I wanted to start out saying I own all of the Gunsmoke DVDs for just the half hour shows. I feel many of these episodes are worth repeating for the action and the unexpected twists and turns as well as the family type relationships between Matt, Chester, Kitty and Doc. I feel the hour long episodes -- some of them were good -- focused too much on "relationships" and slowed down the show. Plus I'm not a big fan of Festus.
This episode starts off great. Jack Lambert is a swaggering sneering, squinty-eyed gunman named Kin Creed who rides into town and immediately starts throwing his weight around. He is truly an astounding villain and one of the very top ones in the history of the show. What a face! (and voice)
He goes into the Long Branch and kills a drunk then starts trying to intimidate Matt to fight him, in order to add to his reputation as a gunfighter. Matt will have none of it; he enforces the law, he doesn't get into fights with every gunman that rides into town.
There's a good comic exchange between Matt and Chester at Delmonicos until Creed spies them eating and comes in and stands uncomfortably close to Chester. Creed starts to bully Chester, but Chester gets some zingers in himself, adding fuel to the fire.
A fight is brewing and he townspeople are starting to whisper that maybe Matt is scared of this desperado with a reputation for a fast gun.
Creed is puzzled. Matt won't fight him. So he finally figures out that he can force a fight by breaking the law. He unexpectedly cracks an old man over the head with his gun and starts to laugh at the fallen drunk like a homicidal maniac. Chester sees this and calls Matt.
Then there's the confrontation where Creed outdraws Matt and shoots him in the arm. He won't kill him because of an unwritten code of not killing a cripple. Matt gets patched up and heads out to a final gunfight...
Now you know it can't be the end of Matt because that would be the end of the series. But I must say the conclusion of this episode was a cop out. I will not divulge what happens but to me, it was an easy out and quite random and unsatisfying.
It was actually a very enjoyable episode but mostly for the performance of Jack Lambert, a heavy-type more well known for Dick Tracy v The Claw. You can tell that he relishes the Kin Creed role as an actor.
It was one of those episodes that the writers couldn't seem to figure out how to wrap things up and so at the end it seemed implausible which takes points away from this fascinating but flawed episode.
This episode starts off great. Jack Lambert is a swaggering sneering, squinty-eyed gunman named Kin Creed who rides into town and immediately starts throwing his weight around. He is truly an astounding villain and one of the very top ones in the history of the show. What a face! (and voice)
He goes into the Long Branch and kills a drunk then starts trying to intimidate Matt to fight him, in order to add to his reputation as a gunfighter. Matt will have none of it; he enforces the law, he doesn't get into fights with every gunman that rides into town.
There's a good comic exchange between Matt and Chester at Delmonicos until Creed spies them eating and comes in and stands uncomfortably close to Chester. Creed starts to bully Chester, but Chester gets some zingers in himself, adding fuel to the fire.
A fight is brewing and he townspeople are starting to whisper that maybe Matt is scared of this desperado with a reputation for a fast gun.
Creed is puzzled. Matt won't fight him. So he finally figures out that he can force a fight by breaking the law. He unexpectedly cracks an old man over the head with his gun and starts to laugh at the fallen drunk like a homicidal maniac. Chester sees this and calls Matt.
Then there's the confrontation where Creed outdraws Matt and shoots him in the arm. He won't kill him because of an unwritten code of not killing a cripple. Matt gets patched up and heads out to a final gunfight...
Now you know it can't be the end of Matt because that would be the end of the series. But I must say the conclusion of this episode was a cop out. I will not divulge what happens but to me, it was an easy out and quite random and unsatisfying.
It was actually a very enjoyable episode but mostly for the performance of Jack Lambert, a heavy-type more well known for Dick Tracy v The Claw. You can tell that he relishes the Kin Creed role as an actor.
It was one of those episodes that the writers couldn't seem to figure out how to wrap things up and so at the end it seemed implausible which takes points away from this fascinating but flawed episode.