Three cattle drivers find competition with railroads is forcing them out of business, and 2 of them mistakenly turn to crime for a temporary fix.Three cattle drivers find competition with railroads is forcing them out of business, and 2 of them mistakenly turn to crime for a temporary fix.Three cattle drivers find competition with railroads is forcing them out of business, and 2 of them mistakenly turn to crime for a temporary fix.
Photos
Milburn Stone
- Doc
- (credit only)
Buck Taylor
- Newly
- (credit only)
Henry Kendrick
- Sheriff
- (as Henry Max Kendrick)
David S. Cass Sr.
- Brawler
- (uncredited)
Ross Dollarhide
- Townsman
- (uncredited)
Louie Elias
- Brawler
- (uncredited)
Michael Jeffers
- Dealer
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis episode won the Writer's Guild Award for Best Episodic Drama.
- Quotes
Will Parmalee: Y'know, Matt, I always figured I'd die a cow hand. Struck by lightning or under the hooves. But sittin' on leather. Not dangling at the end of a rope like some side of beef.
Featured review
Downward Spiral of Three Drunks
Three cowboys came into town with what must have been a small herd, and they got paid over $300.00 between them. Now I have watched enough episodes of the Rawhide TV show to know that bringing a herd into any town should get the drovers a lot more than $300, unless it was just a handful of cows.
Now the drovers could have spent a night in town, gotten some sleep, and taken their money back home the next day, like they had planned. Instead, they spent all night getting blind drunk, and paying for alot of extra waitress attention at the bar. The next morning, they discover that between the three of them (Gene Evans "the veteran cowboy"; Van Williams -The Green Hornet on the 1966 TV series; and Nicholas Hammond -the original live-action Spiderman on the 1977 TV series), they only have 35 cents. Whose fault is that? Primarily Gene Evans, their leader.
The trio just spent months driving a herd to Dodge, so they could get drunk one night. Losers make bad choices. Their next action is to go to the Bulls Head Bar, and try to blame the owner, Bull (Victor Izay) for their losses. They want their money back! How dumb or crazy are they? Eventually they steal $12 From Bull, and Van Williams shoots Izay in the shoulder. They flee Dodge as fugitives.
Matt Dillon and Festus start tracking them down, because they got nothing better to do. It seemed to me that a lot of law enforcement in Dodge depended on what happened when Matt Dillon had nothing to do. Worse yet, if you were a friend of Dillon, that always guaranteed he was going to track you down. Dillon never wanted anyone to think he treated his friends like they were special.
So the hunt is on, and eventually things go from bad to worse, mostly because Gene Evens is the dumbest cowboy that ever went on the run. Just ask yourself if after you rob a store, do you slowly amble over to the young guy who is talking to his girlfriend, to make sure he stays in town with his girlfriend? If the guy had half a brain, he and Van Williams would have hauled ass out of town, and left the younger cowboy (Hammond), out of trouble. Instead thanks to Gene Evans being sub-moronic, bad things happen to good people.
Unfortunately, because Gene Evans makes Forest Gump look like Albert Einstein, all hell breaks loose at the end. In the great tradition of the original creators of Gunsmoke, this is one of those "everybody dies" episodes. The saddest thing about this story is that the Green Hornet and Spider-Man trusted Gene Evans, who always had a mouth full of chaw, and talked a lot of big cowboy talk, but for practical purposes he was dumber than a wooden post. Their tombstones each said "I'm with Stupid." Even Festus came out of this episode looking like a genius.
People want to interpret this as a story about the dying Old West, but I see it as a story about an alcoholic loser who led his team to their deaths thanks to his bad choices and their trust in him. Nothing to do with the Old West, except that the character played by Gene Evans happened to be a cowboy.
Now the drovers could have spent a night in town, gotten some sleep, and taken their money back home the next day, like they had planned. Instead, they spent all night getting blind drunk, and paying for alot of extra waitress attention at the bar. The next morning, they discover that between the three of them (Gene Evans "the veteran cowboy"; Van Williams -The Green Hornet on the 1966 TV series; and Nicholas Hammond -the original live-action Spiderman on the 1977 TV series), they only have 35 cents. Whose fault is that? Primarily Gene Evans, their leader.
The trio just spent months driving a herd to Dodge, so they could get drunk one night. Losers make bad choices. Their next action is to go to the Bulls Head Bar, and try to blame the owner, Bull (Victor Izay) for their losses. They want their money back! How dumb or crazy are they? Eventually they steal $12 From Bull, and Van Williams shoots Izay in the shoulder. They flee Dodge as fugitives.
Matt Dillon and Festus start tracking them down, because they got nothing better to do. It seemed to me that a lot of law enforcement in Dodge depended on what happened when Matt Dillon had nothing to do. Worse yet, if you were a friend of Dillon, that always guaranteed he was going to track you down. Dillon never wanted anyone to think he treated his friends like they were special.
So the hunt is on, and eventually things go from bad to worse, mostly because Gene Evens is the dumbest cowboy that ever went on the run. Just ask yourself if after you rob a store, do you slowly amble over to the young guy who is talking to his girlfriend, to make sure he stays in town with his girlfriend? If the guy had half a brain, he and Van Williams would have hauled ass out of town, and left the younger cowboy (Hammond), out of trouble. Instead thanks to Gene Evans being sub-moronic, bad things happen to good people.
Unfortunately, because Gene Evans makes Forest Gump look like Albert Einstein, all hell breaks loose at the end. In the great tradition of the original creators of Gunsmoke, this is one of those "everybody dies" episodes. The saddest thing about this story is that the Green Hornet and Spider-Man trusted Gene Evans, who always had a mouth full of chaw, and talked a lot of big cowboy talk, but for practical purposes he was dumber than a wooden post. Their tombstones each said "I'm with Stupid." Even Festus came out of this episode looking like a genius.
People want to interpret this as a story about the dying Old West, but I see it as a story about an alcoholic loser who led his team to their deaths thanks to his bad choices and their trust in him. Nothing to do with the Old West, except that the character played by Gene Evans happened to be a cowboy.
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- Johnny_West
- Jun 5, 2022
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