User Reviews

Matt Dillon has received orders to go to the town of Hilt and work with another law enforcement person to try to restore order there. Hilt is a "boom town" where there is no law enforcement and chaos has become the standard. The plan is for Matt to spend a couple of weeks in Hilt to assist the other person in establishing the rule of law. After everything is more settled, the other person should be able to handle the town alone.

When Matt arrives in Hilt, he is relieved to find Luke Rumbaugh there. Luke first trained under Matt when he was starting in law enforcement. Now Luke is a U. S. Marshal, like Matt. Luke and Matt are able to quickly restore order to the point where they decide Matt can return to Dodge City. Luke knows the deceptive calm on the surface hides the potential for a return to the chaos seething just underneath.

Soon after Matt leaves, a woman and her son arrive on the stage. Her name is Martha, and the son is named Caleb. Martha loves Luke, and Luke is a hero and father figure to Caleb. Luke loves them both, but he is afraid the life of a U. S. Marshal is not compatible with being a family man.

Unfortunately, there are still some people who are not happy with the changes in Hilt. They want the town to return to its lawless ways.

This episode features a wonderful cast of veteran actors in various roles. Many of these actors are familiar faces to any fan of the Westerns genre.

Jim Davis plays Luke Rumbaugh in this story. This marks Davis's eleventh and final appearance in the series. He usually played villains, and it is nice to see him in a more heroic role. He and James Arness make for a couple of grizzled, tough law men. Davis is perhaps best known for his later portrayal of Jock Ewing, the patriarch of the Ewing clan in the hit television series Dallas.

Leo Gordon often played nasty, sinister characters, and he has never been meaner or nastier than he is as the Badger character in this episode. Like Davis, this is Gordon's final Gunsmoke appearance. He had appeared in four previous episodes, including Season 1's "Hack Prine," which was the pilot episode for Gunsmoke.

Rex Holman is another actor that built his career on playing villainous characters. He participated in sixteen different Gunsmoke episodes, which included two two-part stories.

Irishman Sean McClory was often seen in television shows that needed an Irish character. Here he plays one of the harmless rebel rousers in Hilt named Sham. His friend Michael is played by actor Don Megowan, who can often be seen in tough guy roles.

Actor Kay Kuter plays McCurdy, who owns the saloon in Hilt and has employed a clever, secure banking business inside the saloon. The cashier sits at a table inside a circle painted on the floor. If anyone steps inside the circle without permission, they are immediately shot by posted guards without warning. Classic sitcom fans may remember Kuter as the character Newt Kiley on both Petticoat Junction and Green Acres.

Actress Jean Allison fills the role of Martha, and child actor Ike Eisenmann portrays her son Caleb. This episode represents the final appearance in the series for both.

This is a fast-moving, entertaining episode divided into three distinct acts. Act one involves the two Marshals arriving in Hilt and bringing some measure of order there. Act two introduces the love story between Luke and Martha. Act three concerns the attack on Marshal Rumbaugh with the necessary return of Matt and his deputies to restore order.

One of the overarching themes of the story is the transition from the chaotic, combative gun-slinging ways of the old west to a more organized, civilized society. At the beginning, most of the characters are immersed in a masculine, at least partially mythical western society. By the end, a new, tamer society has emerged.

Matt and Luke have been immersed in the "old ways," but they can both see things are changing quickly. This is a theme in many of the best western films -- The Wild Bunch and Once Upon a Time in the West both immediately come to mind -- and it is a theme that is visited occasionally from various perspectives in the Gunsmoke series. This story is one of the more thorough examinations of this theme, but it is not necessarily the best. (That will come during the following and final season of the series.)

In this story, the "taming" of Hilt is an obvious metaphor for the theme. It is discussed early in the episode by Luke and Matt, and then we see it happen during the story. Badger's gang resists the changes and risks facing the consequences of doing so.

