Gunsmoke.
Around Dodge City and in the territory on West, there's just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, and that's with a U.S. Marshal and the smell of gunsmoke.
Gunsmoke.
Gunsmoke, starring William Conrad.
The story of the violence that moved west with young America.
And the story of a man who moved with it.
I'm that man, Matt Dillon, United States Marshal.
The first man they look for and the last they want to meet.
It's a chancey job, and it makes a man watchful.
And a little lonely.
Music.
You know, Mr. Dillon, it's pretty doggone funny when you stop to think about it.
What is, Chester?
Life is.
Oh? You, um, been reading another book?
Well, yes sir, I have. It's one doc lent me. It was wrote by some fellow named Shakespeare.
Did you ever hear of him, Mr. Dillon?
Shakespeare?
Yes, sir. Pretty well known in his day, I guess. He died, though, quite a while back, according to Doc.
Oh, yeah, yeah, so I understand, Chester.
He don't use English too good. He's one of them foreigners, so it makes it kind of hard to follow him, you know.
But I'll say one thing, Mr. Dillon, he sure does call the turn on the way people act.
Is that so?
Why, the things that was going on over there in Europe and all them cities in the olden days,
it's just the same as what modern folks are doing here in Dodge right now.
You don't say.
They were steaming and plotting and lying to one another, just the same as now.
Well, then at least things aren't getting any worse, huh?
Every time a person turned around, somebody was killing somebody, it seemed like.
Used swords and knives mostly.
Uh-huh.
And it appears they didn't have no guns to speak of back then.
Now, stay out of the way.
Wait a minute, Chester.
Don't come back here again unless you're sober.
Well, I thought that's Buck Webber, Mr. Dillon.
Yeah, come on.
Come back here. I'll show you if I'll come back here, Newland.
Hello, Buck.
Marshall.
What seems to be the trouble?
No trouble, Marshall, no trouble at all.
No? If Sam knew it was a throw me out of the Long Branch, I'd call it trouble.
He didn't have no cause to.
Well, they must have thought he did.
Sam's a pretty fair man, ordinarily.
I wasn't doing nothing.
I just wanted to see Rancy was all.
Rancy? What's she doing in there?
She's working.
What do you think a woman would be doing in there?
Your wife's working on the Long Branch?
Three days ago, she took some of her things and come into town.
She said she was leaving the farm.
She was leaving me.
Wouldn't come back no more.
Well, Buck, you know how a woman is.
She'll say a lot of things when she's mad.
Not Rancy. She ain't like that.
She meant it, Marshall.
And I ain't even let her do it.
Well, give her some rope. She'll cool off in a few days, maybe.
No, with that tin-horn gambler hanging around her, she won't.
I'm going back there and kill that no good.
Wait a minute, Buck. Wait a minute now.
Sam told you to stay out and from the shape you're in, I think maybe he's right.
What do you mean, the shape, if I'm in?
Well, you had a little too much to drink, I think.
Come on, let's take a walk, huh?
I want to walk.
Take his other arm, Chester.
Yes, sir.
I want to go back there and talk to Rancy.
Come on. Come on. It'll keep.
It'll keep, all right.
That slick talking gambler hanging around, filling her full of lies.
Which gambler? What do you mean?
That Frisco Bates.
She's been in there every night since she started.
Talking soft to her.
Trying to give her doubts about her rightful place in the world.
She must have had a few doubts already, Buck, or she wouldn't have left you.
Can't you see how much she is with that Frisco Bates?
Everybody laughing at me.
I'm going back there and kill him.
Wait, no, you're not. No, you're not.
Now, come on. That's it. That's it.
The whole town talking behind my back.
Well, a funeral wouldn't give them any less to talk about, you know.
You taking me to jail, Marshal?
Not just for tonight, Buck.
It's only way to keep you out of trouble.
Whose side are you on, anyhow?
Mine or that no good gambler's?
Maybe neither one, Buck. There's another side to it.
Whose?
Your wife's.
Do you think you should leave politics to the politicians?
Well, I'm sure some politicians would like this.
But tell me, are you the sort of guy who thinks taxes are too high?
Do you like the way your city is kept up?
Do you think there should be more parks, perhaps a lot more sandlots for baseball or football?
You say you do or don't like the foreign aid program?
Well, our government was designed to give you a voice.
You'd be surprised at how influential a letter or a wire is to your congressman or senator.
You should protect your right to be heard by voting.
As the Athenian Pericles said,
we do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics minds his own business.
We say he has no business here at all. Unquote.
Take an interest in politics. It is your business.
This is one definition in our dictionary of freedom.
What do you think of the way the world is being treated?
Good to see you, man.
Hello, Carrie.
Thought you might be going to pass us up this evening.
That's hard to break the habit.
Kitty, I understand Rancy Webber's working here now.
That's right, Matt. She started three nights ago.
Is she around?
She'll be back in a minute. Right now she's crying.
Oh?
Her husband came in drunk and mad a while ago and started abusing her.
Yeah, I know. I just locked him up for the night.
I'm glad you did, Matt.
