User Reviews

Festus comes into town after months getting pelt to sell and asks Matt about his girlfriend April. Festus had heard on the trail that Quint had been seeing April. Matt has to leave overnight on business and says he can see Quint over at the office.

After Festus sells his pelts to hard-nose Argus Asher, at the trading post, for $73 he goes over to talk with Quint. Quint says that he did take her to a box social but it was all in the daylight and they were going as friends. Festus goes over to April's apartment and finds that she has accepted a rocking chair from 'Old Man Gripholder' this makes Festus mad and he breaks the chair. April runs away from Festus into an alley. When she looks through a window she sees two men Grody and Bender (that work at the trading post) putting their boss Argus Asher in a barrel. Asher had a knife sticking out of his back. She runs to tell Marshal.

With Marshal out of town Quint hears the story. She pulls Quint down the street where they run into a suspicious Festus. Festus tags alone as the enter the trading post and talk with Grody. He says that she was mistaken and the only thing they were doing was putting pelts in a barrel. April feel like her life is in danger and wants to sleep at the Marshal's office with Quint. Much to the dislike of Festus.

The next day Marshal is told the story and has a problem. Why would they put pelts in a barrel knowing that they would get moldy and believes that April is telling a true story. Matt Quint and Festus set up a little trap which will lead to someone wanting to hush up April for good.

This was actual a entertaining story. There was much going on in the story between the serious side of the murder to the funny side of Festus suspecting Quint of taking his girl. Both work out well in this episode. Nice watch for viewers.

Festus Haggen rides into Dodge City just as Marshal Matt Dillon is leaving town. They have a brief discussion in passing. Festus has heard that April has been seen around town with Quint Asper, but Matt wisely avoids too much discussion on the matter. As Matt rides away, Festus asks him if he deputized anyone to watch the town in his absence, and Matt says he asked Quint to keep an eye on things. (This is notable because Chester is not mentioned. Dennis Weaver had actually left the show at this point, but he will appear in one more episode later in Season 9. The Season 9 episodes are not all shown in the order they were filmed, which was occasionally the case with Gunsmoke. This brief exchange is also notable because it unintentionally foreshadows a future time when Festus will assume deputy duties.)

When Festus sees April, he learns another man in town gave her a gift of a chair. Since Festus considers April *his* woman, he is upset that April has been receiving attention from these other men. When Festus destroys the chair, April runs away and hides behind a building that houses a trading post operated by a man named Argus Asher -- a sour, ornery businessman and employer.

April happens to look in the window of the building where she is hiding, and she sees two men stuffing a man's body in a barrel. The man's body has a knife sticking out of his back. The dead man is the business owner Asher. The two men shoving Asher's body in the barrel are named Bender and Grody, who are employees of the trading post. Bender sees April looking in the window.

April runs to the Marshal's office and discovers Matt is out of town. April tells Quint what she saw, but he is skeptical. As they make their way to the trading post to investigate, a suspicious, jealous Festus, who is still looking for April, sees them and tags along.

At the trading post, a nervous Bender explains that April is confused and mistaken in what she thinks she saw. He agrees to open a barrel which reveals it only contains pelts. Quint and Festus dismiss April's story as the product of an overactive imagination, but April fears for her life. She convinces Quint to keep her in a cell for her own protection. Festus is not too crazy about the idea of April and Quint spending the night together in the jail/Marshal's office. By morning, Quint is beginning to believe there may be something to April's story.

When Matt returns, April gets the opportunity to tell him her story. Unlike Quint and Festus, the Marshal finds April's story plausible and decides to conduct his own investigation.

There isn't much mystery to this episode. The viewer knows Bender and Grody killed Asher. Since April has already told her story to Matt, Quint, and Festus, eliminating April isn't going to help the killers.

We do get a glimpse at a different side of Festus than we normally see. A jealous, almost love-sick Festus is strange territory for a man as independent and free-spirited as Festus is normally. This episode is the third of four where Elizabeth MacRae's April character appears. Given that MacRae appeared as April in four different episodes, it is easy to imagine the producers considered making the April character a regular part of the show, but it did not work out for some reason. It is worth noting that Ken Curtis was 20 years older than MacRae. The April Clomely character will not appear again until Episode 20 of Season 10.

It is always nice to see Royal Dano in any Gunsmoke episode. He appeared in many, and his characters ranged from goofy to mean and nasty. Here he plays the Bender character. Vic Perrin, who appears again in a larger role as a different character in an upcoming Season 9 episode, plays Argus Asher. Hal Baylor, another familiar face for viewers of television westerns, is Grody.

This story is entertaining, but it lacks much in the way of suspense or drama.