Coventry

It's nice to think that the whole town would do the right thing and follow Matt's lead but I don't think so!!!!! Every other episode it seems features ranchers trying to steal land from "nesters" as they usually referred to the...aka farmers. They might not have given Beard big profits, but they would have been game to buy up the deeds.

I've always thought this was a great episode of Gunsmoke . Yes it's Twilight Zone but the way the town gets back at him... and the ending ... it's just poetic justice...

In this episode, Dean Beard is a guy that is only looking out for himself. While coming across two people in need, he refuse to offer aid. He cheats people into selling him land far below market value. He even kills a person but gets away with it when there are no witnesses to confirm the obvious. He is just an all around bad guy.

After being found 'not guilty' of the murder word spread through town not to speak to Dean. It is like he is not even alive as he moves from one scene in Dodge to another part of town.

Pressure gets so heavy on Dean that he decides to leave town. But now he is in need of aid-- will the other people give him aid that he refused others? It will be an odd ending to an odd episode.

First part of the show was interesting but then it went bizarre as it fell into a science-fiction area that is odd for 'Gunsmoke'. An bizarre episode for sure.

Dan Beard first refuses to give aid to two people in need. Later as you will see he cheats people out of their land. Even with a murder he commits he thinks he is above all. After his trial and found not guilty he is shunned by the whole town no matter where he goes.

He finally decides to leave Dodge. After a windstorm comes up, this is the start of his problems. The ending is as they say, out of the Twilight Zone.

The producers said Gunsmoke would be dark and focus on the real, often unhappy, endings many westerners experienced. This episode is right up there with Joe Maross an excellent villain. Paul Birch also gives a good performance, one of my fave "B" level actors. You knew the bad guy would get his comeuppance and he does. Personally, I really like it when they bring in the wind and smoke machines, which add a really eerie feel to any episode and particularly so in this one out on the prairie. It was also nice to see Bill Boyett at the end, a guy who labored for years on Highway Patrol a couple of years earlier.