The Freewheelin’ Matt Dillon

Last night at work, I indulged in yet four more broadcasts from the box set The Ultimate Gunsmoke Collection, which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite CD sets from Radio Spirits. Included in the line-up was one of my all-time favorite Gunsmoke episodes: “Bloody Hands” (from April 2, 1955).

As the show opens, we listen in as Doc and Chester express some concern as to Matt’s whereabouts—but Matt soon arrives back in Dodge, riding in a wagon being driven by a man unknown to Doc and Chester. It seems that Matt went after an outlaw named Jack Brand (Lawrence Dobkin) and his gang, and the marshal was forced to borrow the mode of transportation for the return trip:

CHESTER: Where’s the others? I thought he had three men with him…
(pause)
BRAND: Well, tell him, Marshal—tell him where they are…
MATT: They’re in the wagon, Chester…under that canvas…
CHESTER: Ohhhhh…
DOC: Are they all dead, Matt? All three of them?
MATT: They’re all dead, Doc…
BRAND: Bloodiest marshal I ever saw…it’s just a wagon load of meat to him…
MATT: That’s enough, Brand…
BRAND: It ain’t hardly enough—I’ve never seen such killin’…
CHESTER: Wh-wh-what happened, Mister Dillon?
MATT: It doesn’t matter…they put up a fight and I had to take ‘em…
BRAND: Well, I’ll tell him what happened…your lawman here hid hisself in the grass and just waited for us to come out of that cabin…and then he yelled, so naturally we headed for cover—who wouldn’t? He just laid there and cut loose with a shotgun…tore up two of the boys that way…then he stood up and cut down Hank Smith with his six-shooter…
CHESTER: How come you got out of it, Brand?
BRAND: I jumped back in the cabin and I give up…we weren’t puttin’ up a fight! He spooked us, yellin’ like that—make any man jump…
DOC: Why, I suppose you’re tryin’ to say that you wouldn’t have shot…
BRAND: We tried to shoot him—who wouldn’t? Any man’s got a right to defend hisself…
DOC (laughing): Well, I never heard of…resisting arrest called self-defense…
BRAND: I never heard of no marshal shootin’ down ev’rybody on the landscape…
MATT: Lock him up, Chester…
CHESTER: Get goin’, Brand…
BRAND: Why, he actually think he was killin’ hogs, not men…
CHESTER: Shut up and keep goin’…
(As Chester leads him off, we hear Brand muttering: “Bloodiest marshal I ever seen…”)
DOC: Say, how come you brought the bodies back, Matt—why didn’t you just bury them out there?
MATT: I wanted more witnesses than just me to identify ‘em. Doc…might save trouble when Brand goes to trial…
DOC: Say, you were mighty lucky…takin’ four outlaws that way, Matt…
MATT (wearily) Yeah…
DOC: And you killed three out of…oh, say, wait ‘til people ‘round here hear about this…
MATT: Brand’s right, Doc…it’s a lot of killin’…an awful lot…
(pause)
DOC: Aw, now you don’t…don’t get to thinkin’ about it too much now, Matt…it’s your job…you did it, and…so it’s over…
MATT: It’s over? Wait ‘til tomorrow, or the next day—it’ll be somebody else…there’s always another man to kill…

Brand’s comments about Matt have really unnerved him; later, Chester ends up waking Dillon up from a nightmare that causes Matt to cry out in his sleep “Don’t make me kill you!” It’s not until a confederate of Brand’s, Joe Stanger (John Dehner), also begins to needle him (Stanger was trying to help Brand escape) and goad him into a gunfight that Matt convinces himself he can’t cut it as a lawman because he has no stomach for the violence…so he dashes off a telegram to Washington, resigning his position.

