Dooley Surrenders

Three filthy, rag-tag buffalo hunters and their cook are camping on the prairie. They are drinking from a jug, and one of the men, the buffalo skinner named Emmett Dooley, is drunk and rowdy. At some point he "falls asleep." When he wakes, Colpitt, the leader of the group, and the cook are preparing to break camp. Colpitt accuses Dooley of killing Faber -- the other hunter -- the previous night. Colpitt leaves Dooley alone on the prairie.

Dooley does not remember shooting Faber, but he accepts Colpitt's account of the events. The despondent buffalo hunter walks to Dodge City and turns himself into Matt Dillon. Marshal Dillon is understandably skeptical of Dooley's account of the events.

Matt, Chester Goode, and Doc Adams ride to where the buffalo hunters were camped. They find Faber's body buried there, but he was stabbed to death instead of being shot as Dooley thinks.

Matt becomes convinced Colpitt killed Faber. After returning to Dodge, he releases Dooley from jail. He tells Dooley not to leave town in the hopes that Colpitt will be lured there. Poor old Dooley remains convinced he killed Faber and should be in jail.

Strother Martin returns for his fourth Gunsmoke appearance. He is the central character in this story as the slow-witted Emmett Dooley character.

Familiar actor Ken Lynch makes the third of twelve Gunsmoke appearances as he plays the devious Colpitt character in this story.

Ben Wright makes his first Gunsmoke appearance as Mr. Ross, a store owner in Dodge. Wright would play the same character once more in a Season 9 episode. Wright appeared in eleven different Gunsmoke episodes, but he only played the store owner in two of those stories. The Cal Ross character first appeared back in Season 1, but was originally played by actor Lou Vernon. It was never made clear if Ross's store and Mr. Jonas's stores were in competition, or if it was the same store that was operated by different people. Over the course of the series, there were several different store owners in Dodge City.

James Nusser, who would eventually begin playing the character Louie Pheeters in the series, makes an appearance as the cook, Nelson. Viewers must watch very closely to see him. He is easy to miss.

Martin's performance as Dooley is the focus of this episode. Dooley is a unique character -- insane when drunk, friendly when sober, of questionable intelligence, with a tendency toward brutal honesty. His conviction that he is a killer that belongs in jail is both pitiful and mildly amusing, as is his repeatedly asking Matt if it would be okay for him to stop by and visit the Marshal.

It is easy to understand some viewers being overwhelmed by Martin's performance. The character is supposed to be a person that exhibits personality extremes, and Martin plays the part to the hilt.

This series entry is another tragedy featuring several trademark John Meston elements. Dooley is a character that elicits the viewer's sympathy, while Colpitt is more of a traditional Meston amoral creation. As far as Colpitt is concerned, other humans are disposable once they have provided whatever service he needs. The Dooley character provides the sacrificial balance of justice to Colpitt's evil.

A highlight of the episode is the scene inside Ross's store where Kitty Russell and Matt discuss her hat. This scene is further evidence of the unspoken romantic relationship that exists between Matt and Kitty. They sound more like a married couple than a friendly man and woman.

Any time Strother Martin is in any film or TV show I will always watch if just for Martin. He always steals any scene he's in, whether a serious one (Cool Hand Luke) or a comedic scene(True Grit). The man knew how to act and he knows it. Probably very easy to direct also. He was on Gunsmoke 11 times which tells me they loved having him. He was on several other TV series as a guest but always seemed to show his stuff best on Gunsmoke. This episode was no exception.

Emmett Dooley comes to Dodge City to surrender to Marshall Dillon for committing murder. He got roaring drunk and when he woke up from tying one on, he was told by Colpitt, one of the men he was skinning buffaloes for, that he had shot and killed Faber, Colpitt's partner. Colpitt and the cook of the group broke camp and moved on.

Dillon is just not going to take this story at face value regardless of how convinced Dooley is that he's a murderer nor how mean a drunk Dooley is. Matt does lock Dooley in the jail while he investigates. He goes to where Dooley said the killing occurred and Doc's investigation of the body shows that Faber was stabbed, not shot. They both figure that Colpitt has committed the murder and pinned it on Dooley, with Dooley believing he's the killer.

Dillon comes up with a pretty clever plan to entrap the murderer, but the problem is that he doesn't tell Doc about his plan, nor has he told Dooley that he is not the killer. Complications ensue.

Strother Martin plays Dooley, and this episode which has a heavy ending is light through the middle because of how Martin plays Dooley as a likeable character, but not someone you'd take seriously. That turns out to be a mistaken impression.

Another typicalllly overwrought "chew the scenery" performance by Strother where he tries not to,leave room for anyonw else. He' never heard of less is more.

Not a very enjoyable episode! Good performances all the way around but the ending sucked and it didn't really make much sense. Now I've seen every episode of gunsmoke at least twice and I'm aware you don't always get a happy ending but with such a likeable main character it deserved better writing!