User Reviews

One afternoon Chester is at Grimmick stable when a man enters that Chester recognizes. It is Asa Ledbetter and Chester believes that Asa is set on killing him.

When Marshal Dillon goes to talk with Asa, he says he does not even know a man called Chester Goode and advises that he wants no trouble. But this does not smooth the nerves of Chester.

A few nights later a group of cowboys comes shooting down Front Street and Chester gets nicked in the arm. He tells Marshal Dillon that Asa was the one that shot him. With no evidence Chester feels like everyone in Dodge does not believe him. When Chester refuses to say why Asa would even be stalking him, Matt sees no reason to believe Chester.

Dennis Weaver is excellent as he stretches the Chester into a more solid character. The story was well written and the pace of the show keep the viewer entertained. Good show.

Great episode, very sympathetic to Chester Goode as he has to try and convince his friends that a guy named Ledbetter is looking for revenge, and is gonna kill him. Two points that I think the other reviewers missed are these: Chester, with Matt in attendance, but told by Chester to stay out of the action, challenges and then the literally slaps the guy to get him to make his play. The other guy won't do it, claiming Chester is crazy. Chester calls him a coward and a liar.

Chester also says that he knows Miss Kitty doesn't believe him, but he forgives her (He's obviously got a serious crush on her).

When the dust settles on the whole thing, the main point is that Chester, even drunk, can hit a good target in a pretty dark room, and he was right. The guy was just waiting for him to get drunk, first. The REALLY BIG question is, however, what happened back in Missouri that made this Ledbetter fellow want to kill Chester? Part of the Civil War? Family feud, (over a girl, maybe?), has it got something to do with his leg being all stove up? One thing sure, though; He may not be very smart, but Chester is brave, and a pretty good hand with a gun. In the dark, with his LEFT hand!! Good work, Chet.

A convincing episode on who's telling the truth...Chester or the Stranger? Both give compelling performances. With Chester and all his clumsiness, I wasn't even sure if it was just in his mind that this person was there to kill him.

In the end the truth comes out and Chester kills him. It was only the 2nd confirmed kill of Chester in the series and the 1st one since season one. Its a wonder Dillon didn't get shot being in the middle of it with Chester on the one end.

I'm still not sure that when Chester got wounded half way thru the episode if it was the rowdy cowboy(s) or if that stranger actually shot him. Some comical lines by the doc regarding Chester's injuries.

Everyone here seems to really like this episode but I did not. The topper was when Chester is confronting the man who Chester thinks wants to kill him. He calls the man names and even slaps him. Before that Matt tries to stop Chester but Chester says it was his fight and for Matt to stay out of it . Matt says he's right and then just stands there doing nothing, which he has never ever done before before or since when someone tries to start a gun fight. I guess Matt was going to let the man kill Chester. Ridiculous.

The constant refusal of Chester to say why the gunman was out to kill him was far more irritating than anything else. I get that it was meant as a plot device to make it suspenseful and to supposedly make the viewer wonder, but after being asked again and again and again without answering he just ended up coming across as a whiner.

Chester's character was never written as one of exceptional intelligence, but to write an episode where he seems to be deliberately avoiding answering just at the last second that he likely "didn't want to talk about it" just made him come across worse. Yes he saves Matt's life in the end, but by then it's too late to save a very poor script. One more example of the Chester character just grating on the nerves everyone he was on the air and exposing the one single poorly written character of the whole series. Except for Thad of course who just plain sucked! I mean stunk! Just terrible! What were the writers thinking! Badly written! And what a horrible actor! My god how could they have done worse!

Then again, even though it wasn't the fault of Dennis Weaver (a wasted actor on this show) , writing Chester out of the show was one of the best things that happened to Gunsmoke because of how idiotic they kept portraying him and constantly getting worse and worse and worse. The writers seemed to be desperate to make him into such a show clown that every time he appeared or (even worse) when a show revolved around him it got to the point where his mere appearance stopped being the lovable town character and instead just set one's teeth on edge to where he became a real pitiful distraction from the rest of the program. They just kept dumbing his character down more and more and more to point where he became an unbelievable joke. He had to go and I'm glad Weaver left in time to not become type cast as a complete idiot.

Overall the series was one of the best on TV and certainly one of the best Westerns. That said adding the great character actor Ken Curtis as a full time cast member moved the show up immeasurably. Not only had he'd been on the show as a romantic lead, been the star of another TV show (Ripcord) but had also had a very successful singing career. First as taking over from Frank Sinatra as the lead singer for the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and also for The Sons of the Pioneers. In fact he had to make a very considerable effort to slouch way down from his normal height, wear disguising makeup to cover his looks, shuffle a lot and to affect an old hick (and very much out of place illiterate) style accent he first heard as a child from a drunk who often showed up in his father's jail when he was a sheriff. He was the longest Matt's deputies having been with him for 11 years of show. He was an added gem.