User Reviews

A guitar playing stranger named Cain Vestal arrives in Dodge City. He visits Doc Adams to confirm a diagnosis of heart failure. Vestal only has a brief time left to live, and Doc introduces him to Matt Dillon and Kitty Russell. He plays the Stephen Foster classic "Beautiful Dreamer" for Doc, Kitty, and Matt, as well as the other patrons of the Long Branch Saloon. Vestal plans to leave the next morning on the stagecoach with the intended destination of Arizona so he can see the desert before he dies.

After Matt and Doc leave the saloon, Vestal sees a local wealthy land baron named Joel Adams enter the saloon. Cain's demeanor immediately changes from cordial and friendly to dark and dour.

After seeing Adams, Vestal does not leave as planned the next morning. He purchases a pistol and asks Chester Goode to show him how to use it. When Matt questions Cain's reasons for buying a gun and for asking Chester to teach him to shoot, the man tells the Marshal it is a personal matter. Although Cain says he has never met Adams, it is clear he has a major beef with the arrogant land baron.

Harry Bartell provides a stand-out performance as Cain Vestal in this story. Bartell was a familiar character actor, but he was usually relegated to smaller parts. In fact, he appears in nine other Gunsmoke episodes, but he is not a lead actor in any of those other appearances.

Mark Roberts only made this single appearance in a Gunsmoke episode. He plays the Joel Adams character. The actor's career featured several roles in westerns, crime dramas, and television movies.

Cain Vestal's desire to eliminate Adams makes sense on the surface, but it is strange that Vestal only begins his pursuit after he just happens to see Adams in the Long Branch. The opportunistic aspect of Vestal's quest for vengeance is very curious. Vestal mentions one of the reasons he decided to travel to the west was he had heard Adams had moved west, but it appears encountering Adams in Dodge City was happenstance.

This story share some plot elements with the previous Season 2 installment "Executioner" in the way it portrays men willing to go to drastic measures to see that justice is served. It also borrows slightly from the "Doc's Revenge" episode from Season 1 where Doc sees someone and immediately wants to kill them.

It is noteworthy that Gunsmoke used guitars and people who play them as a plot element in a few episodes. "The Guitar" from the first season features an eccentric character that plays the guitar. This story features a guitar player facing the end of his life. Chester Goode gives a woman guitar lessons in Season 7's "Catawomper." Season 10's "Song for Dying" features Theodore Bikel as a guitar-playing troubadour. Season 11 includes "My Father's Guitar" with Beau Bridges as a disturbed guitar player.

... because it has a kind of just irony to it that made it very enjoyable.

A musician, Cain, comes to Dodge City on the stage and goes to see Doc Adams. He is dying of heart disease and has only a short time to live. He's a rather small likeable fellow, rather cultured, not from the west at all, but headed for Arizona. As an aside, perhaps Doc Adams is the reason that HIPPA privacy regulations came into being, because the reason the audience knows all of this about Cain is that Doc is talking to Matt and Kitty about the details of the case. If there had been X-Rays at the time I wouldn't be surprised if Doc and some stray cowboys would have been discussing Cain's internal organs over a beer. But I digress.

But suddenly Cain changes his plans, decides to stay on in Dodge AND he buys a gun and gets Chester to show him how to use it. Matt is perplexed and goes and asks the guy why he bought a gun. Cain is not forthcoming at first, but then he finally tells Matt that he plans to kill a gunslinger and gambler around Dodge named Adams. Cain says he realizes Adams (no relation to Doc Adams) might kill him in a gunfight, but he might also kill Adams if he sneaks up on him and shoots him in the back. Matt mentions he will hang for that. Cain says that he will die in two months time anyway so what does he care. Cain says he has his reasons for hating Adams enough to kill him but will not state what those reasons are.

Matt does warn Adams about this, not because he likes him, but because it is his duty. It does make Adams nervous that somebody might come up behind him plus he has no idea who Cain is. Let's just say psychologically Cain plays Adams like a violin. You just don't see this kind of rather complex irony on Gunsmoke that often.

Mild-mannered Cain comes to town with his guitar and beguiles the Long Branch with a riveting rendition of "Beautiful Dreamer". He's so inoffensive looking, why does he want to kill slick gunman Adams. Adams doesn't know why and wants to avoid a showdown, but Cain seems determined. Maybe it has something to do with Cain's bad heart and having only a short time to live. Meanwhile, Matt is flummoxed.

Dragnet favorite Harry Bartell as Cain delivers a first-rate performance that carries much of the show. We root for him since he seems so basically nice. There's some suspense in why he wants to kill Adams and how that will turn out. Frankly, I didn't find the pacing too slow, though the entry is mostly about character rather than fast draw. Nevertheless, the ending is both ironic and fitting, from the pen of head-writer John Meston.

(In passing—speaking of Meston, note how he sneaks in a reference to a riverboat worker named "Sam Clemens". Though it's left unsaid, that's the real name of Mark Twain!)

And Harry Bartell did a great job playing Cain on both radio and TV. He really was a very prolific actor and high underrated and overlooked.

One of my favorite Gunsmoke episodes!

Cain Vestal arrives in Dodge on his way to Arizona. Seems that Cain has a severe heart condition and only has a few more months to live and he always wanted to see the desert. But when he is at the Long Branch he spots a man named Joel Adams at the bar. Cain's demeanor changes and he vows to kill Joel Adams if it is the last thing he does.

The rest of the show is devoted toward Cain's grip with Adams. But Joel Adams has never even meet Cain and does not know the reason that Cain wants him dead. It takes near the end of the episode to finally find out the reason why the mild manner Cain wants to see Adams dead and the hatred he has carried in his mind all these years.

For whatever reason this episode seemed slow. The show was lacking action and devoted itself to the Marshal going around asking the reason Cain wants Adams dead during most of the scenes. Even the ending really did not satisfy as we get a sketchy and incomplete finish to the tale. With so many great show in season two- a dull show was bound to happen.