Around Dodge City and in the territory on West, there is just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, and that's with the U.S. Marshal and the smell of gun smoke.
Gun Smoke, starring William Conrad, the story of the violence that moved West with young America, and the story of a man who moved with it.
I'm that man, Matt Dillon, United States Marshal, the first man they look for and the last they want to meet. It's a chancey job, and it makes a man watchful and a little lonely.
Oh, you finished in there already, Mr. Dillon?
I just wanted to ask the edge of the question, Chester.
All right, I was sort of hoping you'd be a few minutes longer.
Do you want me to go back in?
Oh, no. Of course not. I was just thinking, though, with it so near the stage time and all, I'd like to stay a little bit and see it come in.
Are you expecting somebody?
Well, no, it ain't that.
What is it, then?
Well, I just like to see them stages come in. It's all, I get to figuring on all the miles that have come and all the folks that throwed in them and all the things that's happened. You know, Mr. Dillon, it kind of stirs a man up.
Hang on to yourself, Chester, because here it comes.
Oh, sure enough. Oh, ain't that a pretty sight.
Well, I've seen prettier, but we might as well wait around and see who's coming in, huh?
In case I enjoy that.
Oh, my.
Oh, shit.
Hey.
Hello, Marshall.
How about it, Jim? Did you have a good run?
Well, driving one of these rigs ain't never exactly easy, but, you know, nothing special happened.
That's good.
You looking for somebody?
No, Chester, just sightseeing.
How's that?
He just likes to watch, that's all.
Well, now he can just watch me tend that baggage.
I'll see you later, Marshall.
Sure, Jim.
Well, he don't need to act so smart about it.
Pardon me, gentlemen.
I'd like to ask a question.
Oh, sure.
What's on your mind?
Billy Critt, sir, from Louisiana.
I'm Matt Dillon, Critt. This is Chester Brotford.
Pleased to meet you, Mr. Critt.
Gentlemen, I was wondering if either of you could help me find a friend of mine.
You don't have to do no more than just tell us his name, Mr. Critt.
We know just about everybody in these parts.
It's not a he, it's a lady.
A lady? Well, now we...
What's her name, Critt?
Russell. Miss Kitty Russell.
You happen to know her, Marshall?
Know her? I just guess he does.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
I guess Mr. Dillon knows Miss Kitty just about as well as anybody in town.
Why, thank you, Marshall. If you tell me where I might find her,
I will take you to her. She's just down the street.
Chester, will you go on down and pick up the mail and take it back to the office?
I'll be there directly.
Yes, sir, I'll do that, Mr. Dillon. But if you need any help...
Yeah, we'll call you if we need any help.
Thanks for your courtesy, Mr. Proudfoot.
You say you can show me where to find Miss Russell, Marshall?
Sure, I'll take you there. Come on.
You look a little young to have known Kitty very well.
She's been here in Dodge for quite a spell now.
She's an old friend of the family, Marshall Dillon.
Most especially of my older sister. They grew up together.
So when I started out on this trip, there was nothing for it but that I look her up.
Lucy'd never forgive me.
I see. Has your sister heard from Kitty lately?
Why, they'd kept in touch, sir. Birthdays, Christmas, things like that.
You know how ladies are.
Ah, here we are, right in here.
But this is a saloon, sir.
Have you ever been in one before?
Oh, I have no objections for myself, sir, but we're looking for a lady.
Oh, come on in, Crit. I think Kitty can speak for herself.
Kitty.
I'll be with you in a minute, Matt, as soon as I get these bills added up.
Sit down.
Ah, this is an old friend of yours, Kitty.
Huh?
From Louisiana, named Crit.
Billy Crit, ma'am.
Well, there's no wonder you don't remember me.
I was hardly big enough to notice when you last saw me.
You're Billy Crit?
That's right, ma'am. I'm Lucy's youngest brother. At your service, ma'am.
Well, Billy. Well, I remember you.
Well, sure I do.
Well, I hardly know what to say.
I'd better leave you two old friends together quite a bit.
Oh, no, Matt, you must say...
I'll be over at the bar, Kitty.
Well, thank you, sir, for your help.
That's all right, Crit. I'll see you later.
Well, well, Billy, sit down.
Thank you, ma'am.
The marshal was very accommodating when I told him you were a friend of the family.
Oh, the family.
That was all a long time ago, wasn't it, Billy?
I reckon it was.
I didn't expect to find you in a place like...
Well, how's Lucy?
She's fine. Enjoying splendid health.
And the children? They're sweet of them now, huh?
Oh, ma'am, Sister Lucy had another little daughter just last month.
But I sure am surprised, ma'am, to find you in a place...
Say, you've grown tall, Billy.
I do believe you favor your father.
They say I do.
Miss Kitty...
