User Reviews

One of the grittier episodes, from start to the very last minute. Watching, I immediately thought "typical Meston meanness" as my friend grizzledgeezer was wont to say, but checking the episode details I found that Meston wrote the teleplay from a Norman McDonald story.

Jack Lambert and partner start by murdering a man for two horses, and things progress grimly from there.

As usual, Jack Lambert gives 110% in his portrayal of sociopathic murderer Tebow, who has no qualms about killing casually with a sneer of pleasure. Lambert was one of Gunsmoke's most reliable villains, and he delivers his usual solid performance in this episode. Mr. Lambert played villainous characters extremely well.

Guy Raymond and Shirley O'Hara are competent as the Kurtches, a pair of prairie dwellers who were unlucky enough to encounter Lambert during the story. Thing is, I can't figure out how a fella like Raymond ended up married to Shirley O'Hara, who was *quite* the looker 10-15 years previous, and still looked good despite being made up to look like a prairie wife aged beyond her years. Oh well, one must suspend belief from time to time.

However, I must disagree with another reviewer who took issue with Ms. O'Hara's screen time, and the fact that Lambert's demise came offscreen. I personally felt that Ms. O'Hara's terror for her husband was justified considering Lambert's penchant for murdering casually, and her scenes added "fuel to the fire" in relation to Lambert's final fate. Being left to fend for herself on the prairie - ALONE - was not a situation any prairie wife would want, and the audience was not told what happened to Ms. O'Hara after her last scene.

As to Lambert's fate, it simply could not be shown onscreen. The look of shock on Matt's face when he peered into the teepee was *extremely* telling, and when he told Chester he "wouldn't want to die like that" one is left to imagine Lambert's gruesome - and likely protracted - ending at the hands of the women in Chief Quick Knife's camp.

Not the greatest, but certainly not what I would consider bad at all. Gunsmoke could often be brutal, and this episode falls into that category.

Very chilling ending to a very good episode. Matt and Chester follow a cold blooded murderer and horse theft across the prairie who leaves death and misery in his path. Though chasing him from place to place and burying victims seems to be all Matt and Chester have to do in this one?

His partner murders an innocent man for two horses and gets himself killed in the process, making him just as guilty for the death. Then after selling the stolen horses to an Kiowa hunting party, along with his dead partner's, he kidnaps and beats an old man who dies as a result. Then makes his biggest mistake of all. He kills a Kiowa Indian child and they exact their own unique form of justice by turning him over to the women of their tribe to be tortured to death. Legend has it that this was one of the most painful, brutal and terrifying ways to meet one's end in the old West and the look on Matt's face says it all. At least this time Matt and Chester didn't have to clean up afterwards.