***SPOILERS*** It was a tossup as to who was the slimier - Mills Watson, or Anthony Zerbe. As for pure dirtiness, Nehemiah Persoff takes it all in this story of who has the least amount of guts. kfo9494 told enough of the basic story, and he was correct in his disappointment in how much time it took to get around to the inevitable conclusion. Now, I'll just say this. ANY father who would deliberately cripple his own son is either insane, or a yellowbelly. This guy did it when his son was asleep. Too bad it seems to run in the family, because the daughter (Donna Baccala), is stricken with the same problem. No matter what the concern, she is right at the emotional edge of sanity. Also, no matter what, whatever they do, they are doomed to failure, and rightly so. Wanna know why? Sure you do. It's like this. If you have intentions of living on and working a farm or a ranch, you MUST have a backbone of steel, and guts of barbwire. This girl is lost, and what she needs more than anything is a home in town, and a man with a good living. Her father? No hope there. he's just too old and stupid to be more than he already is. His son (the one that he shot in his gun hand, remember?), noticed that when they had their argument in the Dodge House. Now, there's something else that HAS to be pointed out. For a ranch, or farm to work, the woman, be she a daughter, or a wife, MUST be in charge of the household. Further, it is as much a business as running the ranch itself. If the "Man of the house" tries to interfere, it almost always ends in disaster. Read a story called "A Jury of Her Peers", by Susan Glaspell and you'll get the picture clearly. As for the idiots who thought they had the right to avenge their snakecrap buddy? Preordained, and we all knew it, didn't we? What a trio of slime; I hated them all on first sight. Very few gunmen ever lived to see thirty years, the few that did were very far between. (Wyatt Earp notwithstanding). Good story, and I really liked Matt giving the three dirtbags a good beating, he just didn't go far enough, did he?
4 Reviews
Well acted.
tsn-4873010 November 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I've seen a few reviewers commenting that the dialogue was too long and/or was some how a negative in this episode when in fact it's one of my favorite parts of it. Yes it does drag in places (hence the eight instead of a ten), however it was for me a delight to see Anthony Zerbe in one of his best roles. He was one of TV and films most underrated actors and was certainly more deserving of better roles than he was usually offered. He always made the best of whatever role he had, but he especially shines here.
I especially enjoyed the interaction between his father's character and himself. It shows an authenticity not shown often enough.
I especially enjoyed the interaction between his father's character and himself. It shows an authenticity not shown often enough.
Solid Performances, Good Premise Spoiled
wdavidreynolds2 September 2019
Nick Skouras is a gunfighter, and he is good at his profession. As the story opens, he is in Dodge City where he is facing two men. He kills both. Louie Pheeters saw the gunfight and tells Matt Dillon it was a fair fight.
Skouras gets a room at the Dodge House. Alex Skouras, Nick's father, despises what his son does for a living. Alex sneaks into his son's room while the younger Skouras sleeps, and shoots him through the right hand. The shot causes permanent damage to the hand, effectively ending Nick's career as a gunfighter.
Meanwhile, three friends of one of the men Nick killed at the beginning of the episode ride into Dodge intent on obtaining revenge for their friend's death.
The remainder of the story deals primarily with the Skouras family, including the father, son, and daughter, Elenya as they deal with issues that have been festering within their family for years, while the three determined men refuse to give up on their quest for vengeance.
Anthony Zerbe makes his first Gunsmoke appearance in this story as the gunfighter Nick Skouras. Zerbe is a charismatic actor with ample ability to play leading roles. He often played villains, but here he is neither genuinely good nor purely evil, despite his chosen profession.
Longtime Gunsmoke fans are going to be familiar with the character actor Nehemiah Persoff. In this story, he plays Alex Skouras, father to Nick and Elenya. The Elenya character is played by Donna Baccala, who was a frequent guest on many Westerns and television dramas over the years.
James Anderson, Hank Brandt, and Mills Watson comprise the menacing trio that arrives in Dodge City to avenge the death of their friend by Nick. All three were accustomed to playing "heavies" in television shows. This is Anderson's final appearance in a Gunsmoke episode.
