User Reviews

This may have been some of the reason that 'Gunsmoke' went to an hour format. Here we have a very good story but not enough time to develop the characters. The ending was so rushed that it almost seemed surreal as the scene faded to black. This would have been much better in the hour format.

The story involved a young man, Sandy King (Guy Stockwell), that becomes a much prized cook at Delmonicos. During an altercation with a drunk customer, Sandy hits the man in the head with a frying-pan and it actually kills the drunk. Sandy runs off and Matt and Chester ride out to bring him back to face charges of murder.

Along the way the blond-haired fellow comes upon a farm house where a lovely young girl happens to live. Effie Strayhorn, played by the always beautiful Sue Randall, is the young woman that takes a shine to the young man. But when Effie's father catches them he has Sandy at gunpoint. But just in time Matt comes riding up to prevent a killing and take his prisoner back to Dodge.

When Matt gets back to Dodge, a cattle drive has ridden into the town. They demand that Matt release Sandy to cook or they are going to shoot up the town. It does not look too good for the Marshal.

There is much going on in this story with most of the scenes not getting enough time to mature. When Sandy meets the young woman- it was so brief that he had nothing whatsoever to do with the story. The cattle drive was another area that looked out of place due to the lack of explanation but at least has some bits of the plot examined. This was such a nice story and very well acted that it was a shame that it was not expanded. But you take what you can get and in this we get a good story that was just too rushed.

This episode -- which was also a radio episode from the same year -- suffers from being more of a concoction than a properly developed character study. (The ending is an unneeded deus-ex-machina.) What makes it a standout is Guy Stockwell's performance.

Guy's younger brother, Dean, is the more-familiar actor. Guy was ridiculously good-looking (with a shock of blond hair and big puppy eyes), and (wonder of wonders) he could act.

Brother, could he act. His performance here is so expressive and finely tuned that everyone else seems to be just reading their lines.

If the story had more depth, this would be one of the best "Gunsmoke" episodes.

Rather tongue-in-cheek episode. Sandy's a heckuva good cook, but he slams a cowboy roughneck with a frying pan. The cowboy ends up dead and now Sandy's on the run. Meanwhile, Texas trailherders are raising cain to get Dodge's one good cook back. So what's Matt to do since the dead cowboy more or less asked for it.

I love Chester's table manners. He never lets big mouthfuls get in the way of talking. My mother would have been appalled. Personality rather than suspense or gunplay carries this episode, and get a load of the beauteous Sue Randall as Effie. Good ending with a great last line. Note too, how the series at this point typically ends with a fade-out of characters moving away from the camera. It's like maybe they're going back to their world leaving us to contemplate what we've seen.