Sins of the Father

Big Dan Daggit requests a room at the Dodge House from Jim Dobie, who is working at the front desk at the hotel. Dobie gives Daggit the room before learning Daggit's wife, Rose, is an Arapaho. Even more, Rose's father was Yellow Horse, an Arapaho warrior that raided areas in and around Dodge City. Many of the Dodge residents were injured and had family members killed during those raids. Dobie tells Daggit they are not welcome in the hotel, but the couple take the room anyway.

Dobie attempts to get Matt Dillon to evict the Daggits, but the Marshal refuses. Dobie subsequently begins to spread the word around town about Rose Daggit's presence which upsets some of the local people.

Two men abduct Rose one evening. They take her out on the prairie where they blindfold her and remove her moccasins, which is meant to convey the fact she was sexually assaulted. When Big Dan learns the details, he is understandably furious.

Peter Whitney returns to Gunsmoke for his second series appearance. He portrays Big Dan Daggit in this story. He appeared in another four episodes.

A young Angie Dickinson wearing dark makeup fills the Rose Daggit role. Dickinson appeared in a considerable number of television shows throughout her career. She was a frequent guest in television westerns in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A couple of years following this role, which was her only Gunsmoke involvement, she played John Wayne's love interest in the Howard Hawks classic western film Rio Bravo.

Actor Gage Clarke was a Gunsmoke favorite. He portrays the Jim Dobie character in this story, and he would play the character a few more times over the course of the coming seasons. Later he would play the banker Botkin in a few different episodes.

Actor Paul Wexler plays Rodin, one of Rose's attackers. Wexler appeared again in another Season 2 episode, and years later in Season 14. Wexler can be seen in several classic television westerns.

Watch closely for an uncredited appearance by Len Lesser as the other man involved in Rose's abduction and assault. Lesser can be seen in a plethora of different television shows - usually in small parts - over an extensive career, but his most prominent role was as the character Uncle Leo on the series Seinfeld.

Tim Graham makes an appearance as Mr. Jonas, a part that was more prominently played by Dabbs Greer. Graham is not credited, but he would appear as Jonas at least one more time in the "Chester's Murder" episode later in Season 2.

There are a couple of interesting plot elements in this story. The most obvious is the prejudicial treatment of Rose by some of the townspeople, especially Jim Dobie. Dobie only sees Rose as the daughter of Yellow Horse, but as is often the case, once he sees her as another human being, his attitude changes. The less obvious is Rose's strength, although the other characters see her as weak and helpless. She proves her strength is equal to or greater than the men seeking to protect and defend her.

Dickinson and Whitney are an odd pairing, but it works in this story. The scene early where the Chester Goode and Doc Adams characters engage in some verbal sparring is another of those wonderful scenes that occurred with increasing frequency over the course of the series. These scenes often have little to do with the plot, but they endear the viewer to the characters involved.

Big Dan Taggitt (Peter Whitney), a mountain man, signs up for a room at the Dodge House for he and his wife. Everything is fine until Mr. Dobie finds out his wife Rose (Angie Dickinson) is an Indian. Not just any Indian...she is the daughter of Yellow Horse an Indian raider who had killed many settlers. Dobie riles the town up against them while Matt tries to keep the peace. Dobie's ranting eventually leads to violence.

Rose is kidnapped, tied up and beaten. The doc brings her on a buggy and tells the Marshal that she needs to tell him something. A plan is concocted to recognise the varmints by their footsteps- Rose says she can do this.

But they don't pass her by on the boardwalk - but they come back for her...

Excellent episode about prejudice and as the title suggests, treating someone a certain way based on what their father did. Gage Clarke as Dobie is one stirrer, and a cause of what happens. His acting, Peter Whitney's and Angie Dickinson is superb. Nice tense sequence at the end.

Hotel clerk Dobie (Clark) seems like an inoffensive little guy. But when hulking mountain man Big Dan (Whitney) brings in his Indian wife Rose (Dickinson), Dobie turns racist mean. He's got some reason since her tribe has killed many whites. But what's Matt to do when Rose disappears after Dobie has riled up the town.

Good byplay with Doc and Chester— they make it seem so effortless and natural. It's a strong story to just before the end. At that point there's a turn-around that seems pretty contrived to me, and worse, weakens the overall impact, at least in my little book. Also, note how the script talks around the fact that Rose has been gang raped without stating it. That powerful terminology was too strong for standards of the 50's, so writers had to imply without stating. Nonetheless, it remains a compelling plot device.

(In passing—Peter Whitney's hulking frame made him a natural foil {6 episode appearances} for the equally towering Arness. Here Whitney plays basically a friendly guy. However, catch him as the downright scary Ira, 250 lbs. of righteous anger in the episode Kangaroo {1959}.)

Everything is fine as Big Dan Daggit checks into the Dodge House. But when the clerk, Dobie, gets a look at Big Dan's Indian wife he is up in arms that an Indian women is staying in his hotel. And when Marshal Dillon refuses to throw the two out in the streets, Dobie begins a vocal campaign to rid Dodge of the Indian woman that is the daughter of an Indian chief that raided the prairie not long ago.

One evening two men come for Ms Daggit and take her out to the prairie. In a classic way of saying she was sexually assaulted she gets her point across by saying they ripped her moccasins off while she was blind-folded. Needless to say Big Dan is set on killing the two men even if it means hanging.

A well acted story as Peter Whitney and Angie Dickinson played the Daggits' to near perfection. The really odd part is that for some reason the caustic Dodge house clerk, Dobie, seemed to squeeze his way into nearly every scene even when Ms Daggit was taken to Doc's office for examination. But even with that odd occurrence the show was entertaining as the Daggit's set to find the two men by means of listening to footsteps. Good watch.