Mannon

When Matt finally rides into town, Mannon is chomping on a piece of meat. Others here have claimed it was ridiculously loud, crunchy chicken, But it was clearly a pig's foot. My question was how was he eating that? They don't usually have lots of centrally located meat. If anyone knows what he was eating, I'd be obliged.

Meanwhile, Kitty claims to give Matt an advantage in instilling self-doubt into Mannon's mind. Shaking his confidence. And yet? Matt survives as a fluke, a piece of luck. Not really sure what we're supposed to make of that.

What is that song Mannon sings so many verses of? Steve Forrest was a classically trained baritone.

This is one of the best written episodes of the entire Gunsmoke series. Steve Forrest plays the heaviest of heavies to terrorize Dodge City. Amamda Blake plays her role with power and grace Her admiration and trust in Matt Dillon is so strong, The ending I will not spoil. Enjoy the story.

I remember watching this episode with my parents, years ago. Steve Forrest did a great job as Mannon. But the overenthusiastic sound effects when he was eating fried chicken kind of ruined the mood. We still laugh about that. CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH.

With 20 years and over 600 episodes to choose from, its hard to pick a favorite one but this is it. Steve Forrest plays the villain so well that you're trying to reach into the screen to strangle him. Many other reviewers point out how unbelievable some of the events are. What they don't seem to realize is that the whole purpose of this episode was to have a confrontation between Forrest and Matt. This was done beautifully (and brutally). Saying this was the BEST episode is really saying something given the quality of 5he series.

Festus encounters stranger Will Mannon who shoots him for his mule. Of course, he hangs on and makes it back to Dodge to tell a tale of the fast gun stranger. Even the town slow wits like Burke put two and two together when Mannon rides up on Ruth. All that is left to do now is to identify Mannon and you got your guy. Except Festus turns coward and would rather forget the whole thing. Next Newly pretends to stand up to him but gives himself an out. Matt is out of town, so he is unavailable.

This leaves Mannon free reign of Dodge as everyone else is equally afraid. So, he spends his time strutting around while merrily singing a song, sipping whiskey, performing feats of marksmanship, and creating fear. Mannon hits what he aims at, or better yet, doesn't have to aim, but simply points in a general direction and the bullet magically finds its way to its intended target. Except he only wounded Festus, I guess that was the one time his aim was off.

The cowardly town offers to pay Mannon to leave Dodge, but he instead takes their money and hangs around. The town's folk are not only gutless, but not very smart. All they would have to do is to get everyone with a gun to walk up behind and arrest him, but no one thinks of that. I guess being a fast gun makes him invincible. If that were that case, then why not fight The Civil War with all fast guns if it were that effective. Just stand there and outdraw the enemy.

Kitty gets in on the act of trying to pay off Mannon. Not sure what good that would do, once you paid him, he would only come back. A very unflattering portrayal of Dodge and everyone in the town. I guess the point of the episode is to demonstrate how the citizens of Dodge are like lost children without Matt around. He gets back just in time for a lackluster ending.