The relationship between Luke and Martha is another example of the same theme. Luke makes a key decision during the episode that will either lead him to hold on to the old ways or embrace something different. Although the story does not explore this angle, it is interesting to note Luke's decision and how it affects his future versus the future Matt faces.

Even Luke's relationship with Caleb is impacted by these changes. At first, Caleb views Luke as an admirable figure because of what he does. The boy has difficulty seeing beyond the old ways and embracing Luke for who he *is* instead of what he does.

Side note: There is a scene where Luke and Matt are talking, and Luke asks about a mutual friend named Kimbro. Matt tells Luke that Kimbro has died. This is a likely reference to the character Adam Kimbro, who was one of Matt's (and apparently Luke's) mentors. The character is featured in Season 18's "Kimbro." That episode is another where the theme of transition from old traditions to a new kind of society is explored.

This is an episode about heroism, duty, and responsibility. A lawless town serves as merely the backdrop to stage the morality play. The real focus is a child's emerging wisdom, going from hero worship to mature recognition of true heroism.

As delivered in the final extended lines of the episode, what is presented is that as a man handles the affairs of his life, these things change as his special responsibilities and duties change, but that heroism remains the core focus.

The episodes opens with a man getting knifed in the back by an evil coward, a senseless murder that he suffers ironically soon after he tells his wife that eventually things in the town will settle down, the lawless will be brought to justice, and the town made a good place to them to live in.

That murder results in the "law coming to Hilt," and ultimately, coming to stay. The two-marshal act of cleaning up the town the first time results in one marshal remaining, but then deciding that the needs of a woman and her young son must become a part of his duty also.

The son enthusiastically wishes for this to happen, because he worships the thought of his father being a lawman, a hero that he and the community can look up to.

As events play out, what the boy fails to realize is that what he's been wanting to look up to wasn't really the measure of the man who became his step-father. That true measure was a man who put his personal duty to others first, and allowed their needs to determine his future.

The audience is led into an episode thinking they are watching a lawless town being tamed. In reality, what they really witness is a child learning what it truly means to be a man.

I really like this episode. Matt and a second US Marshal, played by the great Jim Davis, are called upon to tame a free wheeling town with a really strange way of banking. Once things aettle down, Matt heads back to Dodge with Luke, Jim Davis, staying on to keep order. Thinks get complicated when an old falme shows up with plans that Luke must pass on, doing the "right thing" Things take a dramatic coupie of turns, and Matt with a wrath. Do take the time to watch this episode, it is one of the best written and acted episodes.

Jim Davis usually plays the rough tough guy. This episode has him as not only a lawman, but a family man. It shows a "good" man takes on the responsibility of a ready made family. It takes a special kind of person to be a lawman & a special kind of woman to be a lawman's wife. I don't think I have ever seen Jim Davis play a part that he backs down from anyone. At first I wish they had not had the young boy get mad & think he was a coward but when I thought about it & put myself in the mind of a small boy, this is more than likely the reaction a child might have. In the days of the West I am sure there were a lot of women that were left alone with a family to raise and they were very lucky to have a man take that on. Although, there have been other episodes that a man took on a ready made family and they were mean to them & I know this happened in real life.

Marshal Matt Dillon and fellow Marshal Luke Rumbaugh come to restore order to an untamed frontier town. They arrive to town early without wearing their badges to see what they're up against. They find out that it will be hard work to clean up the savage town. Luke runs into a woman that he once loved (Martha) and her son Caleb still wants Luke as his dad. Luke is hesitant to rekindle his love for Martha, since a marshal's life is fraught with hardship. However, with some urging, he marries Martha. Luke runs into trouble when outlaws try to kill him. They succeed at severely wounding him. Luke decides to quit as marshal, leaving the wild town that he was to bring law and order to still untamed. How will law prevail? Watch the episode to find out. Jim Davis, better known for playing the part of Jock Ewing on the TV show Dallas, plays the part of Luke Rumbaugh.