"Gunsmoke" Cotter's Girl (TV Episode 1963) Poster

(TV Series)

(1963)

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9/10
Mariette Hartley delivers a gem!
kenstallings-6534615 February 2019
Marriette Hartley delivers a fantastic performance, upstaging every regular cast member in what must rank as the most delightful Gunsmoke episode ever. This is both heart warming and funny. The constant interplay between Hartley and James Arness is mesmerizing, as each cast member is allowed to just have fun on camera, and that jolliness shines through the entire episode.

The plot, such as it is, becomes unimportant as this is a human play of an innocent platonic relationship, and is as close as one will ever get to seeing James Arness play out as a father of a teenage daughter, one who by the way isn't interested in playing the role of daughter, as she is puppy lover!

Hartley was actually 23 years old when this episode was made, and yet she plays the role of innocent teen so well that one forgets how old she really was. It took an outstanding actress to pull this role off, and Hartley delivered!
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9/10
Matt and Clarey
g-36829-3413813 September 2022
Clarey totally disarms Matt in this episode and Arness shows his acting skills in playing against Clarey's obvious developing crush on the big man. He is at a total loss on how to handle Clarey.

The scene at the dressmaker's store is really out of character for this 'shoot 'em up' genre and series.lll

Fortunately, the other main characters in Dodge take Clarey under thieir wings, including Chester teaching Clarey to read. The scene with Doc is sensitive and touching, too. Kitty brings the clothes to fix her up, too.

Hartley's performance for such a young actress is stellar and completely in character.

The next to final scene with Clarey on Ma Smalley's porch is touching. Arness plays it so well... sort of an inward reflection as to what it could have been between him and Clarey if he was 20 years younger.

All in all, a great episode and a change up to the usual fare served up by the wild west series.
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An adlib on Gunsmoke
lamarrclemons13 September 2022
I just saw this ending; this was a special Gunsmoke and all of the cast did a great job and some were interesting though short lived. At first Roy Barcroft, long time bad guy to Roy Rogers and other good guys, was the father and then John Clarke, who recently died with a long running role on Days of our Lives, was the man who fought with him. Two parts at the end jumped out to me; the tall young man who got on the stage was a sometime double for Clint Walker. The second was when Kitty ran up behind Matt, called him Dillon and hugged him with a great big smile on her face; I have to wonder if this was an adlib.
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7/10
A sweet tale of a girl coming of age in Dodge.
kfo94942 December 2012
Here is a nice tale of a young girl with no social skills or school learning having to be taught how to act and be like a woman. And in doing so turns Clarey, played wonderfully by Mariette Hartley, from a wild child into a woman that can turn heads east and west of the Mississippi.

The show begins as a man named Cotter picks a fight with a man named Mackle inside a bar. In fact Cotter baits him into hitting him and tells the Marshal that the fight was his own doing. He gives the Marshal a letter that contained a note and money. He asked Matt to find his daughter, Clarey, and give her the money so that she can go live with her aunt in Harrisburg. With one last drink from the bottle Cotter dies.

Since no one knew that Cotter had a daughter, Matt follows the instruction and finds the girl. Expecting to find a ten year old, instead he finds a young woman about 18 living by herself in the outback. She kills her own food, swims every morning in the creek and sleeps in trees. Marshal has to find a way to get her some social skills before taking the trip to her aunt's house.

In Dodge everyone helps out. Kitty gets her dresses, Doc makes sure she is well and Chester teaches her how to read and act in public. And if Clarey can hold onto what she has been taught- she has the makings of being one of the most beautiful women around.

In this episode the writer has taken a change from the 'shoot-um-up' shows we have seen all season. This is a sweet tale of a young girl blossoming into woman with all the excitement due such an occasion. Nothing in here is new or unexpected but with Hartley playing the lead- it comes across well on the screen.
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5/10
A LITTLE TOO MUCH MARIETTA
cduffynyc-407697 March 2024
Sorry, usually I agree with my fellow reviewers about Gunsmoke; and I concur that the scene at Ma Smalley's between Matt & Clarey was charming, after she gets a little more mature (and less goofy) and they sense a real connection, it was very well done.

Additionally, Chester again comes off so sweet in helping teach Clarey manners, curtsies & how to use a knife & fork.

That said, I cud take a 30 min episode of this, as watching this girl for an hour, hugging everyone 100 times, was a bit too much. The cuteness of her naivety wore off fast and I was hoping someone would dunk her in a trough.

Yes, Hartley was good, but to me she didn't expand the character as much as possible. It had more of a female Tarzan aura to it, even in the dialogue, as she spoke poor broken english. LOL. Not a bad episode but a pointless one where so much more was available.
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7/10
A Pleasant Diversion, elevated by it's Penultimate Scene
lrrap13 September 2014
Warning: Spoilers
WILL MATT GO SKINNY-DIPPING WITH LOVELY NATURE-GIRL/NYMPHET? Tune in to COTTER'S GIRL and see!

Other than the opening bar fight, there's absolutely no violence or any real tension in this episode---not necessarily a bad thing. I enjoy seeing the laid-back, friendly camaraderie of the four principal Gunsmoke characters, without some crazed gunfighter or creepy country yokel slinking around Dodge causing trouble.

Here's another in the series' collaborations between writer Kathleen Hite and director Harry Harris, who occasionally turned out true masterpieces of TV drama for this series (see "Long, Long Trail, Apprentice Doc, The Way It Is, Cale"). Hite's scripts often provide insights into the feminine world-view of the Old West, and "Cotter's Girl" is no exception.

One of Mariette Hartley's very first TV appearances, and, yes, she is charming. Interesting that she played the part WITHOUT any of the dreadful 60's eye make-up that so often undermines Gunsmoke's pretense of 1870's realism-- yep, she plays it totally natural, as the character demands.

What disappoints me is the fairly innocuous quality of most of this show; it's cute, but it gets a little trite and wearisome after a while. James Arness, so perfect in the role of Matt Dillon, even seems as uncomfortable as an actor fending off Ms. Hartley's advances as does his character in the story.

WHAT SAVES THIS EPISODE-- for me, at least--- is the penultimate scene between Matt and Mariette, as he walks her back to the boarding house on their last night together. It is so sweet and sad, and Fred Steiner's lovely underscore really puts it over the top as one of Gunsmoke's truly memorable moments. Arness' reaction after Mariette has gone inside speaks volumes-- sadness, compassion, frustration...maybe even a little regret for what might have been, had he not been such a practical, no-nonsense guy. It is very touching.

LR
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7/10
pointless -- but charmingly so
grizzledgeezer22 February 2014
This is the distaff version of "Old Companion", with the male heir replaced by a female. * It's comparably pointless -- the central conflict, of turning a tomboy into a young "lady", is of no particular consequence to anyone.

What saves this show (which could have been as awful as "Old Companion" -- see my review) is Mariette Hartley's performance. "Charming" doesn't begin to describe it. She's as fresh as a daisy and natural as spring water, unmannered and devoid of self-awareness. It's unlikely any other ingénue of the early '60s could have done remotely as well. One gets the feeling that the script was written with her in mind.

Recommended -- not for the story, but for the pleasure of watching Ms Hartley.

* In watching multiple seasons of various TV series, I'm surprised at how often episodes within a few weeks of each other are thematically similar or even identical. (This even happens /across/ series!) It's probably not an accident -- one writer's idea provokes an "I can do better reaction" in other writers.
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