Lots of action good story and we see Matt at his best. Seems like the older Marshall Dillon gets the tougher he gets. A meer group of 5 or 6 tough outlaws are no match for our Marshall. One of the best fights in the entire series highlights this episode. Great watch but how many episodes aren't?
5 Reviews
Unrealistic
nj-8896 May 2023
There's no way that Pappy Quinn, Sonny, Digby and Ed would have allowed Sarah to ride out and warn Matt that they knew who he really was. Since they were outlaws they hated lawmen and wanted to kill as many as they could. Pappy and his boys would have killed Sarah as soon as Deering told him that the real Dakota Charlie was dead. They would have waited for Matt to ride back in so that they could kill him. There was no good reason for them to let Sarah leave when it was so much easier to kill her.
Also, why didn't Matt get Newly to ride back with him? There were other lawmen not too far away who could help. One man riding in alone to fight five outlaws makes no sense.
Also, why didn't Matt get Newly to ride back with him? There were other lawmen not too far away who could help. One man riding in alone to fight five outlaws makes no sense.
Action packed episode but the story was lacking
kfo949418 September 2013
There is a lot of action in this episode that usually makes for a fine view but the story was so off key from a regular 'Gunsmoke' script that it seemed almost strange.
Matt has tracked a killer all the way from Dodge to near the Mexican Border (on horseback that would have been well over a week) and after shooting the bad guy, Matt runs into an old flame named Sarah. They had been good friends when Matt was deputy sheriff in San Antonio. Well Sarah had fallen on hard times and now runs a little one woman saloon in the desert that caters to bandits and killers.
While Matt is meeting with his old girlfriend, a band of robbers, led by Pappy Quinn, come riding up. Sarah passes Matt as her criminal husband named Dakota Charlie. This works out well as Dakota Charlie is known as a real bad dude in rounds like Pappy Quinn.
Everything goes well for a time until another rider comes in with news that Dakota Charlie had been killed a few years back. Now the bandits set their eyes on killing Matt but not before roughing-up little Sarah along the way.
The good thing about this episode was the near non-stop action. This show was filled with shooting and fights from the beginning to the end. The one bad element of the story was the way Sarah was portrayed. Anne Francis was not believable as the down-on-her-luck girlfriend that the viewer was suppose pine for due to her situation. She came across as a villain herself instead of the lonely woman that just happen to get on the wrong side of the tracks. But Matt will try to hold up her honor as he goes toe-to-toe with the house full of outlaws and hopefully live to tell the tale.
Matt has tracked a killer all the way from Dodge to near the Mexican Border (on horseback that would have been well over a week) and after shooting the bad guy, Matt runs into an old flame named Sarah. They had been good friends when Matt was deputy sheriff in San Antonio. Well Sarah had fallen on hard times and now runs a little one woman saloon in the desert that caters to bandits and killers.
While Matt is meeting with his old girlfriend, a band of robbers, led by Pappy Quinn, come riding up. Sarah passes Matt as her criminal husband named Dakota Charlie. This works out well as Dakota Charlie is known as a real bad dude in rounds like Pappy Quinn.
Everything goes well for a time until another rider comes in with news that Dakota Charlie had been killed a few years back. Now the bandits set their eyes on killing Matt but not before roughing-up little Sarah along the way.
The good thing about this episode was the near non-stop action. This show was filled with shooting and fights from the beginning to the end. The one bad element of the story was the way Sarah was portrayed. Anne Francis was not believable as the down-on-her-luck girlfriend that the viewer was suppose pine for due to her situation. She came across as a villain herself instead of the lonely woman that just happen to get on the wrong side of the tracks. But Matt will try to hold up her honor as he goes toe-to-toe with the house full of outlaws and hopefully live to tell the tale.
Matt Revisits His Past and Goes Undercover
wdavidreynolds6 September 2021
Marshal Matt Dillon and Deputy Newly O'Brien have been chasing some outlaws that robbed a stagecoach and killed the driver near Dodge City. They caught all but one of the men and placed them in jail in Cimarron. Matt has left Newly behind to go after the last man, whose name is Vesco.
Matt catches up with Vesco at a remote way station near the border with Mexico. Matt tries to take the bandit into custody, but Vesco resists, a gunfight ensues, and Vesco is killed.
Matt learns the way station is run by one of his former romantic interests, a woman named Sarah. Matt and Sarah were involved in a relationship when he was a deputy in San Antonio. (As far as I know, this is the first mention of Dillon having been a deputy in San Antonio.)
Sarah has lived through some rough years since she and Matt parted ways. Now she runs this way station frequented by men who are often at odds with law enforcement.
