User Reviews

My good friend and writing partner Dudley Bromley wrote this episode. In 1973 the Nixon administration was upset about TV violence and proposed The Family Hour between 8-9 pm. Gunsmoke aired there. The producers decided a light hearted episode would be in order, so they took this spec script from Dudley. We were there and watched the filming.

Another "fun" fact is that the new, young barmaid won her role by being "Miss Hot Pants" of 1972. The producers wrote her part in without telling Dudley--such is the experience of young, inexperienced writers.

The comedic episodes of Gunsmoke are always a delight but this is an especially wonderful one. The always funny Billy Curtis gives one of his best performances and plays off Ken Curtis perfectly, their give and take being one of the highlights of the show. The knack for comedy of this superb cast of actors is always amazing and leaves one wishing more of these lighter offerings were made. It's certain that this is one Gunsmoke that will leave you laughing and perhaps with a bit of a tear in your eye.

I've not given this episode a quality vote, as I can't decide whether it's good or bad.

One thing that's clear is that "Gunsmoke" and "comedy" don't mix. The show was originally conceived as a less-dishonest view of the American West, with its degeneracy and violence bluntly thrown in the audience's face. Not surprisingly, outright comedy * introduces a jarring shift in tone. **

Whatever its absolute merits, "Arizona Midnight" is a half-hour story horribly distended into an hour episode, larded with meandering dialog. (The writer must have gone crazy trying to come up with plausible longueurs.) It doesn't help that Billy Curtis (no relation to Ken Curtis, whose birth name was Gates) is an unconvincing actor. (Curtis starred 35 years earlier in another comedy Western, the infamous all-midget "Terror of Tiny Town".)

Nor does it help that "Gunsmoke" was, in its later years when composers wrote episode-specific scores, an often poorly scored program. (Justin Boggan will no doubt disagree.) The composers had no idea how to handle comic moments, let alone comic episodes, and invariably fell back on a hundred years of musical cliché, with gurgling woodwinds and snarky brasses announcing every event the audience was supposed to find funny. (Richard Strauss did it a lot better.) "Arizona Midnight" would have been better if it hadn't been scored at all.

The denouement is plausible, but only just barely so. Had Arizona's activities involved a theft or major scam, they might have gone down more easily, and certainly would have been more in line with the original conception of "Gunsmoke".

Some people love this episode, some hate it. It shows up on at least one "worst of" lists. It's possible a different treatment of the same basic situation would work -- but I have no idea what it would be.

View with caution. If you get Very Angry, don't say I didn't warn you.

* Subtle humor /can/ work. In one otherwise-serious episode, a woman carelessly wrings out a piece of laundry on Matt's boots. It's not shown in close-up, and you might miss it if you're not paying attention.

** "Gunsmoke"'s reputation was initially a studiously serious program, which only exaggerates the jar. ("The Rifleman", with its generally dark tone, had a similar problem when it tried to be funny.) Inferior Westerns (such as "Bonanza" and "The Big Valley") weren't believable enough for broad humor to seem out of place.

I am a fan, have seen every episode. I also play in a Deadlands (western roleplaying game.) We have a were-mountain lion in our group and have to plan ahead (send apples. ) Beyond that, Arizona's reason is a great story. Fantastic.

A quiet night in Dodge City is disrupted when a little person who calls himself "Arizona" (his real name is Virgil Yoleberry) rides into town on a giant horse. He tells everyone he is a "were-elephant" who transforms into an elephant at midnight when the moon is full. He pays three men who have a reputation for being troublemaking drunks $50 to take care of him after he turns into an elephant. The little man had a shipment of apples delivered to the freight office to provide the elephant food.

Just before midnight, Arizona ducks into a barn. When the three men hear noises, they enter the barn to find an elephant. The men, along with many of the Dodge residents, are convinced Arizona has turned into an elephant and will turn back into his human form when the sun rises.

Actor Billy Curtis makes his only Gunsmoke appearance as the Arizona character. Curtis was a familiar actor in films and television shows where a little person was needed to fill a role. One of his first roles was in the cult film The Terror of Tiny Town in 1938. He played a munchkin in The Wizard of Oz. He played the character Mordecai in the film High Plains Drifter around the same time this episode was filmed. Curtis was not known as a particularly good actor.

Gunsmoke veterans Mills Watson, Ken Mayer, and Stanley Clements play the three drunks -- Fred, Ed, and Red. The Festus Haggen, Kitty Russell, and Doc Adams characters have the most screen time of the regular cast members. Matt Dillon is featured later in the episode and holds the answers to the mystery of the Arizona character.

This is the most absurd episode of the entire twenty-year run of Gunsmoke. Obviously, it is intended to be a light-hearted, humorous installment. Ken Curtis's Festus Haggen was chameleon-like in the way the character was written. At times he was wise and shrewd, at other times he is portrayed as a buffoon. This is one of the latter characterizations.

The credit for writing this episode is someone named Dudley Bromley. This is the only television or film writing credit associated with that name.

There is not much substance to this story. There are no villains. There is only the mystery of Arizona and the elephant. One implausible plot detail that is never explained is how Arizona managed to sneak an elephant into Dodge City undetected and keep it hidden until midnight. This is especially puzzling since the elephant is very noisy and destructive after midnight.

In the end, I find this episode worth viewing once simply for the absurd nature and uniqueness. It falls far, far short of the best this series has to offer, though.