Aunt Thede

Doc and townsperson just have met Aunt Thede Hagen. The townsperson says: "Who was that?" Doc replies: "She;'s a Hagen, can't you tell? You know they all look alike.".... Too funny.

James Stacey ( who had a tragic end to his life) plays his usual charming rogue. Dyan Cannon, looking like something out of a Gode print ( highly unlikely in a farmgirl on the 1880's Kansas plain) and Jeanette Nolan as an annoying female version of Festus ( who is annoying enough in his own right) tell a tale not worth telling. The title should have been A Little Bit of Hagen Goes a Long Way.

The above review quite adequately describes the episode. However, I find the humor of the rather broad Western fashion of humor (numerous fights without any lasting damage, faux authentic rustics uttering humorous regional observations) that wears thin quickly.

Festus plays such a character but he remains Matt's foil rather than the primary thematic thrust of an entire episode. It runs a bit thin for an entire episode, however.

For some reason the music was particularly irritating. Perhaps because it complimented the humorous rustic theme.

There remains underneath the humor is the often-used trope of abused women. Gunsmoke was one of the first series to highlight powerless women abused by men whose only source of power was their gender.

Great visual angles by cinematographer Harry Stradling Jr.

When I turned to this episode and saw the comedic action speeded up like a cartoon or 3 stooges episode, I knew I was not going to like this. I watched about 10 minutes of it and turned it off. This is exactly what I was talkimg about in another review when I talked about Gunsmoke going downhill when Chester and the writer John Meston left. Festus is not funny at all with his Ernest T. Bass imitation and I refuse to watch these unfunny episodes. The only saving grace is watching Howard MacNear's Mayberry Floyd the Barber from the Andy Griffith Show.