Matt intends to stop long enough to bury Vesco and clean up a bit before riding back to Cimarron to meet Newly and return to Dodge. His plans are thwarted when a gang of seedy men led by a tough guy named Pappy Quinn ride into the way station. Normally, Pappy and his men stop for a few drinks and leave after a couple of hours, but Pappy tells Sarah they are there to meet some other men and will be hanging around for a while. Of course, this presents a problem since Matt is hiding in a bedroom.
When Pappy and his men begin to become a little too physically aggressive with Sarah, she tells then she just got married to a notorious outlaw who goes by the moniker "Dakota Charlie." Pappy finds Matt shaving in the bedroom and accepts Sarah's story.
Matt reluctantly agrees to go along with Sarah's lie and stick around overnight. Pappy tries to convince Matt -- who he thinks is Dakota Charlie -- to join them in a robbery of a gold shipment. Marshal Dillon recognizes an opportunity to stop a crime and take Pappy and his men into custody.
Anytime Matt finds himself in these situations, it seems there is at least ONE member of the gang that distrusts the Marshal and insists on proving they are faster with a gun or better with their fists. (There must be some rule about these kinds of circumstances where the Marshal must prove how tough he is.) Sure enough, Digby, one of Pappy's gang, takes on Matt in a fist fight.
The story focus suddenly shifts from the past relationship between Sarah and Matt to Marshal Dillon's efforts to thwart the robbery by Pappy and his gang.
Veteran actress Anne Francis makes her only Gunsmoke appearance as Sarah in this story. Francis was prominently featured in movies such as Bad Day at Black Rock, Blackboard Jungle, and Forbidden Planet in the mid-1950s. She later turned to television work and appeared in many television shows in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Francis is good in this role, and it would been nice to learn more about her past with Matt Dillon.
Anthony Caruso returns for another Gunsmoke guest-starring role. He appeared in fourteen episodes over the twenty-year run of the series. In this story, he portrays Pappy Quinn. Jonathan Lippe (later Goldsmith) also appeared in fourteen different series installments. Here he plays the character named Sonny, who is the same smarmy, over-confident villain Lippe/Goldsmith always played in about every television show where he guested.
Rex Holman was another frequent Gunsmoke guest, as he plays a menacing tough guy in sixteen different episodes of the series. He plays another of Pappy's gang named Ed in this story. Former wrestler Mike Lane plays the Digby character. His fight with Matt is notable because it isn't often Matt tangled with people who were even larger than he was.
This is one of those stories where Matt is far away from Dodge City, and the other regular cast members are absent except Buck Taylor, who appears briefly as Newly O'Brien. The story begins with the revelation of the past relationship between Matt and Sarah, but that plot element gives way to the situation where Matt becomes an undercover agent plotting against the would-be thieves.
Gunsmoke fans looking for shootouts and fisticuffs -- things that can be rare in the later episodes -- will find things to enjoy in this story. However, the episode is titled "Sarah," even though the namesake character is not the central character. Instead, Francis's character is unceremoniously tossed away. The script does a decent job building tension, but the resolution is predictable and falls flat.
Matt catches up with Vesco at a remote way station near the border with Mexico. Matt tries to take the bandit into custody, but Vesco resists, a gunfight ensues, and Vesco is killed.
Matt learns the way station is run by one of his former romantic interests, a woman named Sarah. Matt and Sarah were involved in a relationship when he was a deputy in San Antonio. (As far as I know, this is the first mention of Dillon having been a deputy in San Antonio.)
Sarah has lived through some rough years since she and Matt parted ways. Now she runs this way station frequented by men who are often at odds with law enforcement.
Matt intends to stop long enough to bury Vesco and clean up a bit before riding back to Cimarron to meet Newly and return to Dodge. His plans are thwarted when a gang of seedy men led by a tough guy named Pappy Quinn ride into the way station. Normally, Pappy and his men stop for a few drinks and leave after a couple of hours, but Pappy tells Sarah they are there to meet some other men and will be hanging around for a while. Of course, this presents a problem since Matt is hiding in a bedroom.
When Pappy and his men begin to become a little too physically aggressive with Sarah, she tells then she just got married to a notorious outlaw who goes by the moniker "Dakota Charlie." Pappy finds Matt shaving in the bedroom and accepts Sarah's story.
Matt reluctantly agrees to go along with Sarah's lie and stick around overnight. Pappy tries to convince Matt -- who he thinks is Dakota Charlie -- to join them in a robbery of a gold shipment. Marshal Dillon recognizes an opportunity to stop a crime and take Pappy and his men into custody.
