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zacharycabon
Reviews
Gunsmoke: Susan Was Evil (1973)
Who Was Evil?
A guy named Boswell had robbed a place and expected the law to be in pursuit, and when Marshall Dillon spooked a deer, giving away his position, Boswell opened fire at the Marshall, with the bullets hitting a branch that Dillon ducked under.
As the story continued, we came to learn apart from being a man who shot at the law (later joking he couldn't be too careful with criminals around), he was also wanted for stealing a horse after running off with a farmer's wife.
Susan Was Evil?
He explained away the latter two accusations to the woman who helped him recover from Dillon's bullet, a woman whose sympathy he hoped would give him a horse after Dillon left so he could escape (and he'd only been there a few days).
Only after she said no did he up his game by inviting her to go with him (true love).
The woman who tended to Boswell was Susan's aunt, who had told Susan they were finally going to move to St. Louis as promised; but we got to see a pattern of delays until the promise was broken altogether when the aunt "fell in love" with the good armed robber / fugitive and told Susan she was going to marry him instead.
"What about my happiness?" the aunt asked.
Each time Susan told her aunt how hurt she was by the delayed & broken promise, the aunt stared at Susan with a strange grin. "People told me I should have been harder on you all these years," the aunt said to Susan. What was her idea of being harder on someone, and what people?
Aunt Was Evil? No. The aunt was the author of this story.
There were two drifters in the story, including one who went from verbally disrespecting Susan, to blocking her from moving, and then forcing himself on her; and if Marshall Dillon hadn't come running toward Susan's screams to fight off these two men, the story could have been Evil Susan was Pregnant.
Alternative title: Two Good Ol' Boys Meet Susan: Who, As It Turned Out, Wasn't as Evil as They'd Hoped.
There was the penniless-looking handyman (the actor was 33), who made it clear he wanted Susan (the actress was 19). If it was obvious to the viewer who just tuned in that he fancied Susan, imaging being Susan stuck in that place for six years with a guy like that trying to take advantage of her destitute situation.
In the end, when all else failed for Susan to get away, Susan reminded him he offered money (as all good men offer pretty women, if they'll go away with them), but the handyman said, "That was yesterday."
After the story ends, we're left to imagine Susan's fate based on her "evil" attempt to get away (which had been one attempt to turn in a wanted man). Something like Prince Evil arrived on the next stagecoach and took away Susan from that wonderful place.
I liked the story, but of all the episodes not to be renamed. More like, Everyone Was Selfish (formerly called Susan Was Evil).
Gunsmoke: Jaekel (1971)
Cape Fear of Kansas
When this episode started, I heard a familiar voice. After a few lines I realized Carl Jaekel was speaking like Gregory Peck, an actor who succeeded in westerns, such as The Big Country, 1958.
As I watched the episode, I wondered if the German actor playing Carl Jaekel, Eric Braeden, was intentionally impersonating Peck, and then the plot seemed vaguely familiar as well.
A man returning to Dodge City after being in prison for eight years who was one part charming to one part psychopath, and who tormented the heroine. That story seemed familiar, including some of the lines. "That was all I could think about for eight years in prison!" Lines like that.
When Festus was hiding behind the bushes spying on Beth's house, and Jaekel snuck up from behind and knocked out Festus, it finally came to me. Max Cady snuck up behind Deputy Kersek who was hiding in the bushes spying on the houseboat in Cape Fear, 1962, also starring Gregory Peck.
This was the only episode of Gunsmoke in 16 seasons when I noted chemistry between the lead characters, Jaekel and Beth. It was believable they stayed in touch every week for eight years while he was in prison.
There were a few plot conveniences that bothered me. Beth's husband, Norman, had to catch a late-night train to take a trip (which gave Jaekel and Beth time alone). Rather than drop off Norman and ride back, Norman had to leave their horse and buggy unattended at the train station for the weekend.
Jaekel left the Long Branch at night not knowing where Beth lived, and a moment later he was peering through Beth's window. What bothered me most though was the audio. Jaekel (and the viewers) could hear Norman talking about going away from outside the house as easily as Beth (and the viewers) could hear Norman from inside.
Norman asked Beth to iron an extra shirt, and Beth nodded, but this unusual bird call we can hear as though the bird was inside the house, and that was never heard around Dodge City before, at least not in the past eight years, immediately notified Beth that Carl was back, so she told Norman she was going to hitch up the buggy in the barn. What about the shirt?
