User Reviews

Sure, this episode may be somewhat silly, it may even be too difficult for some to believe- but it was entertaining from the beginning to the very end. After many serious episodes this is a breath of fresh air about two feuding friends that comes to near blows over a small unimportant matter.

Otie Perkins (Percy Helton) and Brace McCoy (Robert Emhardt) have been friends for years. They are two aged men that decided to go in together and stake a claim to some homestead property and see if they could make a go at farming. Everything goes fine till one day one of the insults the others cooking and now the two men are at war with each other. With one living in the barn and the other in the house, they take turns shooting at, or near, each other the entire day.

Marshal Dillon decides to arrest both and house them in the jail. And even with both being caged up like animals they both throw insults at each other from their own cell. Matt has an idea to get the two back as friends but his scheme is full of danger. Things could actually turn out worse if Matt's plan fails.

A humorous and entertaining story to end 1959. Helton and Emhardt are excellent as the two grumpy old friends that are now taking shots at each other. With so many serious shows during the season, it is nice to get a show that is fun for all involved. And us as the viewers were part of the fun in this entertaining tale.

... although Matt does take some chances that could have been hard to explain to his superiors had things gone badly.

Two partners in a homestead and friends of fifteen years start feuding over the one's cooking. The other one is tired of eating grits and flapjacks. The spat escalates to griping about every issue they've ever had with each other. And ultimately to gunplay. Matt intervenes and jails the pair - in separate cells of course. He tries introducing them to a great cook who could use a job and a home, which would eliminate the cause of the fight in the first place. Although impressed with her cooking, they still want to kill each other. So Matt takes a huge chance.

How does this turn out? Watch and find out. And enjoy this rare humorous Gunsmoke.

Note Robert Emhardt as one of the feuding partners. He was a prolific supporting actor in his day and was featured on a chili commercial asking the question - "Homemade or Hormel?" Apparently he would have never asked that about his partner's cooking.

The timing of this X-mas,1959, episode says it all . It's an effort at creating a light-hearted 30 minutes for the holiday spirit, featuring two quarreling old eccentrics in an entry that could have been much worse than it is. The two resemble nothing so much as a couple of old maids arguing over a Bingo card. Matt's got to figure a way to bring them back together without the kind of gunplay that might spoil the spirit of the season. At least Dillon's character is not degraded in the process, though the proceedings are only vaguely amusing, at best.

Nonetheless, the show does feature two of the most unsung and exotic character actors of the period-- the gnome-like Percy Helton with his breathy delivery, and the high-domed Robert Emhardt with his obesely sinister air. Each is instantly recognizable to audiences of the time. Yet neither got the recognition due him, probably because of his usually unsavory roles (Emhardt was a most convincing degenerate, while Helton could snivel with the best of them). Still, each brought a matchless presence and character color to his role that remains riveting to this day-- you see them, you don't forget them. I only hope that somewhere in Hollywood heaven, there's a place for these unpretty people who contributed so much and received so little.

So these two grotesque fat old men show up at the Marshal's office to tell him they want the other kicked off their marital home. They want a divorce after fifteen years living together. Dillon tells them that since they proved up their homestead as a couple, they are joint owners, so as he often tells people, "He can't do anything about it."

The next 20+ minutes are up close and personal with the two grubby geezers who look like they have not taken a bath in years, complaining about each other. That was supposed to be funny in 1959.

At some point Dillon tries to hook them up with an Indian woman who is homeless after Ma Smalley went back east. Ma Smalley ran a boarding house where mostly women would stay, and it was safer for women than the Dodge House. This is the only time I recall anyone saying Ma Smalley had left Dodge.

So the Native American lady makes some food for the two old codgers after Dillon arrested them for trying to kill each other. Once they try her stew, they fall in love again, because now someone can cook for them. Really cozy, except these two bums look like vagrants, and it was hard to imagine that they could support a live-in maid. Especially since the plan was for them to convert a tack room in the barn for the maid to live in, with rats running around as they do in every barn.

At no point is the Native American lady asked what she wanted. It seems a bit racist that it was presumed that if the two white bosses wanted her to live with them, she would accept. In effect, she had no say in the matter, and her future was their's to decide.

It would have been nice if Gunsmoke had gone for the extra funny twist, and after they had told her what their plan was, then she would have told them that she would prefer to continue being homeless rather than living in the tack room of a barn.