The second half of the show finds Matt more relaxed than he has ever been; he even takes Kitty fishing as he has promised so many times in the past. But his idyllic vacation at the fishing hole comes to an abrupt halt when Chester comes riding up with disturbing news:

CHESTER: …Mister Dillon—Joe Stanger’s in town…
MATT: Oh? Well, that doesn’t matter to me, Chester…
CHESTER: But—you don’t understand…
MATT: Understand what?
CHESTER: What I came to tell ya…Stanger’s at the Alfraganza…a while ago he had words with one of the girls there, and she slapped him, and he pulled out his gun, and he killed her…
(pause)
MATT: What???
KITTY: Who was the girl, Chester?
CHESTER: Kate Hopkins…
KITTY: Oh…no…
CHESTER: That’s who it was, Miss Kitty…and then the bartender tried to stop him, and Stanger shot him, too…I hear he’s gonna die…I grabbed a horse off the hitch rail and come right down to tell you—you gotta stop him, Mister Dillon…
MATT: I’m not marshal anymore here, Chester—I quit…
CHESTER: No! That don’t matter…
MATT: It does to me…
CHESTER (upset): You mean you’re gonna let Joe Stanger walk ‘round Dodge and shoot ev’rybody that gets in his way, includin’ women???
MATT (loud and angry): I’m through killin’!!! (pause) I told you that…
CHESTER: Who’s gonna stop him, then? You’re the only man around here that’ll go up agin him, and you know it!!!
MATT: That may be true…but I’m still not gonna do it…
CHESTER: Wait…Mister Dillon…wait a minute, I…I’ve been thinkin’ a lot about all this lately, and…there’s somethin’ you been overlookin’…
MATT: Oh…?
CHESTER: Men like Stanger…and Brand…they gotta be stopped…I’d do it, if I could—but I can’t, I ain’t good enough…most men ain’t…but you are…it’s kinda…too bad for you, that you are, but…that’s the way it is…and there’s nothin’ you can do about it…not now…it’s too late…it’s way too late…
(SFX: Chester getting on his horse, then a long pause)
MATT: Give me your gun, Chester…
CHESTER: Yes, sir…want my holster?
MATT: I’ll carry it in my belt…(SFX: getting on horse) oh, Kitty—Chester’ll help you carry the fish back…
KITTY: Sure, Matt…sure…

“Bloody Hands” is one of the most powerful half-hours of radio that I have ever listened to—and Parley Baer’s performance as Chester in the show’s final minutes just may be his finest hour as an actor. The episode, penned by head Gunsmoke writer John Meston, later made a successful transition to the television version (February 26, 1957), with Dobkin reprising his role as the outlaw Brand.

I followed this episode—although it’s really kind of hard to follow it, if you know what I mean—with “The Gypsum Hills Feud” (4/16/55), in which Matt & Chester find themselves involved in a blood feud between two mountain families (this one has a particularly satisfying wrap-up), with Vivi Janiss, Vic Perrin and John Dehner in support. Then Dehner takes center stage in “The Man Who Would Be Marshal” (3/18/56) as a retired military officer who’s interested in Matt’s job (he should have made arrangements to appear in “Bloody Hands,” don’t you think?). Matt gives him a week to decide as to whether or not the profession of lawman suits him—but the man almost ends up dead in a gunfight, and he announces to Matt that “there’s action out in California—I’ll write you a letter when I get there.”

Finally, I closed things out for the evening with “Man Hunter” (5/27/56), another episode featuring the talents of Dehner and Dobkin; Dehner as a deputy sheriff on the hunt for Dobkin, who plays a man who—although he’s been a model citizen of Dodge for the past three years—is wanted for a murder he committed twelve years ago. Again, the theme of “duty vs. friendship” is explored in typically interesting Gunsmoke fashion with a fine script by Meston.

I have tentatively penciled in a salute of what I plan to call “April Fools” beginning the first of the month; a thirty-day look at some of OTR’s greatest comedians and comedy shows, much in the mold of January’s “Twenty Days Well-Calculated to Keep You in Suspense.” I do hope you’ll join me.