Sergeant Holly

Sgt. Emmett Holly is back in a namesake episode. Gunsmoke viewers were first introduced in Season 15's dreadful "The War Priest" episode. In that story, Sgt. Holly was supposedly discharged from the Army, but he mentions early in this episode that he re-upped around the time he first met Kitty Russell. Holly still aspires to a romance with Miss Kitty.

The Sergeant and his men have been assigned to protect a payroll shipment on a train. The train has been delayed, so Sgt. Holly instructs his men to remain in a room at the livery stable in Dodge City while he goes to the Long Branch Saloon to drink and play cards.

A man named Willis Jeeter was dishonorably discharged from the Army based on Sgt. Holly's testimony. Jeeter and his partners buy a few bottles of whiskey from the Long Branch and add Laudanum. Jeeter manages to get Holly to drink from one of the bottles, while one of the partners gives the remaining bottles to the other soldiers. The men in the livery stable pass out after drinking the tainted whiskey, but Sgt. Holly is not as easy to knock out. He and Jeeter get into an altercation outside the Long Branch resulting in Sgt. Holly losing consciousness.

Holly regains consciousness and discovers he is now a wanted man for desertion from the Army and robbing the payroll shipment from the train. Jeeter and his partners posed as Holly and stole the payroll. These circumstances trigger a silly series of events where Sgt. Holly tries to apprehend Jeeter while being pursued by Kitty.

Forrest Tucker reprises his role as Sgt. Emmett Holly in the same boisterous, exaggerated manner as he displayed in the previous episode. He essentially continues playing the Sgt. O'Rourke role from his days on the series F Troop. Tucker was a talented actor, but I personally prefer his more serious roles.

Albert Salmi appears in this story as Willis Jeeter. Salmi was a veteran of television and films and possessed a unique, easily recognizable acting style and personality. This is the last of three different episodes of Gunsmoke for Salmi.

Gregg Palmer is present once again -- he appeared in over twenty Gunsmoke episodes. In this story he has a full beard and long hair.

The character named Lomax is played by Bob Morgan. Morgan was married to actress Yvonne De Carlo at one time. He lost a leg and was nearly killed while filming the 1962 film How the West Was Won.

Vito Scotti, who often played all sorts of ethnic roles in films and television shows, appears here as the character credited as "The Indian."

It is difficult to understand why anyone thought bringing back Forrest Tucker to play Sgt. Holly again was a good idea after the awful "The War Priest" episode. This story where obnoxiousness is confused with humor is no better. After a couple of episodes away from Dodge City, this one at least begins there. The Gunsmoke stars all make an appearance, but Amanda Blake is the only one that has a very prominent role in the story.

...is Forest Tucker for "Sgt. Holly". *

Forest Tucker talks so loudly and so much it's amazing any of the sets are left standing. Long before the final credits, one feels one has been aurally assaulted and battered.

This episode is often cited as one of the very worst. Whoever feels that way has apparently never seen the prequel that introduces Holly, "The War Priest", which is appalling. (See my review.) At least "Sgt. Holly" tells a single, more or less coherent story that makes (some) sense in terms of motives and events.

There is one bit of confusion. In "Priest" he was presumably thrown out of the Army for not being on time for his official honorable discharge. Why he's still in the Army is never explained. But at least this isn't as absurd as Mannon coming back to life for "Return to Dodge".

I like Forest Tucker very much. (It's hard not to like the guy.) But both episodes are very much a much of a muchness. Approach with caution.

* Note that the correct title is "Sgt. Holly" -- as shown on the title card -- not "Sergeant Holly".

...this one was too much. I usually like Forrest Tucker a lot - between F-Troop and all his old movies he was in, I always found him entertaining. However, not in this one. This and the character's previous episode were a huge nope from me. They wrote this character overly obnoxious, and the oddly meandering storyline just wasn't enjoyable. I'm giving it a 3 cause I normally like him, he's a good actor, and I liked that Kitty was in it a lot - though totally different attitude towards Holly than his first episode so, continuity was nowhere to be found - and it's rare in the later episodes that ALL the regulars show up. So, it gets at least a 3. But, I turned it off in the first 20 minutes.

Forest Tucker gave me the creeps. His only acting mode was as the obnoxious Sergeant in F-Troop, and here he brings that vile character to Gunsmoke for the final time. Like many before him on Gunsmoke, Sgt. Holly thinks that if he yells enough at Ms. Kitty and tells her that she is his property, then she will be happy to become the wife of the obnoxious pot-bellied drunk who is facing court-martial, hanging, or prison at best.

Sgt. Holly got drunk and his drinks were spiked with laudenum. He and his crew of loser soldiers were all sedated thanks to the incompetence of thier commanding officer, Sgt. Holly. When he wakes up, the payroll they were supposed to be guarding has been stolen.

Sgt. Holly goes off to search for it, and crosses paths with Ms. Kitty. The remainder of the episode is incredibly sickening. It consists of Forest Tucker trying to force himself on Ms. Kitty while she is constantly telling him what a pathetic loser he is.

I cannot watch more than a few minutes of this at any time. It is horrible writing, and worse acting. Forest Tucker sets back the human race by fifty or more years every time this episode broadcast on television.

This is a strange "Gunsmoke" comedy which I couldn't stomach watching right through. I tuned in several times over the first half-hour and each time the screen was filled with Forrest Tucker recreating his "F Troop" character of 5 years before -- and here he was playing that same sergeant in the same uniform right down to the sideways cavalry hat, and purveying that same roistering, drunken "Irish" charm. He comes to a point where, having borrowed money from Kitty, he rides out of town and gets a down-and-out Indian to drink whiskey from a jar, the same as the sergeant does, pumping him for information about where the bad guys went. This only goes so far as entertainment, even a curiosity of showbiz trivia. So I won't say any more, except that when Kitty catches up with him she plays along as his wife -- and the rest of this fiasco has them wrestling on the floor like the kind of spirited man and wife you're likely to see in John Wayne-Maureen O'Hara romantic comedies. It's just eve harder to see the comedy element, that's all.