they are here to get their boot of the money. When they find Waco gone, a saloon woman tells them that he rode off with a large man to the east. The gang thinks that Waco has teamed up with another bandit and is skipping out with all the money. So eastward and to Dodge the gang ride.

By chance, Matt knows that a gang is looking for them. So they ride into Dodge from another direction. But it is not long before Matt and Waco find a very pregnant Indian woman and Matt refuses to leave her to die.

They finally come upon a farm house that is occupied by husband and wife Nathan and Polly Cade (Harry Carey Jr and Louise Latham) and their mute daughter Ann. Ms Cade refuses to help the Indian woman. In fact she does not even want her in her house. Before the end of the show we will learn the reason that Ms Cade feels the way she does toward the Indian.

But lets not forget about the gang that will track Matt and Waco to the house with the intentions of making Waco turn the money over. Matt will have his hands full from both sides in this episode.

Victor French plays Waco, a likable bandit, to perfection which will be his calling card for the remainder of his acting career. Even Louise Latham, who at times I find hard to watch, does a nice job playing the scornful mother with a painful past. Overall this was one of the better shows and highly entertaining. The show does not have enough time to become dull before another situation is afoot. Good Watch!

This episode could have been so much better. The performances of Louise Latham and Tom Reese as a believable character almost redeem it. But it is Victor French's stock villain and the dumb-as-pig-s**t characters played by the likes of Mills Watson that dominate. This is Victor French's 8th appearance in "Gunsmoke" in less than two years -- and virtually all the same character as whoopin'-cacklin'-homicidal-good-ol'-boy -- preparing for another almost 200 episodes under producer Michael Landon with the violent streak toned down. He is aged 33 here in actuality and somehow managed to look 20 years older -- his trademark for twenty years to come. As pointed out in another review, this is a parody of a drama (but for the few genuine performances), aiming for the seventies-eighties "classics" like "Grizzly Adams", "Medicine Woman", "How the West Was Won" and on and on -- all with about as much fealty to the Old West as a Clairol tv ad.

Victor French spends about as much time onscreen during the Season 14 episodes of Gunsmoke as any of the regular cast members. In this installment, French plays a mouthy, incorrigible outlaw named Waco Thompson. Matt Dillon tracks Waco to Spivey, Kansas where he takes him into custody with minimal effort. The Marshal is intent on taking Waco to Dodge City to stand trial for robbery.

For some reason that is never fully explained, Waco was separated from his gang, and Waco has the strongbox that was taken during the robbery. The rest of the gang does not know the box only contained 12 dollars. They think it contained several thousand dollars.

When the gang finally rides into Spivey, a woman named Lillie that runs the saloon reluctantly tells them Waco left with "a big man." She does not tell them the man was a U. S. Marshal. (Perhaps she did not realize who Dillon was, or maybe she just did not care enough to notice.) The gang assumes Waco rode off with their money with his "new partner." They immediately begin tracking the Marshal and Waco.

The Marshal's task becomes much more complicated when he and Waco stop at a stream for water and discover a very pregnant, injured Native American woman. The duo is now a trio, and one of them is essentially helpless.

Marshal Dillon finds a farm where the Cade family lives. Nathan and Polly Cade have a daughter named Ann. When the Cades see the woman with Matt and Waco is a Kiowa, they are reluctant to offer her any help. The Cades once had two sons that were killed by Native Americans. Ann saw the incident and has not talked since. Polly Cade refuses to touch the "injun."

As expected, the gang finally finds the Cade's house, and they know Waco is holed up there with "his new partner."

This is partially a story of coming to terms with hatred and prejudice, but it is mostly a familiar tale of cat-and-mouse between the gang and the Marshal. If someone invented software to pull story ideas from a database of common Western plots, it might produce a story like this.

The casting of Gunsmoke episodes was typically excellent, and this one is no different. Victor French plays the same sort of character he usually plays, although this character comes across as more of a nuisance than a threat in this story.

The gang consists of several Gunsmoke regulars, including 14-episode Gunsmoke veteran Tom Reese, Mills Watson in his third Season 14 episode, and Lee DeBroux in his second. Lawrence Mann makes his only Season 14 appearance here, but he appeared in other episodes in other seasons.

Harry Carey, Jr. And Louise Latham play Mr. And Mrs. Cade. Both appeared in their share of Gunsmoke episodes over the years.

No portion of this story takes place in Dodge City, and all the regular cast is absent. The entire focus is on Matt Dillon and the challenges he faces.

This story is yet another where the characters are well acted and the drama is enough to be entertaining, but the recycling of elements that have been used countless times in Westerns makes the story instantly forgettable. This was a common occurrence in Season 14. Even the guest cast is dominated by actors that appeared many times throughout the run of the series. It is not reasonable to expect a series that included more than six hundred episodes is not going to repeat itself on occasion, but portions of Season 14 became too formulaic and non-distinctive.

Let's say you've run out of story ideas. What do you do? Well, you round up a bunch of hoary "Gunsmoke" tropes, stir well, and "Waco" is the result.

>> Matt is taking a prisoner to Dodge.

>> The prisoner is being chased by the rest of his gang, who think he's stolen the loot (all of $12) from their holdup.

>> They find a pregnant squaw near delivery. (The prisoner knows nothing' 'bout birthin' no babies.)

>> They schlep her on a travois to a conveniently located pig ranch.

>> The woman of the house has good reason to hate Commanches, because they killed her two sons by burning them to death, while her daughter watched.

>> The traumatized daughter hasn't spoken in seven years.

>> The other gang members show up, and are quickly blown to smithereens.

>> At least one of the guest stars is a famous Western actor (or relative of same) -- in this case, Harry Carey Jr.

I needn't describe the ending, which comes dangerously close to icking-out the viewer.

"Waco" verges on self-parody. That, and the fact it was written by Ron Bishop (under the pen name of Ronald Bishop), who surely knew better, are justification for demoting it to a 6.