With a Smile

Major Creed has a cowardly bully, Dal, for a son. Dal tries to bully one of his father's ranch hands, and when he won't be bullied Dal says he might put a bullet in his leg. Dal backs down when the hand actually challenges him to a gunfight. The Major comes out and gets only Dal's side of the story and fires the ranch hand. This scene is probably included to illustrate what kind of a person Dal is.

The the scene changes completely to show the ranch hand who didn't get fired attempting to assault a local girl, Lottie, and murdering her father when he attempts to intervene. Quint hears the gunfire, fights with the murderer, and has to kill him to contain him.

Lottie ends up working at the Long Branch since her father's farm had to be sold to pay her debts. She and the ranch hand who got fired from the Creed ranch strike up a romance. When Dal tries to get romantic with Lottie against her will, he once again is shown up as a coward by that same ranch hand. Later that night he tries to shoot the ranch hand down in cold blood as he walks along with Lottie, but hits and kills Lottie instead, by accident. Dal exchanges gunfire with Chester, who clearly sees him. Dal is tried for murder, convicted, and sentenced to hang.

Everything up to this point has just been to get to the essence of the plot - That Dal is a completely worthless person who cannot take responsibility for what he has done and thinks his father will find some way to bend the system - his friendship with the governor, his money, something to get him off the hook for murder, because dad has been getting him off the hook for everything his whole life. He doesn't realize that what he has done is so despicable that nobody is going to keep him from hanging. I wondered why there was that violent scene at Lottie's ranch that seemed to have nothing to do with anything in what came before or after, except perhaps for this - If Lottie had been some random girl whose sad past you did not see, the audience might not hate Dal quite so much. And the author of this piece obviously wants you to really hate this guy.

As the date of his execution nears, Dal melts down into a whiny mess. The major can see he is going to shame both of them when he does die, and he says something interesting to Dillon - That he would rather he die than see his son shame him by dying a coward. What did he mean by that? Watch and find out.

....at playing weak, stupid, evil characters and he made quite a successful career doing it. Both for laughs (Roscoe P Coltrane comes to mind) and for dramatic effect. Which this episode of Gunsmoke did in spades. One the very best from Best!

As previous reviews mention, this episode starts in a way that's a little distanced from the main story. Multiple watchings show how disjointed the action is, because what begins with a would-be rapist trying to have his way with an isolated daughter leads to the father's murder and the daughter eventually ending up killed. It is after her killing that the main plot begins.

Practically from the time Dal Creed is in custody, he veers wildly between being a callous, sadistic bully and a hysterical coward. This guy is truly psychotic mess and James Best turns in an outstanding performance. It is a pity that Best is best known as the one-dimensional Roscoe P. Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazzard. This episode shows how he was capable of more. Just look at his eyes as he becomes more and more desperate toward the end.

Arness is typical in this one...empathetic but somewhat stoic in true Dillon form. But really the heavy lifting is being done by Best and R. G. Armstrong.

I haven't heard a lot of praise in these reviews for R. G. Armstrong and his portrayal of Dal's father, the Major. This is a different kind of role than I usually see Armstrong in, and he understands the character here and how to portray him. Armstrong's Major starts out defensive and in prideful denial, then everything changes as the episode comes to a close. Watching him watch his son unravel as his fate approaches is watching something tragic. To me, his performance makes the episode just as much as Best's does.

I would have given this episode a full 10 rating if the beginning weren't so awkward. Really, the episode should have started with Dal's sick cruelty and progressed from there.

Episodes like this one show just what Gunsmoke was capable of being in its better moments.

I was always in love with Sharon Farrell (along with all the men that married her) from adolescence-on. She had a wide range, but her portrayal of wide eyed innocence is spot-on here. Linden Chiles as the noble cowpoke wronged by James Best at his smarmiest. What a cast!!! They play to type but at a perfect pace. It's so good to watch actors trained and practiced in their art! Story: somewhat run of the mill but elevated by the ensemble's performance and great guest stars! Plenty of bits for everyone to do and the director spread it around so no one misses out. Andrew McLaglen was top-notch as is evident here! Nothing touches it today!

This is one of my favorite Gunsmoke episodes! Seen it several times now but luckily i never forget the first time! Not tryna be a 🚨spoiler person🚨 so i'll just say the ending is BRILLIANT! Still recall (during first viewing) how i went from being angry and disappointed in the supposed outcome to THRILLED and, well, AMUSED when i realized what really happened. Absolutely HATED the "Dal" character but now i'm old and i see what a great actor James Best was! imo it was Mr Best who RULED this episode. Actually everyone did a terrific job in their roles but the part of Dal had to be a pussified braggart, a sniveling fool. Now, i can't imagine anyone else in that part. Just wouldn't have worked! So the actors were superb and so was the writing! lol i LOVED the ending so much that i can watch this story over & over! ... siiiiiigh ... but it will NEVER be as AWESOME as the first time!