This story establishes Buck Taylor's Newly O'Brien character as the resident bachelor heartthrob in Dodge -- the first since Burt Reynolds played Quint Asper. Here, Newly has designs on Elenya Skouras. Over the remaining course of the series, he would often find himself entangled in various romantic relationships.
This is another episode based on an interesting premise that suffers from too much needless dialog and predictability. The cast and performances are solid, but they aren't given much with which to work. I find the ending scene with Matt, Newly, and the Skouras family especially odd given the nature of the episode.
Skouras gets a room at the Dodge House. Alex Skouras, Nick's father, despises what his son does for a living. Alex sneaks into his son's room while the younger Skouras sleeps, and shoots him through the right hand. The shot causes permanent damage to the hand, effectively ending Nick's career as a gunfighter.
Meanwhile, three friends of one of the men Nick killed at the beginning of the episode ride into Dodge intent on obtaining revenge for their friend's death.
The remainder of the story deals primarily with the Skouras family, including the father, son, and daughter, Elenya as they deal with issues that have been festering within their family for years, while the three determined men refuse to give up on their quest for vengeance.
Anthony Zerbe makes his first Gunsmoke appearance in this story as the gunfighter Nick Skouras. Zerbe is a charismatic actor with ample ability to play leading roles. He often played villains, but here he is neither genuinely good nor purely evil, despite his chosen profession.
Longtime Gunsmoke fans are going to be familiar with the character actor Nehemiah Persoff. In this story, he plays Alex Skouras, father to Nick and Elenya. The Elenya character is played by Donna Baccala, who was a frequent guest on many Westerns and television dramas over the years.
James Anderson, Hank Brandt, and Mills Watson comprise the menacing trio that arrives in Dodge City to avenge the death of their friend by Nick. All three were accustomed to playing "heavies" in television shows. This is Anderson's final appearance in a Gunsmoke episode.
This story establishes Buck Taylor's Newly O'Brien character as the resident bachelor heartthrob in Dodge -- the first since Burt Reynolds played Quint Asper. Here, Newly has designs on Elenya Skouras. Over the remaining course of the series, he would often find himself entangled in various romantic relationships.
This is another episode based on an interesting premise that suffers from too much needless dialog and predictability. The cast and performances are solid, but they aren't given much with which to work. I find the ending scene with Matt, Newly, and the Skouras family especially odd given the nature of the episode.
Nice story made long by useless dialog
kfo949416 October 2012
When looking for a description of this episode, I found only one or two sentence lines that contain the plot. After viewing the episode I can concur that there is little to the story than what could not be summed up in those two sentences. It was a simple story that at times was interesting and then what seemed like long period of dialog that was added to complete the hour show.
Nicholas Skouras is a gunman that kills for money. When he kills a man named Jake Walker in a fair gunfight, Jake's friends set out to settle the score.
Nicholas's father dislikes his son's profession and while Nick is sleeping shoots his gun hand. It is not long until the friend's of Jake will be making their visit.
When the friends, lead by Jesse Hill, arrive in Dodge they find that Marshal Dillon will have no problems in his town. But when Nick's father and daughter decide to leave town, the friends capture them and hold his father as ransom. Will Nicholas decide to help his father after being disabled by his actions will be the climax of the show.
A nice story that seemed long with all the unnecessary dialog.
Nicholas Skouras is a gunman that kills for money. When he kills a man named Jake Walker in a fair gunfight, Jake's friends set out to settle the score.
Nicholas's father dislikes his son's profession and while Nick is sleeping shoots his gun hand. It is not long until the friend's of Jake will be making their visit.
When the friends, lead by Jesse Hill, arrive in Dodge they find that Marshal Dillon will have no problems in his town. But when Nick's father and daughter decide to leave town, the friends capture them and hold his father as ransom. Will Nicholas decide to help his father after being disabled by his actions will be the climax of the show.
A nice story that seemed long with all the unnecessary dialog.
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