The Violators

This one REALLY holds up well. Beautifully written and paced, directed and acted. ALSO-- the cinematography and DEEP, DENSE Lighting is especially impressive (check the scene when the terror-stricken James Anderson is walking along the boardwalk at night..fabulous stuff).

Re: Denver Pyle...as good as he is, I frankly get tired of seeing him in so many shows from this period. But he's REALLY impressive in this one; the big scene with Matt, Denver, and Michael Pate as "Buffalo Calf" (a name which slightly undermines the super intensity of this scene) is Edge-of-Your-Seat drama, with Matt caught in the middle, and the sordid facts about the savage, methodical killings in Dodge gradually unfolding.

This is one of the great scenes of the entire series; the following (and final) scene, cool as it is, almost comes as a dramatic let-down after the big encounter between Matt, Denver, and Michael Pate.

Dark, intense, and disturbing...first-rate in every way...except maybe one: Arthur Batanides "good-ole-boy" Southern-fried ACCENT comes and goes; it's very heavy (and a tad phony) in the beginning, but in the scene when he's hiding in the locked store and Matt visits him, his accent is TOTALLY missing. Director Harris had his hands full with so many things in this episode..which he pulled off brilliantly....so I guess we should just ignore the accent thing. LR.

This plot has been done countless times before but the difference here is it's not just a who done it. A couple white men are murdered and scalped in Dodge making it look like the work of Indians. Matt's not so sure but the townfolk are. They're ready to organize a posse and go out and find some Indians to kill. (Racism is the subject of many Gunsmoke episodes) Not to give the ending away but at the end we have Matt, an Indian chief and an old mountain man, each giving their version of morality . Can't imagine that happening in any other TV western. That's what sets Gunsmoke apart from other series.