The taunting in the echoey mineshaft at the end was reminiscent of the taunting at the end of Cape Fear - another spooky setting.
Despite the similarities with Gregory Peck and Cape Fear, the episode was intriguing; and the fact Gunsmoke managed to include some chemistry between the lead characters made this episode unique.
Gunsmoke: Albert (1970)
Unforeseen Business
Unfortunately, when this episode started, I paid too much attention to the story.
The outlaws rob banks, and their leader does his research. The experienced crew has taken their positions to rob the bank in Dodge City. Along the way to the bank, the mastermind taunted their victim, Albert, with crucial information.
As viewers, we're privy to the following. Albert leaves his "apartment" at 8:30 every morning and "opens the bank a minute later," wherein Albert has "opened the safe for 15 years."
Everything goes according to plan; and in less than six minutes into this episode, the outlaws - in their calm, deliberate way - have the safe opened and Albert surrounded, including a lookout at the door.
An elderly woman knocked on the door and called for Albert because she knew he was in there.
Customers and outlaws alike knew Albert opened the bank at 8:31 every morning.
The outlaws looked at each other in shock, and their facial expressions told the viewers they were not prepared for a customer coming to the bank after it opened. The lookout was a dud.
Albert took advantage of their petrified state, after which the outlaws escaped emptyhanded through the back door, where their horses were tied.
I spent the remainder of the episode realizing if the outlaws had spent five seconds grabbing the loot before running when the customer knocked, then the rest of the story would not have been possible; and noticing nothing else petrified these outlaws. Not visits by the U. S. marshal. Not more customers. Not the guns that were pointed at them, or the shots fired.
The story depended on these outlaws acting uncharacteristically during one "unforeseen" moment - when a customer knocked on the door while the bank was open.
Gunsmoke: Exodus 21.22 (1969)
Thirteen Hundred Miles
Unfortunately, I was watching the TV when this episode started. This would have been better as a radio show.
At first, I thought I was watching a man in a storage room cluttered with junk but then I realized it was his home, a one-room cabin with a dirt floor. There was a small fireplace, one small table with a chair turned backward facing the fireplace and what we would think of today as a mixing bowl and a pitcher. I did not see any plates or dishes in the cabin.
Between the front door and the fireplace there was a small end table with the Holy Bible on top, opened to Exodus; and beside this, which took me awhile to recognize, was an old-fashioned cradle with a toy for a baby.
After the kerosene lamp goes out the camera zooms in on the Bible and we read Exodus 21-24, which includes life for a life, eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth. Looked like moonlight on the page but there was no window near it.
Well, not long after we see these things, we hear the main "protagonist," Frank Reardon, describe how his wife had let in seven men, fed them, and let them warm themselves by the fireplace, until they scared her so badly that she ran from her home and died in the blizzard. Frank found her after he returned from Butte (Montana), where he had been away on business during the tragedy.
Frank also said his wife did not have to let them in, she could have kept the door bolted; but the door to the cabin had a doorknob and no lock. Was Frank that inobservant about his home, or was he making an alibi for himself - leaving a pregnant woman by herself with no security?
Frank is now 1,300 miles from his home in Montana, where he has chased the last three men on his quest for vengeance. The newspaper in Dodge City has published the story up to this point, so everyone there knows about Frank (Matt, Kitty, and Doc having been friends with Frank and his pregnant wife for years, somehow), and how he has killed men along the way.
Furthermore, we have been privy to the infighting between the remaining men, and as viewers we know how one of the seven men scared his wife: too much public display of affection.
Even if a man would do that in front of six other men, to a pregnant woman, in a 150-sq foot cabin, the image of eight adults in front of that little fireplace was challenging.
There was little space between the table and the fireplace. Were all eight people standing in a huddle together and moving in a circle taking turns warming up?
Did the seven men take the plates, glasses, flatware (and their napkins) when they left? Did they sign a guest registry when they entered, and was that how Frank knew there were seven men and their names?
Did the footprints in the dirt of the cabin floor provide this knowledge? After the blizzard cleared up, were there any tracks left to follow from Montana to Kansas? If Frank knew what happened to his wife, as he claimed to all along, why was it necessary for one of the remaining men to reveal to Frank what really happened at the end (and after "four men killed")?
If this were a radio show (or we listened to the actors without watching them on screen), we could edit the images in our minds to make more sense of the story. The acting was good.
