The Peace Officer

Crooked sheriff Clegg has town of Tascosa's businessmen intimidated by his two thugs. That is, until one bruised store-owner decides to send to Dodge for Marshal Dillon. Things are complicated by Clegg's comely girlfriend Stella who wants to leave him and sees her chance when the Marshal comes to town. Now Matt and Stella have to get back to Dodge safely with Clegg and his boys on their trail.

Pretty much an average episode, distinguished by the fine nuanced last scene between Matt and Stella. The series was very good at these softer moments where subtle acting fills pregnant pauses in the dialog. Chester and Kitty appear only briefly, but Kitty too loads a lot into her parting comment to Stella. An entertaining entry, but nothing memorable.

I really liked this episode, maybe because I'd never seen it before (how did that happen) but also because of "da luffly" (as Lawrence Welk would put it) Susan Cummings. BTW, she starred in the famous "To Serve Man" episode of Twilight Zone which aired around the time this episode of Gunsmoke did.

Let's face it, Matt never got really serious with Kitty and I think the producers wanted to make a point that he liked the girls, so we clearly see his attraction to Stella/Cummings. As other reviewers have pointed out, this was an episode that barely fit into 30 minutes, but was a nice change of pace with the surprising romance element.

This is one of those episodes that during the early part of the show it appeared we were going to have one of the best stories we have seen in a very long time. Then for some reason, it went into a near love story which derailed the entire exciting experience.

The exciting part was that Matt was called to Tascosa, Texas because a lawman was running the town as his own bankroll. Some citizens wanted the sheriff, Clegg Rawlins, out of office but he was supported by two henchmen that would rough anyone that did not follow the law as stated by Sheriff Rawlins. When Matt arrives he has to get physical with the henchmen and also avoid Rawlin's trying to bribe the Marshal into letting him stay as Sheriff.

As Matt heads back to Dodge to find a replacement for Rawlins, in comes Stella Connors that happens to be Rawlins' squeeze. Stella wants to run away from the corrupt sheriff and make a claim somewhere else. But along the way also finds herself falling in love with the tall Marshal from Dodge. Sheriff Rawlins has no plans of letting Matt take his job or his girl.

When Matt was in Tascose the story was interesting as Matt has to get rough and tough. Then on the trail back to Dodge the story slowed down to a crawl as we are treated to a sideshow where Matt refuses the advancement of a beautiful woman. It was like two stories - and one of the stories did not make good viewing pleasure.

I really like the half hour episodes but this one had enough of a story for a full hour. In removing a corrupt sheriff Matt has a chance to become rich and get a younger and more beautiful girlfriend. But he makes $40 month and already has Miss Kitty so we know where that's going. Would have been nice to see a little more story development not only between Matt and the girlfriend but also between him and the corrupt sheriff. Very good watch but there was almost too much stuff crammed into half an hour. Would have LOVED to see the entire conversation between Kitty and the girl. That could have been a show in itself.

....that one Kitty gave Matt at the bottom of the stairs after visiting with Stella would've had Marshal Dillon pushing up daisies!

Stella was a cutie and Kitty knew exactly what she was trying to do with Matthew. Good episode!