User Reviews

This episode contains one of the best black actors of all time. Rex Ingram, who was a brilliant man, plays to perfection the character of Juba Freeman the leader of a group of freed and run-away slaves. His performance alone- is worth the price of any admission to be paid. However, even with Rex Ingram's performance the story was lacking in interest. The writes had so much material but seemed to take the easiest route in writing the dialog.

The simple plot was that two outlaws were trying to stop Marshal Dillon from getting back to Dodge with paperwork that would have convicted their friend. On the way to Dodge, Matt is shot but manages to elude the outlaws long enough to be found by the group of slaves.

The group, led my Juba, takes the Marshal in and nurses him back to health. But one in the group named Cato does not want to get involved with hiding the Marshal. When Juba admonishes him, Cato steals some of Matt's papers and agrees to give it to the outlaws if they take him to Oregon. As we all knew, the outlaws turn on Cato and now know where Marshal Dillon is located. There is no way the group of slaves can hold off the outlaws.

Again Rex Ingram gives a perfect performance in this story. Only problem was that the story seemed too safe. Mr Ingram's performance is the best thing in this episode.

These multidimentional characters are well cast and performed realistically without being pushy.

With "The Good Samaritans," we have one of the more unusual episodes of the series. Clearly the writers wanted to deliver a story that prominently and positively portrayed black people during the immediate post-Civil War time. Unfortunately, the story says more about the time it was told--the late 1960s--than it does the time the story reflects.

This is a "Matt-only" episode. Matt is badly injured by a couple of cowboys who want to prevent him getting back to Dodge with written evidence that will convict a prisoner being held there. There is a $1,500 bounty on the prisoner elsewhere, and the cowboys, apparently along with several others, want the prisoner for the bounty being offered. Matt manages to elude capture by the pair of cowboys until he is found by a group of freed slaves who were on their way west when their wagon broke down. The group is led by a man named Juba Freeman, who insists on abiding by the laws of God and man. The group nurses Matt through the worst of his injury, at least enough that Matt regains consciousness and can move about a bit.

Cato is one of the men in Juba's group, but he doesn't necessarily agree with Juba's philosophy of life. He is headstrong and more bitter than Juba and the rest of the group, and he resents Juba providing assistance to Matt. (Cato has an ear that was badly disfigured by a slave owner.)

The problem with this story is that it is steeped in stereotypes. One of the cowboys named Kittridge is a stereotypical racist who doesn't even consider the former slaves people. Juba and his group are too trusting and kind, with the exception of Cato. As a matter of fact, Cato is the only one of the group that exhibits any level of genuineness, and the writers chose to turn him into a misguided character that almost brings disaster on everyone.

As usual for Gunsmoke, the acting in this episode is outstanding. L.Q. Jones as the despicable Kittridge was always great at playing people you just love to hate. Rex Ingram as Juba, Brock Peters as Cato, Robert DoQui as Benji, Paulene Myers as Mama, Hazel Medina as Erlene, and Lynn Hamilton as Reba, are all recognizable faces that play their roles perfectly, although they were forced to mostly play stereotypes.

There was a lot of potential with this story, but the writers failed to take advantage of the opportunities that were provided. As a result, the story is fairly formulaic. It is difficult to imagine this story being told this way in 2019.

One additional note of some interest: If you watch closely, at the end of the scene after Kittridge and his partner first encounters Cato, Kittridge turns to his partner and says, "You know something? If we don't find Dillon by nightfall, I'm going to find that camp and I'm going to roust me a smartmouth ____." The last word is silenced during reruns of the show. I'm not sure if it was allowed in the original network airing of the show or not. It is clear that L.Q. Jones says another word at the end of the sentence.