That whiskey drummer's about to leave, Kitty, if you want to settle up with him.
Oh, yeah, Sam, I do. I'll be right there.
You'll have to excuse me, Billy. There's some business I have to take care of.
Why, that's all right, ma'am. But, uh, I wonder...
Yeah, Billy?
I wonder if you'd do me the honor of taking supper with me tonight...
at some, uh, suitable place?
Well, all right, Billy. Sure, that'll be nice.
You come back this evening.
Kitty?
Yes, Sam?
I'll call for you, ma'am.
All right, Billy.
I, uh, I guess you'll be staying at the Dodge House, Critt.
I'll walk along with you. It's right near my office.
Well, thank you, Marshall. I just assumed you'd get along there now.
Well...
Uh, is it a good hotel?
The Dodge House? Sure, it's as good as we can.
No offense, sir, but...
Well, I guess you look at things differently in the West.
Uh, we don't look at them differently, Critt.
We just, uh, have to live differently, that's all.
And the people...
And the people don't take hasty judging.
I reckon I wasn't judging the people so much as the surroundings.
Well, surroundings aren't the most important thing out here, Critt.
Well, I know, sir, but...
Well, I can't help believing Miss Kitty would be better off
someplace other than a saloon.
My people always told me she's a fine woman.
She is a fine woman.
And I think maybe I'd leave Kitty's surroundings up to her.
No.
Sorry we haven't a better eating place to show you, Billy.
It's all right, Miss Kitty.
There's a Marshall's house down the street.
It's all right, Miss Kitty.
As a Marshall said to me this afternoon,
surroundings aren't the most important thing.
Hmm. Matt said that, did he?
Yes, ma'am.
And I can add that right now, at least,
they aren't near as important as the company.
Thank you.
Nobody's bothered to turn a compliment like that for me in a long time.
Miss Kitty, hmm?
I'd like to ask you something.
What is it, Billy?
Sister Lucy, she never mentioned the kind of work you do.
I don't think I ever mentioned it to her.
Well, I can't help feeling, ma'am,
that you'd be a lot happier if you were situated someplace else.
Are you talking about the Long Branch?
Yes, ma'am, I am.
A saloon just isn't a suitable place for a lady.
I know it isn't.
Now, Billy, look here.
There she is.
Where?
Look at that, will you?
Oh.
Hi, Kitty.
Hi, Kitty.
You'd better come on back to your own place, Kitty.
Come on back.
The lady is with me.
We've been looking for you.
Come on back to your own place.
Yeah.
We drink better when you're pretty enough to the place.
That's so.
You go along, boys.
I'm having the supper.
I'll take care of this.
I've told you once, the lady is with me.
Now, if you don't stop bothering her,
I'll be forced to take it as a personal insult.
Billy.
What's he saying, Tom?
Well, I do believe the little fella is standing up for Kitty.
Tell.
I'm warning you, sir.
Why, you fancy talking to him.
Boys, you go on back to the long branch.
I'll be a long director.
I won't stand for them talking to you like that.
Billy, sit down.
Now, go along, boys.
Don't.
Don't you think I ought to pin his ears back for him, we've just once...
He didn't mean anything.
I don't know.
Now, you go on now.
Drinks are on me.
Oh, free drinks?
That's what I said.
Well, well, sure thing, Kitty.
Well, we'll see you later.
Sure.
Come on, come on.
Sure thing.
Come on, free drinks.
I wish you hadn't done that, Miss Kitty.
You don't understand the way things are out here, Billy.
They didn't mean anything.
But no lady has to submit to that sort of thing.
Oh, Billy, you've got a lot to learn.
Can I come in, Matt?
Huh?
Oh, sure, Kitty, come on in.
I've got one more paper to sign here, and I'll be right with you.
Now, what can I do for you, Kitty?
Is it an official visit?
Well, I guess it is, Matt, in a way.
I'm awful worried about that boy.
Oh, well, what's happened?
Well, nothing's happened yet.
At least I was able to stop it.
What do you mean?
Oh, last night we were having supper at Delmonico's, and Tal and Weeb came in,
and they were drunk.
You know how they act.
Did Critt take him on?
He was ready to.
I managed to stop it this time.
This time?
Matt, that young fool's determined to defend my honor.
One of these times, maybe next time,
I won't be able to break it up with an offer of free drinks.
You may be right, Kitty, but not much you can do.
But can't you do something, Matt?
Talk to him.
Hurry him out of town.
Take away his gun.
Kitty, Kitty, use your head.
I can't do that.
The boy hasn't done anything with it.
And you're just going to sit around and wait till it does?
I don't want trouble any more than you do, Kitty,
but the boy has to grow up sometime.
You men have a fine idea of what's grown up.
Just settle it with a gun.
Just shoot somebody, anybody that's grown up in this town.