Webber could be real mean if he got started.
I'm afraid he's already started, Kitty.
Uh, what about this Frisco Bates?
Oh, so that's it. I told Rancy the talk would get around.
Anything to it?
I don't think so. Not really.
Buck's got the idea there is.
Well, he's a touchy one, Matt. He's awful hard to figure out.
Yeah, I know.
I hated to see Rancy start here, but she told me she'd left him.
She didn't have a scent to her name.
I thought she might be better off here than some of the other places.
At least I can sort of look after her.
I'm sorry, Kitty. I shouldn't have acted like that.
Oh, good evening, Marsha.
How are you, Rancy?
Oh, if you two will excuse me, I'd better look after a couple of things.
Yeah, yeah, sure, Kitty.
I guess you're probably kind of surprised to find me working in a place like this.
No, no, I'd already heard about it. I saw your husband a little while ago.
Oh.
You sure you know what you're doing, Rancy?
I'm sure, Marsha.
It's an easy life to get into, but it's rough to get out of.
Those farm men.
And I'm afraid Buck's going to cause you trouble.
He's caused me trouble for seven years.
Is that so?
Seven years of drudgery.
To make a woman a slave and work her to death.
Never a decent word.
You know, some of the easy ways work out hard, too, Rancy.
Well, I take my chances.
But Buck might as well get it through his head right now.
I'm not going back, not ever.
I doubt if Buck's going to see it that way.
He has to.
What can he do about it?
Well, he could try to harm you, maybe, in some way.
Now, let him. It won't be the first time.
There's nothing Buck likes better than hitting a woman.
Unless maybe it's a young one.
Well, right now he seems to want to hit a fellow named Frisco Bates.
Mr. Bates, he's just been kind to me.
That's all.
Uh-huh.
You know, men like him are new to you, Rancy.
They can cause a lot of trouble sometimes.
Just by being kind.
I'm not a bad woman, Marshal.
At least I don't think I am.
All I ask is just a little kindness and all the reason to laugh once in a while.
Is that too much?
Not to ask, no.
Sometimes a little too much to expect, though.
Are you going to monopolize this young lady all evening, Marshal?
Oh, how are you, Frisco?
Rancy, you'd better go see what it was that Kitty wanted, huh?
What, Kitty?
Yeah.
Oh.
All right, Marshal.
You excuse me, Mr. Bates.
Certainly.
Is this a policy of the law in Dodge City, Marshal, interfering in people's personal affairs?
Sometimes, yeah.
At least when their personal affairs seem to be heading toward a killing.
You mean Rancy's husband, I suppose.
And he came around looking for you, didn't he?
The way he's been treating her, I may go looking for him.
Why her, Frisco?
There are other women around.
Not like Rancy.
She's out of place here.
She's not the kind to be working here, you know it.
Maybe she won't be long.
I've asked Rancy to go away with me, Marshal.
I've asked her to marry me.
Is that surprising?
A little bit, yeah.
It surprised me, too.
But that's the way it is.
Rancy agree to it?
Not yet.
But she will.
Buck Webber won't have a thing to say about it.
He won't, huh?
I wouldn't count on that if I were you.
Many a child has been warned by his parents that if he digs too deep a hole in the flower bed,
he's liable to fall through to China.
Well, apparently this little tale had its origin in our American folklore many years ago,
and it all started when Captain Wentworth bumped into the great Sam Patch in the middle of the China Seas.
The captain said,
Why, Sam, how did you get here?
I thought you were drowned near the Canadian border.
Sam replied,
I didn't get here at all.
I dove right through.
In that there on Niagara dive.
I went so deep.
I thought it was just as short to come up the other side.
So I came out here in the China Seas.
Now you just turn your ship around and I'll race you back to Boston.
And if I don't beat you, then my name's not Sam Patch.
Folklore belongs to every nation's legendary past,
and I guess we Americans have our share of some tall tales.
Morning, Buck.
Marshall.
Did you sleep all right?
Powerful.
Well, I hope you slipped off some of those crazy notions you had last night.
Maybe.
All right, come on out.
I got your belongings out here in the office, Buck.
There's no charge against you.
You're free to leave.
Glad to hear that anyway.
Morning, Buck.
Stuff's there on the table, Buck.
Thanks.
Can I get my gun back?
Chester?
I'll get it.
There you are, Buck.
What are your plans?
Well, I reckon I'd better ride back out home and take care of the chores.
Stocks used to be in fade a couple hours earlier than this.
Not what I meant, Buck.
What about Rancy?
I ain't rightly made up my mind yet, Marshall.
Leave her alone, will you?
Give her a chance to use her own judgment?
Don't seem like she's got much of that from the folks she's took up with the last few days.
It's her own business. She's a grown woman.
She's a married woman, too.
She ought to be carrying on the way she is.
She hasn't done anything wrong.
I ain't saying she is.
I got nothing against Rancy.
Any woman's liable to get out of hand once in a while and start thinking fancy.
I'll get her back out there in the farm for a week or two.
She'll come to her senses.
Uh-huh.
It's just that Frisco that's causing all the trouble, trying to turn her head.
