Malachi Harper is one of Dodge City's less fortunate individuals. He collects buffalo bones on the prairie and sells them in town, which is not exactly a lucrative business. He makes just enough money to fund his favorite hobby -- drinking.
Malachi has a brother named Ethan that is supposedly a successful businessman living on the east coast. Ethan is on his way to San Francisco for business purposes and stops for a few hours in Dodge City to visit his brother. Unfortunately, Malachi had previously told his brother he is a U.S. Marshal.
Matt Dillon must leave town for the day, and he asks Festus Haggen to watch over things while he is away. Malachi and Festus are old friends. When Malachi tells Festus about his brother's visit and the ruse he has perpetrated about his profession, Festus hatches a plan to allow Malachi to portray himself as Marshal while Ethan is in town. Doc Adams and Kitty Russell reluctantly agree to go along with the scheme.
The situation works with a few glitches here and there until a gunman named Del Ordman shows up looking for revenge for the death of his brother. Marshal Dillon killed Ordman's brother, but Ordman sees Malachi's act and naturally assumes Malachi is the person responsible for his brother's death.
The Andy Griffith Show did a much better job with the same basic plot in a 30-minute episode. One of the major problems with this Gunsmoke installment is the lack of material to fill an hour. Scenes were obviously added to pad the story. For example, while Ordman is on his way to Dodge, there is a scene where he stops at someone's campsite and murders the hapless man for his horse. I suppose the scene adds some darker elements to an otherwise mostly light-hearted episode, but it comes across as needless filler. The fact that Ordman is an evil man had already been established.
The resolution of this story is about as predictable as it can be. Even the plot element that is obviously designed to be a surprise is obvious early in the episode.
Harry Townes plays Malachi Harper. Townes had been featured prominently in the episode "Two Tall Men" late in Season 10. Townes was certainly no stranger to Gunsmoke and no stranger to television shows in general.
The great Jack Elam fills the Del Ordman role in this episode. This is one of his fifteen different appearances in the Gunsmoke series.
Edward Andrews is a well-known face from this era of television. He is Ethan Harper in this episode. Andrews appeared in everything from The Beverly Hillbillies to The Twilight Zone to pretty much every television western. This was his only Gunsmoke role.
Keep an eye open for a brief appearance by Woody Chambliss. Of course, Chambliss later began playing a recurring Gunsmoke character, Mr. Lathrop. Robert Sorrells also appears quite briefly, although we are used to seeing him in more prominent roles on the show.
This is Gary Nelson's only directing effort for Gunsmoke. While Nelson directed his share of television dramas over the years, he was better known for his work on comedies. He directed several episodes of The Patty Duke Show, Gilligan's Island, Get Smart, and other comedies.
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