Kitty, will you listen to me?
I know it's hard for you, but that doesn't change the way things are.
I'll do what I can.
I'll talk to him, but I can't...
You can't tell me what to do.
I can't... You can't take his gun away.
All right, Matt.
I only hope he doesn't grow up just in time to get himself killed.
I'll do what I can.
Oh, I tend to duck.
Miss Kitty read him out some beer.
She did?
Well, what were you doing there, Chester?
Ah, heavesdropping, huh?
You know, Doc, but I was in the back room there when Miss Kitty came in,
and there wasn't no way for me to come out once she started going on,
and Mr. Dillon, and there wasn't no way for me to keep him here, neither.
She really gave Matt a hard time, didn't she?
Mercy, yes, she did, for a fact.
I told him...
It was too hard on him.
Kitty, oh, yes, now, Kitty, now, you've got to realize, you know,
Matt has a job to do.
Yes, he has, and a tough job.
He can't take time to nurse me, and every young pup who comes to me...
Oh, you men are all alike.
Just leave him alone.
Give him a gun, leave him alone, it'll all be settled one way or another.
Miss Kitty, even if you keep Billy coming in...
I'm afraid he wouldn't.
I'll steer him away from the bar, maybe that'll keep trouble away for a little while.
Billy, hello, Billy.
Good afternoon, Miss Kitty.
Come on over here and sit down, huh?
Thank you.
I trust you spent a comfortable night.
Oh, yeah, Billy.
Thank you.
Miss Kitty, I've come to tell you goodbye.
I've decided to cut short my visit.
Oh, well, Billy, it was nice to see you.
Now, you be sure to give Lucy my love, huh?
I surely will do that, ma'am.
Yeah.
Well, when are you leaving?
Right away, ma'am.
You might as well go now while the weather's even.
It's still hard traveling when it's stormy.
Well, there he is now.
The gent with the fancy talk.
Tal, you go along now.
You had something to say to me, sir.
Well, now, I don't know.
I don't know if you'll still be hiding behind the gal's skirts again.
That's insulting, sir.
Chester, Chester, go get math.
Yes, I will, Miss Kitty.
If it's so insulting, what are you aimed to do about it?
I'm inviting you out into the street with me, sir, right now.
Billy, Tal, you stop this right now.
Not this time, Miss Kitty.
Did you hear me, sir?
Will you step outside with me?
You mean you really know how to use that gun you're wearing?
I know how to use it, if you are not afraid.
You young, smart alec.
I'm waiting.
Doc!
Look here, Tal, now, this is a pretty foolish thing to do,
starting a gunfight over nothing.
Well, help a Doc, this kid has a chip on his shoulder ten feet high.
If somebody has to knock it off, might as well be me.
Well, he's just a youngster, Tal.
He doesn't understand.
He might as well do as growing up right now.
Lead the way, you.
After you, sir.
All right, hold it. Everybody stay right here.
This is an affair of honor, Marshal.
You have no right to interfere.
I'm interfering anyway. Now, give me your gun, Crit.
No, Marshal, you...
Give it back.
I'll give it back when you leave town.
All right, Tal, go on, get out of here.
Now, wait.
Go on, before I let you cool off in jail. Now, go on.
This is...
This is very humiliating for a gentleman.
Billy, this whole trip, this whole meeting with me seems to have been humiliating for a gentleman like you.
Well, ma'am, I was meeting to defend the lady's honor.
What lady? What honor?
Well, yours, ma'am.
Now, you listen to me. I've been getting along very well here without you to defend me.
I live the way I want to live. I do what I want to do, and it's for my honor.
Well, I haven't thought much about it for a long time.
But, ma'am...
I've had about enough of you with your fancy manners and your fancy talk.
The sooner you go back to your mama and your nice way to live, the better I like it.
Sam, Sam, I'll have a whiskey.
Sure, keep it.
There's a stage in an hour, Critch, you might want to be on it, huh?
I'll be on it, Marshal.
That's for certain.
You can pick up your gun before you leave.
You were pretty hard on him, Kitty.
And pretty hard on yourself, too.
Yeah, I was.
It's subtle, isn't it?
I guess it isn't the first time a woman's had to be hard on herself to keep a man out of trouble.
Is he gone?
Yeah, he's taking the stage.
That's good.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, Critch.
Oh, that's good.
Oh, well, Matt, come on.
I'll buy you a drink.
Well, you think I'm grown up enough?
Gun smoke, produced and directed by Norman McDonald, starring John Hanks.
Produced and directed by Norman McDonald, stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
The story was specially written for Gunsmoke by Marion Clark, with editorial supervision by John Mesta.
Harley Bair is Chester, Howard McNear is Doc, and Georgia Ellis is Kitty.
This is George Walsh, inviting you to join us again next week for another story on Gunsmoke.