User Reviews

Mark and Paul Douglas hired a gunslinger named Joe Bascome (Darren McGavin) to kill Marshall Matt Dillon. But before the match, Joe gets into another gunfight when these three people were assaulting a Chineese man and his daughter, Ching Lee. During the gunfight Joe is able to kill all three men but gets injured in the exchange of gunfire.

Ching Lee was so grateful for the help that she nurses Joe back to health. But all the time the Douglas brothers are always close wanting Joe to take care of Matt Dillon.

After many months Joe is back on his feet and finds himself falling in love with Ching Lee. Joe plans to give up the gunslinger's life and perhaps settle down. This does not set to well with the Douglas brothers and their actions force Joe to follow through with the commitment to shoot Matt.

The young Darren McGavin is surprisingly good as the gunslinger Joe Bascome. Forget his other acting gigs, you really believed that Darrin was a professional killer in the way he played this part. France Nuyen is flawless, not only in her outward beauty, but also in her portrayal of Ching Lee.-- A very nice and entertaining story that came across the screen very well.

As the years rolled along with Gunsmoke, more and more episodes featured less and less of Matt. Festus would often be the featured character, or maybe Doc, or Kitty, or Newly. A little of this, of course, isn't so bad. It gives the other regulars a chance to show off a little and flush out their characters. But too much of it can leave a viewer feeling a little cheated. After all, if you tune into Gunsmoke, there's a good chance you're hoping to see Matt Dillon.

Which brings me to 'Gunfighter R. I. P.'. In this episode, we see very little of Matt. In fact, we don't see much of Festus or Kitty, either. Doc shows up a little more, but even he's just a bit player. No, this episode is about a couple of strangers to the Gunsmoke world; Darren McGavin's hired gun, Joe Bascome, and France Nuyen's looked down upon angel, Ching Lee. If either actor had turned in a great performance here, this would have been a fine episode, but we were lucky enough to get great work from both.

Doing my best not to spoil anything . . . . the initial script for the episode had called for a different ending, but the nature and quality of the ride these two take the viewer on, simply didn't allow it. So, the ending was altered to . . . . well, like I said, I don't want to spoil anything.

In the long, long run of this series, I can't think of a better episode in which the beloved regulars of Dodge play such small roles. Fortunately, with McGavin and Nuyen, we viewers are in very capable hands.

After all these years, I immediately recognized France Nuyen's voice as Elaan of Troas. She is an excellent actress.

Gunsmoke has several episodes regarding various racist characters who are in love with an Indian woman. In this case the formula is slightly changed to cover hatred of Asians. A lot of Westerns, including Gunsmoke, dealt with this type of racism from the point of view of the whites.

The story itself is disappointing. The formula of the white man being abusive and rejecting the minority that loves him is hard to take, even back in the day. I saw this episode as a kid, and I did not like the verbal abuse of Ching Lee (Frances Nuyen). In all of these type of stories, the abusive white man later changes his mind and accepts the minority woman who loves him. It always seems like the woman is being accepted in spite of being a minority. Either way it feels racist.

McGavin was not much of a romantic lead actor, and his scenes with Ching Lee (Frances Nuyen) look really awkward. Five minutes after McGavin tells her that he does not love her and does not want her, he changes his mind and now he is in love with her. It also seemed like Ching Lee's feelings do not matter, and even after he rejected her, she is supposed to be happy and grateful that he changed his mind?

I am a big fan of Darren McGavin, and I have seen McGavin in dozens of other performances, and he was a great actor. McGavin can make any role come alive like few other actors can. Check out Kolchak, The Night Stalker and you can see McGavin make any script look great. McGavin had great charisma.

James Arness is only in this episode for the final scene. The showdown between McGavin and Arness was good, and there was an unexpected twist. I would have enjoyed this episode more without the romance sub-plot.

Doc Adams always worked hard in every scene. You can see that he enjoyed his role, and loved his work. In this episode he is the cast member who gets the most screen time.

Joe Bascome is a hired killer, and the Douglas brothers have hired him to kill Matt Dillon, although we never learn why. Bascome stops in a small town about three hours from Dodge City to get a bath and shave, get his clothes cleaned, and make the arrangements with the Douglas brothers.

Bascome encounters three cowboys who apparently have nothing better to do than to bully the Asian man and his daughter that run the local laundry. Gunplay erupts, and Bascome is shot and badly injured.

The daughter, Ching Lee, mistakes Bascome's motivation for his actions. She thinks he was defending her and her father against the bullies. In reality, Bascome was angered by having his clean clothes splatted with mud when one of the bullies pushes the father into the mud. Ching Lee undertakes the job of nursing Bascome back to health.

As Bascome recuperates over the next weeks, Bascome and Ching Lee gradually fall in love, although Bascome is reluctant to admit it for a while.

This is essentially a love story that has very little to do with anything normally related to Gunsmoke. Matt Dillon is a central character here, but only because he is the reason Bascome is where he is. We only see James Arness briefly near the end of the episode. Ching Lee summons Doc Adams from Dodge to care for Bascome, which introduces Milburn Stone into the story. There are a couple of scenes inside the Long Branch where we see Miss Kitty and some of the other Dodge regulars briefly.

It is a decent enough love story, it moves along at a good pace, and it is very well acted. Darren McGavin is excellent as Bascome. Although he is a gunslinger, he does a good job at evoking sympathy from the audience. I believe he only appeared in two episodes of Gunsmoke--this one, and The Hostage late in Season 11. He was excellent in both appearances. France Nuyen also delivers a top-notch performance as Ching Lee.

I rate this episode lower than others because of the lack of anything much related to Gunsmoke. This story could have been set anywhere. There is nothing uniquely Gunsmoke about it.