Speak Me Fair

(*Chester to Marshal Dillon quote*) - "Hanging is too good for anyone who did this."

Down in the gully of an open plain Marshal Dillon comes across a Kiowa Indian boy who has been badly beaten and cannot speak.

Marshal Dillon does some intense investigation into this serious matter and his search brings him around to a final confrontation at Cyrus Traych's ranch.

LOVED seeing Ken Curtis (who went on to portray 'Festus" on Gunsmoke) acting as the scout in a small role here. It was a good episode ("insensitive" portrayals notwithstanding) in any case... I enjoy seeing how HollyWeird's 'sensitivity' in its nascent form is happening) and the thirty minute show flew by.

Oh my, my review is too short. It needs to contain at least 600 characters. How's this?

And how did the three sentence reviews get by? Grandfathered in?

I say again: LOVED seeing Ken Curtis (who went on to portray 'Festus" on Gunsmoke) acting as the scout in a small role here. It was a good episode ("insensitive" portrayals notwithstanding) in any case... I enjoy seeing how HollyWeird's 'sensitivity' in its nascent form is happening) and the thirty minute show flew by.

With a brief sigh, we return to a classic western tale that makes the series such a wonderful watch. From Indian racism, cattle theft and an action packed fight, this makes for an entertaining western placing us right in the middle of the late 1800's.

It begins when Matt is on his way to the Traych ranch where they have been having some cattle come up missing. But along the way Matt comes across a badly wounded Indian kid. It appears that someone jumped the kid and tied his hands together then beat him. Matt takes the kid back to Dodge for treatment.

Traych comes into Dodge upset that Matt did not make his plan visit to his ranch. He tells Matt that more of his cattle has been slaughtered and blames the theft on an Indian tribe camped a few miles away from his ranch.

When Matt rides out to gather more information about the cattle theft, he will find more than he bargained. With luck he will be able to solve two crimes in a very short period.

A very well done show that was classic western TV. Most times when we get a similar plot the show is a success and this program does not let us down. Coming to the close of season five some of the show were looking aged- but this episode brings us back to the roots of the series. Good watch.

Matt, Chester, and Doc come across a badly beaten Indian boy on the prairie. There's no clear reason for the assault, except that it's food-gathering season for the Kiowa, plus ornery rancher Traych has had some of his herd stolen. So Matt has to sort all this out.

It's an average episode, with a number of conflicting characters. There's also a liberal message from Matt regarding the value of Indian lives; recall, this is a period in the US when the Civil Rights movement was gaining momentum. Watch for Ken Curtis as a half-breed Indian scout and still a long way from hayseed Festus Hagen. There's some suspense as to who roughed up the Indian boy and why. But I gather the final roaring fist-fight was to inject some action into an otherwise rather tame episode.