Anytime Matt finds himself in these situations, it seems there is at least ONE member of the gang that distrusts the Marshal and insists on proving they are faster with a gun or better with their fists. (There must be some rule about these kinds of circumstances where the Marshal must prove how tough he is.) Sure enough, Digby, one of Pappy's gang, takes on Matt in a fist fight.
The story focus suddenly shifts from the past relationship between Sarah and Matt to Marshal Dillon's efforts to thwart the robbery by Pappy and his gang.
Veteran actress Anne Francis makes her only Gunsmoke appearance as Sarah in this story. Francis was prominently featured in movies such as Bad Day at Black Rock, Blackboard Jungle, and Forbidden Planet in the mid-1950s. She later turned to television work and appeared in many television shows in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Francis is good in this role, and it would been nice to learn more about her past with Matt Dillon.
Anthony Caruso returns for another Gunsmoke guest-starring role. He appeared in fourteen episodes over the twenty-year run of the series. In this story, he portrays Pappy Quinn. Jonathan Lippe (later Goldsmith) also appeared in fourteen different series installments. Here he plays the character named Sonny, who is the same smarmy, over-confident villain Lippe/Goldsmith always played in about every television show where he guested.
Rex Holman was another frequent Gunsmoke guest, as he plays a menacing tough guy in sixteen different episodes of the series. He plays another of Pappy's gang named Ed in this story. Former wrestler Mike Lane plays the Digby character. His fight with Matt is notable because it isn't often Matt tangled with people who were even larger than he was.
This is one of those stories where Matt is far away from Dodge City, and the other regular cast members are absent except Buck Taylor, who appears briefly as Newly O'Brien. The story begins with the revelation of the past relationship between Matt and Sarah, but that plot element gives way to the situation where Matt becomes an undercover agent plotting against the would-be thieves.
Gunsmoke fans looking for shootouts and fisticuffs -- things that can be rare in the later episodes -- will find things to enjoy in this story. However, the episode is titled "Sarah," even though the namesake character is not the central character. Instead, Francis's character is unceremoniously tossed away. The script does a decent job building tension, but the resolution is predictable and falls flat.
Response to nj-889
netflixnkill17 July 2023
"One man riding in alone to fight five outlaws makes no sense" ...of course not unless the man is Matt Dillion :)
I always find it interesting how we as viewers can interpret certain aspects of the story differently. Sometimes it completely change which decisions the characters make seem logical and what doesn't.
For example, what user nj-889 said about Poppy's gang letting Sarah ride out to warn Matt being unrealistic actually made perfect sense from my perspective. Being a lawman Poppy fully intended on Matt to come back whether he knew he was found out or not (which is why he bet Sonny the $5 and was so relaxed about it) so he wasn't really risking anything by letting her go right? By that point Deering and his boys had already rode out and obviously no Dakota meaning the robbery was a bust. There was no reason to kill Sarah. She said herself they knew she wouldn't go to any other law, and Matt couldn't either as he had nothing to charge against them and probably figured the only way was to shoot it out. Plus whatever they did to Sarah still they were rather fond of her so I don't think they'd wanna kill her if it wasn't absolutely necessary.
Well anyway that's my theory I could be wrong tho and the other reviewer could be right. I just wanted to give a different angle because I notice alot of times a user (including me) will rate low or take points off and when you read their reasoning it's usually from things the person missed in the story or misinterpreted, not flaws in writing.
I always find it interesting how we as viewers can interpret certain aspects of the story differently. Sometimes it completely change which decisions the characters make seem logical and what doesn't.
For example, what user nj-889 said about Poppy's gang letting Sarah ride out to warn Matt being unrealistic actually made perfect sense from my perspective. Being a lawman Poppy fully intended on Matt to come back whether he knew he was found out or not (which is why he bet Sonny the $5 and was so relaxed about it) so he wasn't really risking anything by letting her go right? By that point Deering and his boys had already rode out and obviously no Dakota meaning the robbery was a bust. There was no reason to kill Sarah. She said herself they knew she wouldn't go to any other law, and Matt couldn't either as he had nothing to charge against them and probably figured the only way was to shoot it out. Plus whatever they did to Sarah still they were rather fond of her so I don't think they'd wanna kill her if it wasn't absolutely necessary.
Well anyway that's my theory I could be wrong tho and the other reviewer could be right. I just wanted to give a different angle because I notice alot of times a user (including me) will rate low or take points off and when you read their reasoning it's usually from things the person missed in the story or misinterpreted, not flaws in writing.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
