Cotter's Girl

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.

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.

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.

This episode is very cleverly written Mariette Hartley and her execution of this character would entice carol Burnett and other comedic females to show appreciation with a nod,wink and ear tug.

Any outtakes from this episode taping would be must see.

I am very pleasantly surprised.

Don't know if she was ever teamed up with Jeanette Nolan or Jack elam--if she wasn't-- than it would have been deemed "missed opportunity for tv magic"- we are all fools if we don't revisit tv "excellence"...

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.