The Cabin

Ever since I saw Patricia Barry simper her way around in an episode of Perry Mason, she's annoyed me (I guess that shows her effectiveness). But after seeing her in this role, I can't imagine anyone else playing Belle. Her face contorts with emotion as she breaks down after the villains are dead, but it's not overdone, her relief is palpable.

The next morning there's a subtle, yet definite hardness that's settled over her. You feel the tension and awkwardness between Matt and Belle as they make small talk while drinking coffee. She knows he knows what the outlaws did to her, but it's the elephant in the room. And then as he realizes her determination to go through with her plan, there's a growing sense of his helplessness to change her mind. It's as if she can't wait to start making bad memories in order to forget what happened at the cabin. Matt's final look of horror mixed with sadness after she tells him to look her up some time is brilliant. As often as Matt went to Hays, I wish there had been a follow-up episode so we knew what happened to Belle.

I love me some Claude Akins - and obviously so did many directors back in the day cause the guy is everywhere, he's one of the best character actors anywhere - but, in this episode he is just the most hateful guy. Harry Dean Stanton is his usual great quirky self, and Patricia Barry is really wonderful - she totally evokes the sadness and despair needed for her character - but, Claude Akins' character was awful. Which means he did a great job on this role.

Though I never I watched this show on its original run - I was too young - I just started recently watching the reruns of this good show, and I have to compliment not just the regulars but, the guest stars, too - they sure brought to life the variety of these stories. It's easy to become attached to all these characters l; I get why it spent so many years on TV!

Even with the melancholy ending, this episode hit a nerve that resounds through the entire series making this show one of the better in the entire collection. The way the episode leaves the viewer feeling for the forlorn character makes this an unusual ending, from the regular happy-go-lucky closures, that we usually get from the writers. In this your emotions run shallow as the camera fades to black leaving the viewer wanting more in order to find out the outcome of life.

The episode begins with Marshal Dillon getting struck in a blizzard while leaving Hays City back in route to Dodge. He stumbles up on a cabin where two outlaws have invaded and set up their little house of horrors by killing the man and making the woman, Belle, a slave to their every whim. Belle, from the bruises on her face, has been abused physically and mentally for some time. Even the viewer give the hint of sexual assaults that must have continued for more time that anyone, especially Belle, wants to remember.

The outlaws are set on killing Matt but wants it to look more like an accident than a murder. So they prepare a plan that will have Matt knocked unconscious and then left in the blizzard to die.

An excellent choice of actors brings the episode to life that includes Claude Akins, Harry Stanton and the wonderful Patricia Berry. With the script and the actors this show was bound not to fail. Excellent show.

... What is Batman syndrome you ask? Suppose you are a really evil villain. You have a powerful gun trained on the good guy who is intent on taking you to face justice. Your choices as the villain are:

A. Shoot the good guy with no further talk or thought about it.

B. Yammer at the good guy while battering a hostage you already have until the good guy gets the drop on you probably with the help of the hostage who hates you too.

In 1950s and 1960s TV the bad guy always lost, so they usually picked B, although not with the flair of the villains on the old Batman TV show, but I digress.

There is a blizzard blowing in Kansas, and Matt Dillon, returning from business in Hayes City, seeks shelter from the storm in an isolated cabin. Unfortunately the cabin is harboring two really nasty fugitives from justice. One is rather simple minded, the other is a sadist who is saddled with the aforementioned Batman Syndrome.

This episode has very little action and practically no Doc, Kitty, or Chester. But then the claustrophobic episodes of Gunsmoke tend to be the best. And at the end there is a conversation about a subject that was rarely broached on TV unless it was in a Western, and the impact on the victim in the aftermath of the crime is handled in a very sensitive and realistic way.

That's one reason there were so many westerns and science fiction shows and movies in the rather sterile 1950s. If the censors said - Hey! You can't talk about social problems here! Then the writers could say - We're not talking about modern issues! This a western!

Also keep a look out for Harry Dean Stanton 28 years before he was Pretty in Pink. Highly recommended.

The original version of this story, done on the radio Gunsmoke, was a masterpiece of gritty, bleak and realistic storytelling. As other reviewers have suggested, it's a little out of place in the TV version.

Furthermore, Bill Conrad's version of Marshal Dillon with his gravelly voice works much better with the often gloomy and dark story lines that were much more common with the radio show than the more tame television Gunsmoke. Beyond that, radio's reliance on sound effects rather than pictures add a haunting element with the howling winds and the noises in the pitchfork scene.

This episode is good, and worth watching... but do yourself a favor and give the radio version of "The Cabin" a listen!