User Reviews

Here is a sad tale from the old western that is just as vivid today in our society. A mentally retarded man is used to the point of committing an act of violence when the man has the capacity of a four year old. Nobody wins in this story.

Cooter, played wonderfully by Strother Martin, is the mentally challenged man that is wanting to be look-at like any other person in Dodge. He meets this card shark named Ben Sissell that uses Cotter to fetch him drinks and food and pays him a small amount so that Cooter thinks he has a job. The trouble with Sissell is that he cheats at cards so he has a gunslinger ride from town to town with him. And when someone challenges Sissell his gunslinger, named Nate, usually shoots the person. And it just so happened that this scenario happened at the Long Branch.

Matt is suspicious about the two and tells Nate to get out of town. When Sissell tells him to kill the Marshal, Nate decides that he is not paid enough and splits town. So now Sissell has another plan to get the Marshal killed. He gives a gun to Cooter and tells him to kill Matt Dillon. With Cooter's mental situation it will be hard for Matt to make Cooter believe that he is being used by the slick talking card shark.

Strother Martin does an excellent job playing the brain injured Cooter. He plays the part to perfection making the viewer believe he is actual mentally challenged. There was a little flaw with the story when Marshal Dillon did not also run Sissell out of town when he tells Nate to kill Matt - but the story still held its own. The ending is not a pleasant one but one that many families still go through even today. Good watch.

Cooter Smith is a mentally challenged Dodge City resident. A Dodge newcomer -- a shady gambler named Ben Sissle -- has employed Cooter to run errands and perform menial tasks. Sissle also employs a gunfighter named Pate. If anyone accuses Sissle of cheating, Pate waits until the accuser inevitably draws their gun, kills the person, and then claims "self-defense."

After Pate kills a gambler in the Long Branch Saloon who had the audacity to question Sissle's honesty, Matt Dillon orders Pate to leave Dodge. Sissle is upset about Pate's departure because he has to run an honest game without Pate's protection. He concocts a plan to use Cooter to rid the town of the Marshal.

Strother Martin portrays Cooter Smith in this story. This is Martin's second Gunsmoke guest role, and he makes an appearance in another seven episodes. Martin is another one of a small group of actors that appeared in Gunsmoke episodes in both the first and last seasons of the series. Martin was so enamored with this story, he requested a copy of it.

Any serious fan of the westerns genre is familiar with Strother Martin's work. Sam Peckinpah wrote the screenplay for this episode. Martin appeared with his close friend L. Q. Jones (another frequent Gunsmoke guest) in Peckinpah's films The Wild Bunch and The Ballad of Cable Hogue.

Actor Vinton Hayworth makes the first of three Gunsmoke appearances in this episode. He provides a stellar performance as he projects an air of extreme self-confidence and arrogance as the gambler Ben Sissle.

Brett King was no stranger to television westerns throughout the 1950s and 1960s. He can be seen in many other westerns series, including Lawman, Yancy Derringer, Law of the Plainsman, Death Valley Days, Bat Masterson, Wagon Train, The Virginian, and many others. He appeared in four Gunsmoke episodes, including this installment where he plays the gunfighter named Pate, before he quit acting in the late 1960s.

Prolific and very recognizable actor Robert Vaughn makes the first of two appearances in the series as the gambler Pate kills in the Long Branch after accusing Sissle of cheating.

Sam Peckinpah wrote the screenplay for this John Meston story, which was written for the radio broadcast. Peckinpah adds his own touches, of course. One small but disturbing detail Peckinpah adds is that Chester Goode is quite amused by Cooter Smith's actions and ridicules the man. Even after Sissle provides Cooter a gun, Chester thinks it is funny, while Matt and Doc realize nothing good is likely to result from Cooter carrying a gun.

(It is interesting that Chester, who is not exactly a mental giant, thinks so little of Cooter that he cannot believe Sissle trusts him, while Sissle, who is deviously shrewd, thinks so little of Cooter that he is confident he can manipulate the man into doing whatever he wants.)

Cooter enters Meston's story only after Pate has left Dodge, while the screenplay introduces Cooter early as Sissle's personal flunky. In Meston's version of the story, Kitty Russell is relegated to little more than a bystander, but in Peckinpah's screenplay, Kitty openly loathes Sissle and does what she can to undermine his sinister efforts. (Amanda Blake's glaring stare at Sissle conveys so much emotion, which, of course, was not possible for Georgia Ellis to execute on the radio broadcasts.)

There is nothing formulaic about this story. That, along with a guest cast that is perfect, makes this episode one of the outstanding episodes of Season 1.

I don't know why the synopsis and the reviews call Strother Martin young in this episode, he was 37 years old. He was born in 1919 and this aired in 1956. He was actually four years older than James Arness.

Excellent cast with a screenplay by Sam Peckinpah should add up to a memorable episode. But in my book, unfortunately, it doesn't. Card sharp Sissel (Vinton Hayworth) cheats cowboy (Robert Vaughn) who draws on the gambler but is shot by third person at the table, a cowboy named Pate (Brett King, looking a lot like Roy Rodgers). Matt smells a set-up. Meanwhile, all this has been witnessed by the feeble-minded Cooter (Strother Martin) who performs simple tasks around town, including tasks for Sissel.

Vaughn makes impression as lip-curling cowboy, while Martin gives another of his patented quirky turns as a boyish simpleton. However, Hayworth, a veteran of movies and TV, steals the show as the tricky slickster. He was always adept at crooked authority figures of one type or another. Here, his convincing steely-eyed stare is a real attention-getter. And that's the trouble. The script has him acting very foolishly on two occasions. First, in the hotel room when he blows his cover needlessly by ordering Pate to shoot Matt. And second, with the riled-up Cooter, when he refuses to lie to the unpredictable slow-thinker who is now wielding a six-shooter. Sissel is obviously too clever to make mistakes like these. As a result, Peckinpah's script errs seriously, undercutting the episode as a whole. Still, the show remains quite watchable for the character interest and fine performances.