Gunsmoke: Lobo (1968)
Lobo and Brazo
Interesting that Lobo in English is a timber wolf, which is a type of wolf found in the Great Lakes region, and Brazo in English is arm. Did the writer have limited Spanish ability or was the story transported from up north? Anyway, those are the two reasons to watch this episode - the wolf and Brazo.
Being from Ohio I had a tough time with Brazo's accent. Even when his words were clear it seemed like he used obsolete words to express whatever was on his mind, which eventually seemed to be an extreme dislike for all concerned but the wolf. I guess I understood his overall meaning, but was Brazo depicting senility?
Apart from his speech, he wore the same costume as two other men who made fun of his costume, so I became distracted thinking about the costume department. Did they borrow from the Danielle Boone set (1964-1970)?
Lobo was the most likeable character in the episode. I would like to have seen more of this title character. Ferocious but beautiful. For my 14th birthday I got a puppy whose mother lived on a farm, a German Shepherd, and whose father was a roving wolf. Smart dog, and what a loyal companion. Brazo had a similar connection to Lobo for whatever past they shared together, and I understood Brazo's actions (more than his words).
The overall story is filled with unfortunate outcomes, but I appreciated the last thing Matt does in this episode.
Gunsmoke: The Brothers (1966)
Contrived and Poorly Directed
The Brothers went off the rails from the start. Bank robbers had cleaned out the safe in Dodge City and were ready to leave the bank - through the front door. A bank customer walked out the door in front of them, so one robber shot the customer in the back. The rifle shot drew more attention than the customer. Consequently, there was a shootout with Matt as the robbers fled. This set-up allowed Matt to shoot and capture one robber - "a boy" (played by a 22-year-old). The writing that started this episode continued throughout. Three characters who we'd never seen in Dodge City were quickly introduced, much like crew members on Star Trek whenever a victim was needed. The problem with these set-ups is that the audience has no connection with these victims. They were thrown in by the writers to be abused or killed off, and we see it coming. The first new-character victim walked into a trap. He had a gung-ho attitude and a gun in his hand, but a bad guy walked slowly toward him smiling, and all he did was cower. End of shot. The next time we saw him, he was dead; and Thad (his "good friend") looked at him and said, "Oh, no." The second and third new-character victims were spouses. Turned out she was pregnant (not showing), and what followed was the worst of the writing & directing. Matt abruptly decided to take "the boy" to see what his brother had done to her. When the boy walked briskly into her bedroom toward her, she didn't ask who he was, and she wasn't afraid or catatonic after the brutal assault, but instead asked the boy if his parents wanted a boy, on cue. She looked beat up; and after her brief soliloquy, the boy began to consider the possibility his older brother (played by a 34-year-old) was morally challenged. Still, he told Matt (which was to tell us) the backstory of their childhoods. The "hurt people hurt people" story without the violin accompaniment. Like all good guys, Matt tied the boy to a tree and hid in the rocks above with a rifle to execute the boy's brother and two friends ("the gang"). The sooner the better. After watching Noah Berry and a French-Vietnamese woman play Indians in the previous episode, I assumed this episode would be better. I had to replay the last words of this episode to make sure I heard them correctly. The episode ends with Matt and the boy walking off into the sunset (western 101). No shovels in hand. Rewind. The last words spoken by Matt to the boy were, "We've got work to do."
Gunsmoke: Bad Lady from Brookline (1965)
Comedy and Suspense
The first peculiar thing that attracted my attention was how excited the men were when a stranger, "Bad Lady," arrived in Dodge. Ordinarily, I exercise or play chess, etc., during Gunsmoke. The characters in their usual clothes & places do not require much attention to follow the plots. I glance at the screen when something draws my attention; and in this case, men excited to see a woman did the trick. I was confused enough to keep watching. Were the men serious or were they being unkind? Am I looking at the right woman? The next peculiar thing was how Bad Lady spoke, as though she had run to town to share vital information. Her conversations were breathless and frantic, and most were based on trivial matters (not altogether fictional). When Claude Aikens appeared, I was able to resume focusing on exercise, as he has played the villain in previous episodes, too many times (but he did it well here). Just as undoubtedly, Bad Lady's depiction of barroom vocals was better for drunk listeners in their time and place than now. Sights and sounds away from Bad Lady would have been welcomed during those assaults. I enjoyed the events leading up to the end, and the ending. Nice twists for a TV western. If Bad Lady and villain found anything appealing about one another, then as usual I could not see what the couple saw in each other - realistic enough.