User Reviews

One of the best series. Honest, refreshing.

No profanity or bad language. Good stories. I really enjoy watching. One of my favorite westerns.

I watch it practically EVERYDAY and at night.

Festus Haggen is riding his mule Ruth when he encounters a man on foot carrying a saddle. Festus offers to give the man a ride, but he refuses, draws his gun, and shoots Festus. The man climbs on Ruth and rides into Dodge City.

In Dodge, the man draws a lot of attention, because the citizens recognize Ruth. He makes his way to the Dodge House where he tells Howie, the hotel clerk, his name is Will Mannon. Mannon is known for a notorious civil war event in Lawrence, Kansas where people were killed and property was destroyed.

Mannon subsequently sets about terrorizing the town. He takes whatever he wants, and the people are helpless to stop him. He tells Kitty Russell he has come to Dodge for the purpose of killing Matt Dillon, who is away in Ellsworth at the time.

It is unclear exactly WHY Mannon wants to kill the Marshall at this particular point in time. He tells Kitty he thinks killing Dillon will somehow earn him some measure of respect, but Matt has been in Dodge for many years. One wonders why Mannon has waited so long. The viewer is simply asked to accept the circumstances.

With Festus recovering from the gunshot wound, and Newly O'Brien on his way to Ellsworth to warn Matt, Mannon sets his sights on Kitty. She is "the only one in town I haven't shrunk down to size," according to the sadistic gunslinger. So he sets about trying to change that by attacking and probably raping Kitty, although the rape is never explicitly acknowledged.

It is no great mystery that Matt will arrive back in town for the inevitable showdown with Mannon, but not before Kitty uses some timely, clever psychology to try to lessen Mannon's clear advantage.

Steve Forrest as Will Mannon is the only guest star in this episode. Everything in the story is centered on the Mannon character. Forrest built his career on this type of sinister character, and he is great at it. Forrest would play a similar character in much the same circumstances in Season 15's "Morgan."

One of the highlights of this episode is the immersion of the story within Dodge. There is even a crazy poker scene where Mannon is playing with Ed Halligan, Woody Lathrop, Barney Danches, and Ed O'Connor, all Dodge City citizens that pop up on occasion. We also see Howie at the Dodge House, Louie Pheeters, Nathan Burke, and Roy, who runs a general store.

Amanda Blake is every bit Forrest's equal in her Kitty Russell role. There is one scene in particular where Kitty devastates the arrogant, confident Mannon character.

I have seen this episode many, many times over the years, and there are some odd, head-scratching aspects to this story. I could never understand how one man could so completely dominate an entire town. Mannon gives more than enough justification for residents of the town to gang up on him. (When Newly compares killing Mannon to shooting a dangerous animal from a distance, Doc dismisses the idea, but one wonders why, given the circumstance.) The fact that Mannon drinks constantly but never gets drunk and still is an expert shot defies physical science. (When Doc goes to tell Mannon Kitty wants to see him, Mannon is drinking whiskey. When Mannon arrives at Kitty's room, he wishes her good morning. Later, Doc even remarks how amazing it is that Mannon drinks so much and it does not affect his shooting accuracy.) Mannon shoots the tops off three bottles of whiskey and then drinks from one of the bottles, despite the fact there would be broken glass inside the bottle.

There is also the matter of the disappearing Newly. Matt had gone to Ellsworth, and Newly finds him camping on the trail back to Dodge. Matt asks Newly to help him gather his stuff. The next time we see the Marshal, he is riding into Dodge alone.

Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of the episode is it appears Matt kills Mannon, but the Mannon character returns years later in the movie, Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge. Supposedly, Doc examined Mannon, discovered he was still alive, and was able to nurse him back to health before he was sent to prison, but none of that happens in this story.

This is an unforgettable, tense story, despite some flaws, its simplicity, and the familiarity of the plot. A bad guy rides into Dodge, attempts to kill Matt Dillon, and fails. There is a lot of time to kill, but the story does not become tiresome. The tension is maintained from start to finish. As another reviewer pointed out, there are definite similarities to the very first Gunsmoke episode, "Matt Gets It."

This episode was Ok but not great and not nearly the best episode of the series as some people claim. May be in top 30 episodes or there about though because it was very wwatchable which most of the color episodes were on the poor side to me. Others have said the scene with Sam the bartender was poor and unbelievable. Nobody is faster drawing and firing against a shotgun that the man holding it and has his fingers on the trigger. Sam had pulled his shotgun many times before this episode and had even shot a few people so he would not have hesitated to shoot that Mannon dog.

****SPOILERS**** Don't read this review unless you've seen the episode. I MEAN it !! I love this series. Mostly because of the characters, but the stories, and the setting, also. The problem with this one was brought out by gary64659. It is unbelievable. The classic western duel, "showdown", only actually happened a couple of times. Of course, those were doozies, weren't they? Bull Hickok, and the Earp Brothers are the gold standard for this type of settlement.

What really bother me about this one, is that Miss Kitty actually sets Matt up for a duel with a notorious fast gun. Why? Because everyone else seems to be a coward. See, when there is a serious problem with a guy like Mannon, and there was not enough law around to solve the problem, a group of fellows know as a grievance, or vigilance committee would step in, and kill the mad dog right there. Gary 64659 brought this up when he called this episode "unbelievable". I agree, but, I'm gonna go farther.

Donald Hamilton, author of the great Matt Helm series of books, gave clear instructions when you are faced with someone who says you are covered. Squeeze the trigger. Mannon says that he'll get Sam the barkeep, when Sam has a coach gun (probably a 10 gauge), aimed right at him. The only answer is to unload both barrels at once into the target. Maybe he'll get a round off, but he's takin' a fall too. and with Newly there, there is no way he'd get them both. Kitty takes the right to do this service away from the righteous men and drops it squarely on Matt.

Matt's had to fight other real bad guys before, too, and in at least one of those, he already had his gun drawn before the other guy was in the fight. Why not here, too? That would have made this episode much more palatable, as well as real.

Next, almost every one of the Quantrill killers from the raid on Lawrence were either dead, or on the run. Mannon would have been shot down at the first opportunity. Yeah, the acting was good, but it was not enough to raise this effort above a 7...sorry.