As far as I can see, all he's doing is treating her with a little respect.
It's a matter of opinion, Marshall.
Well, if the law's got no more dealings with me, I'll be getting on.
No dealings, Buck.
Not right now, anyway.
Good.
That fellow was born under a bad star, Mr. Dillon.
Yeah, you may be right, Chester.
He lives mad and he's gonna die mad.
You just wait.
That's about all I can do, Chester.
You know, man, the best time of day is at night.
I always look forward to it.
Oh, why so, Doc?
Because after dark, this flea-bit town doesn't look so goddamn ugly.
That's why.
I see.
If a man puts his mind to it, he can even imagine he's someplace else.
Seems to me if a man really wanted to, he could pull up stakes and be someplace else.
Yeah, I remember about that.
Couple of years out on this blasted prairie,
leaves a man uncivilized for the rest of his life.
Doc, you were born uncivilized.
Oh, in medical school, I was regarded as a lad of culture and refinement.
In medical school, I always thought you had veterinary training.
I'd have been better off if I had.
There's more animals around here than people.
And that's not counting the people that are animals.
Or just the same as, anyway.
Oh, they're improving a little bit year by year.
Oh, yeah, sure, they're improving.
They're all for themselves and the devil take the hindmost.
That's why.
Human nature doesn't change, man.
Well, that's what Chester thinks.
Since you started him reading Shakespeare.
Yeah, it won't do him any harm.
Oh.
Come on, Doc.
It's over back at the Dodge house, I think.
Yeah, you say, civilized, huh?
Oh, sure, yeah.
Improving.
People shooting each other all the time and bullets flying around.
Come on over this way.
Nobody's dying in their beds.
Oh, yes, there's some.
Over here, Mr. Dillon!
Somebody fired through the window in the fiscal bedroom.
They must have been hiding out here in the dark somewhere.
All right, come on.
We can get in through the back door.
Yes, sir.
Will you stand back, please?
Yes, sir.
Stand away from the door, will you?
Yes, sir.
All right, go on in, Doc.
Chester, here.
It's the first room, Mr. Dillon.
Right here at the corner.
All right.
Quiet, will you?
For Mr. Dillon.
Well, good Lord, Matt.
Yeah.
All right, take over, will you, Doc?
I got some dealings with the men.
I don't hear nobody inside.
There's one way to find out.
All right, hold it, Buck.
Why, Marshal, I thought I heard somebody knock.
You did.
Been doing some shooting, huh?
No, I was just cleaning my gun.
Sit down, Marshal, I'll clear this stuff off the table.
Never mind, Buck.
Now, let's have a look at that pistol.
What for?
Well, there've been three shots fired here.
Oh.
Yeah, I forgot there was a coyote bothering around this morning.
There were three shots fired in town tonight, back at the Dodge house.
And so?
And a half a dozen people saw you running away from there right afterwards, Buck.
Why, I ain't been out of the house since dark.
Huh?
Then somebody's been riding one of your horses pretty hard and still lathered.
You don't say.
The way I figured, Buck, you waited outside Frisco's window
until you saw the lamp lit in the shadow on the blind,
then you fired through the window and ran for your horse.
That about the way it was?
Yeah.
Just about.
And you're under arrest for murder.
There won't nothing come of it, Marshal.
When a man's wife's being bothered, there's an unwritten code.
There's no code about killing from ambush.
Well, you had it coming to him.
The jury will see it their way.
He was trying to get her to run away with him.
Everybody in town knew about it.
They didn't know she'd made up her mind not to do it.
What do you mean?
She told Kitty tonight that she went over to tell Frisco, but he wasn't then.
The clerk of the Dodge house gave her the key to Frisco's room
so she could go back and wait for him.
What are you saying, Marshal?
It was Rancy who lit that lamp tonight.
It was her shadow on the blind.
Well, then I...
That's right, Buck, she's dead.
And juries don't have much sympathy for men who kill women.
You're gonna hang, Buck.
Just as sure as shouldn't.
How well do you know the history of your Marine Corps?
For example, did you know that the Marines were the first American troops
to be decorated with a forager, one of France's highest decorations of honor?
In June 1918, the German Army was in possession of Bello Wood,
a highly strategic point on the way to Paris,
and unless the wood was secured by the Allies, Paris would soon fall.
With two regiments of the American Second Division, the 5th and 6th Marines
were deployed to the south of Bello Wood and ordered to drive the German troops back.
Although greatly outnumbered, the Marines attacked again and again,
and within three weeks Bello Wood was secured for the Allies.
After Bello Wood, the Marines continued their valiant fight,
and to them the grateful French government awarded the Croix de Guerre
with two palms and a gold star, and, the first American troops to be so honored,
the forager.
Thus, another page was added to the history of your United States Marine Corps.
Gun Smoke, produced and directed by Norman MacDonald,
stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
Featured in the cast were Parley Bear as Chester, Howard McNear as Doc,
and Georgia Ellis as Kitty.
George Walsh speaking.
Join us again next week for another specially transcribed story on Gun Smoke.
This is the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.