Ash

Wow, I didn't think anyone would remember Pete from Fury, " who cut his teeth out of branding iron." Fury was seen on Sat morning tv which starred Peter Graves, Bobby Diamond, and Fury!

Ben Gault (John Dehner) and Ash Farior (Anthony Caruso) are two country traders that become friends while in Dodge. They are such good friends that they decide to give up their roaming life and become partners in a freight business inside the town of Dodge.

Both mean are becoming well respected members of the community as they do everything to help the farmers out even to the point of billing some for later payment.

One day Ben is unloading a wagon when a 55 gallon barrel hit him in the head. He is rushed to Doc Adam's place where he finally regains consciousness. But something is not correct, Ben is not the same.

Instead of being his pleasant self he seems to turn on everyone. Including his former best friend, Ash, and customers to the office. The blow on the head has left him with another personally so strong that he goes to the Long Branch confronts a young saloon woman named Tilly, hits Ash and then goes after Ms Kitty. Matt intervenes and places Ben in jail.

For some reason Ben has it in his head that Tilly is going to marry him. When she tells him that she is engaged to Emmett Hall, he become enraged and goes gets a rifle. Ash knows that with the sickness Ben is either on his way to kill Emmett or even Tilly- something must be done.

This is one of those episode that when the credits roll you know you have seen a great show. It was a bonanza for this show to have two fine actors in Dehner and Caruso playing characters that appeal to all viewers. The story was easy to understand- two good friends. Another fine episode from season 8.

Ben and Ash are partners and best friends in a Dodge City freight office. They are both generous good natured people, and the episode spends a good deal of time on how they are partners at everything. But then tragedy strikes and Ben is hit on the head by a heavy barrel. He is carted up to Doc Adams' office, and Doc is not sure that he will live.

A few hours later and Doc sends for Ash, although he won't say why. Ben has regained consciousness and will live. However, his personality has completely changed due to his head injury, and now he is mean and aggressive. And he may be this way for the rest of his life. When he recovers Ash is patient with him, but Ben has taken to drinking heavily, to snapping at everyone, and worst of all he is stalking a saloon girl, Tillie, who he says he plans to marry regardless of what she says. When she says that she is marrying Emmett (Adam West), Ben decides he will kill Emmett. He does know enough to lie about it to Marshal Dillon, but Ash knows the truth, and figures something must be done to stop him.

This was an unusual episode of Gunsmoke on such an untimely subject. The Civil Rights era was in full swing in 1963, so racism being a common topic on Gunsmoke was understandable. But in 1963 people were largely held responsible for their actions regardless of circumstances. I think of the true story behind "The Honeymoon Killers" (1969), in which Ray Fernandez, who always led an unremarkable life, was hit in the head by the steel hatch of a ship and had his frontal lobe injured. From that point forward he developed a complete lack of impulse control, abandoned his family, and embarked upon a career of romancing and fleecing lonely women. He was eventually executed for a murder he committed while running that con. Nobody thought of letting him off the hook because of the head injury. It was just so progressive of Gunsmoke to bring up such a subject in the context of a western.

The script contains its share of contrivances, and what begins as a good-natured, humorous "Bromance" turns tragic, and ultimately very moving.

John Dehner was one of the busiest actors of the day, especially in TV and radio. He played a wide range of character-types but, because of his great facility as an actor, had a tendency to slip into annoying, stage-y mannerisms; the fluttering eyelid thing chief among them. These tendencies work well for the whimsical, light-hearted scenes-- less so for the glowering, dramatic stuff.

However, Dehner's final scene, shot in extreme close-up, is masterfully restrained. Beautifully performed.

But whatever his affectations, Dehner is BOGART compared to Adam West, whose appearance is mercifully brief. GOOD GRIEF-- the guy couldn't deliver a line with sincerity or naturalism to save his life! Total phony, the essence of CAMP-- which, ironically, ended up saving his career. Dee Hartford--a super-model of the day and ALSO a sub-standard actress, manages to give a very respectful performance, light-years better than, say, her role in Twilight Zone's "Bewtichin' Pool".

Anthony Caruso is fine, and his strength and sincerity are the centerpiece of this show. Nice going.

There's a very POWERFUL scene near the end, played in total silence, with Dehner stalking the streets of Dodge in the dead of night, rifle in hand, with a dark and ominous musical underscore in the background. He passes several storefronts, saloons, and homes in the near-total darkness---another example of the SUPERB depth and texture of Gunsmoke's nighttime B&W photography.

Again, it's the Final Five Minutes of this episode that save it---so good, in fact, that most of my reservations seem rather insignificant LR

One of the great things about watching Gunsmoke is seeing the outstanding character actors/actresses who make guest appearances on the show. This episode has an all-star lineup of guest stars: John Dehner, Anthony Caruso, Dee Hartford, and Adam West (whose screen time on this episode was far less than I would have liked). Other reviewers of this episode talk about the storyline. I simply want to say that Anthony Caruso's and John Dehner's performances are first-rate (as if that's a surprise). I would probably give this episode a rating of 8 stars based on the script, but I'm raising my rating to 9 stars because of the performances of Mr. Dehner and Mr. Caruso, two of the greats of their era.