This week Marshal Matt Dillon gets more physical with wrongdoers than I've seen in a long time.
The episode opens with Matt Dillon getting some water for himself and his horse when the Our Gang kids manage to wander off the MGM lot and into a time warp where they end up on the Kansas prairie and pelt Matt with small stones, claiming he is a giant. But no, these are just the many kids in a family stuck because their wagon wheel is broken and the two able bodied men in the family are hopeless loafers and complainers. The oldest girl in the family, Allie, is enamored of Matt, and when he gets back on his horse to return to Dodge City after fixing the wagon wheel and slapping the loafing adult brother around, Allie decides to follow him back there on foot.
In the meantime the Marshal has just slapped around and evicted from Dodge two brothers who were shooting up the town the night before. When the meaner of the two encounters Allie en route to Dodge and realizes she might mean something to Matt, he assaults her in revenge.
When Allie turns up in Dodge after the attack, Matt's reaction is inexplicable. After having her examined by Doc, he takes her BACK to face the brothers because she will need to identify them??? Why not bring them back to Dodge and put them in jail and have her safely identify them from there? Matt isn't just happy to put them under arrest - the one who didn't do the assaulting has been shot by the one who did, so at least it is one against one at this point - he again wants to beat the tar out of the perp. What would have happened had Matt lost that fight with Allie clearly visible nearby? Probably a repeat of the original crime.
To top it all off, afterwards, Matt takes Allie BACK to the shiftless family. Now he gives his reasons, but none of them are good.
It was good to see more of James Arness as Matt Dillon than we usually see of him as of late, but when he does appear I would ask that his actions make more sense.
The episode opens with Matt Dillon getting some water for himself and his horse when the Our Gang kids manage to wander off the MGM lot and into a time warp where they end up on the Kansas prairie and pelt Matt with small stones, claiming he is a giant. But no, these are just the many kids in a family stuck because their wagon wheel is broken and the two able bodied men in the family are hopeless loafers and complainers. The oldest girl in the family, Allie, is enamored of Matt, and when he gets back on his horse to return to Dodge City after fixing the wagon wheel and slapping the loafing adult brother around, Allie decides to follow him back there on foot.
In the meantime the Marshal has just slapped around and evicted from Dodge two brothers who were shooting up the town the night before. When the meaner of the two encounters Allie en route to Dodge and realizes she might mean something to Matt, he assaults her in revenge.
When Allie turns up in Dodge after the attack, Matt's reaction is inexplicable. After having her examined by Doc, he takes her BACK to face the brothers because she will need to identify them??? Why not bring them back to Dodge and put them in jail and have her safely identify them from there? Matt isn't just happy to put them under arrest - the one who didn't do the assaulting has been shot by the one who did, so at least it is one against one at this point - he again wants to beat the tar out of the perp. What would have happened had Matt lost that fight with Allie clearly visible nearby? Probably a repeat of the original crime.
To top it all off, afterwards, Matt takes Allie BACK to the shiftless family. Now he gives his reasons, but none of them are good.
It was good to see more of James Arness as Matt Dillon than we usually see of him as of late, but when he does appear I would ask that his actions make more sense.