Around Dodge City and in the territory on west, there is just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, and that's with the U.S. Marshal and the smell of gun smoke.
Music
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, the United States Marshal.
The first man they look for and the last they want to meet. It's a chancery job, and it makes a man watchful and a little lonely.
Evenin' John. Oh, Miss Russell. Good evening.
Hello Chester. Oh, Miss Kitty.
Why are you sitting over here all by yourself? Oh, it's my new boots. I just could not stand on my feet another minute. New boots? Yeah.
Oh, they might a good looking, Chester. Yeah, but I'll be thankful when they feel as good as they look. Here's your coffee, Chester.
Oh, my, sure do thank you, Sam, waiting on me hand and foot this way. Well, it ain't every day that you get new boots, Chester. It sure ain't necessary.
Oh, look, the man at the door put him back. Good heavens.
Did you see his face? Yeah, I did.
Hey, you. He means you, Sam. Say, look, maybe I better go get Mr. Dillon.
I want to talk to you. Well, I guess I better go see what he wants.
What is it, mister? Can I get some food here? The store is closed. You put it in this bag, I'll take it with me.
Well, okay. Okay, mister.
Charlie, put some bread and meat and some ground coffee in this bag right away. Okay, Sam.
The food will be right out, mister. Thank you.
He just wanted something to eat, Kitty. I know. Sam, I can't bear to look at him.
Well, maybe he'll leave when Charlie brings him food. I hope so, Sam. I really do.
It'll be thirty-five cents, mister. Oh, thank you. Yeah, he's leaving now.
Sam, I need a drink. Oh, me too. I've never seen nothing so frightful, ugly in all my life.
I don't know where he come from, but I'll tell you boys one thing, that critter ain't you.
Matt? Hello, Kitty.
Sam? Kitty, you're a tale as it goes. What's going on here?
Well, didn't Chester tell you? Tell me what? I haven't seen Chester.
A man was just in here, Matt. A man with a face of his.
Oh. Horrible.
Well, there are some faces still here that won't take any prizes, you know.
No, no, it's no joke, Marshal. This was worse than anything I ever seen.
Now tell me. What did this fellow do?
Nothing. He just bought some food and left us all.
Marshal Dillon. Yeah, what is it, Frisbee?
If you want some help to run that critter down, me and the boys are ready.
Now, wait just a minute. As I get it, an ugly man walked in here and bought some food and left, and that's all.
He was more animal than man, Marshal. Ask anybody.
Now hold it! Now we don't arrest people around here for the shape of their faces.
Matt, he wasn't a face.
No, he was all twisted and slick-looking, like tallow that had commenced to melt.
You mark my words. You leave that critter run loose in this territory, and you'll have trouble.
Mr. Dillon? Mr. Dillon?
Yeah, what is it, Chester?
That ugly-looking man, he's after Doc.
What?
Yes, sir, I've seen him. There was a light in Doc's office, and that man was sneaking up.
And when he seen me, he busted right in on Doc.
Well, Marshal?
You stay out of this. All of you, I'll handle it.
You see what I mean, Doctor?
Yes, just tilt your head back a little more, Bruno. My, my, my, that's unbelievable.
Doc?
You all right?
Of course I'm all right, Matt. Why wouldn't I be? Come in, come in.
Oh, this is Bruno Thayer, Matt. Matt Dillon is the Marshal here.
How do you do, Marshal?
I'm glad to meet you, Thayer.
Eh, Bruno, you're going to have that pain no matter what.
I figured that, Doctor.
Now, when it gets to bearing down, well, use hot packs and hold hot salt water in your mouth.
That's about all I can tell you. You can just put your shirt back on now.
How much do I owe you, Doc?
Oh, nothing, nothing.
Uh, when Bruno was sixteen, Matt, he tried to outrun a buffalo stampede in his horse fell.
Oh?
Yeah. Now you run right over me, Marshal.
Well, I better get going.
Now, he's going to take over the old Jenks farm, Matt.
Oh, is that so?
I'm going to try it.
Uh, how old are you now, Bruno?
I guess I'm twenty-six, Marshal.
It's a year or two I don't remember much about.
It's a miracle you lived at all.
It was a bad bargain, Doc.
Oh, no, and I don't say that.
Doc, with a face like this, would you want to live?
Would you, Marshal?
My horse?
My horse and my dog, the only ones don't care what I look like.
Well, man, I don't know about you, Doc, but I'm not sure that I would want to live.
Now, just listen a minute, if you will.
I've got a little story to tell you.
Well, it's not so little. It's sort of a tall tale.
It's about the pride of Company 40.
Moe's was his name, a fireman and a legendary hero of firemen.
They say old Moe's had feet like East River barges.
His beaver hat measured two feet from crown to brim,
and his fireman's helmet was about the size of a pup tent.
Yes, Moe's was big and he was strong, and in addition he had the speed of a panther.
Moe's was always the first to reach the scene of a fire,
and it seemed that no rescue was impossible for him to execute.
He could climb buildings using the windows for a ladder, jump over alleys like a cat,
tear through walls with his bare fists, blow a path through smoke,
using his lungs like a bellows, and when he'd come across a small one-room fire,
he'd close the doors and windows and inhale,
and the fire would be smothered from lack of oxygen.
Oh, he was quite a man, old Moe's.
And when Moe's wasn't fighting fires, he was the terror of the Eastside toughies and the plug-uglies.
Moe's just naturally didn't like bullies and lawbreakers,
and he'd fight them singly or in groups of any size.
If the occasion called for it, he'd rip a tree out of the ground and use it like a policeman's nightstick.
Yes, sir, the lawless element gave old Moe's a wide berth, you bet.
But Moe's was a bashful sort of feller,
and when public admiration got too strong for him in New York,
and folks got to send in in false alarms just to see him, why, he just faded out of sight.
Later, people in Illinois swore they saw him put out the Chicago fire in 1871,
and Californians credit him with countless rescues and the final smothering of the San Francisco fire of 1906.
Yes, sir, stories about old Moe's, the pride of Company 40, are easy to believe, aren't they?
See, isn't it nice being citizens of a country where you can laugh and talk about things free as a breeze?
And write and read and worship, too.
Yes, sir, maybe you don't think about it much, but you should.
Warm sun, cool air makes for a nice day, doesn't it, Matt?
What are you thinking so hard about?
What? Oh, uh, uh, Ronald Fayer, kiddie.
Oh.
Yeah, he's been out on the old Jenks place two weeks now.
Maybe I ought to ride out there and see how he's doing.
Why?
Well, everybody else in Dodge has, judging by the number of wild stories going around.
He murders travelers and buries them in his garden.
He conjures up evil spirits.
He calls the coyotes to counsel with him in the middle of the night, all kinds of crazy stories like that.
Well, I'm not so sure it's all crazy, Matt.
Oh, kiddie, will you...
Look, three different friends of mine swear they've written by and heard Bruno talking to something, but there was nothing there to talk to.
Sure there was.
What?
His dog.
Come on, let's get some dinner.
Hurry up, Doc. Come on, hurry up.
I'm coming.
What happened?
It's Hazel Perkins. They found her out south of town, scared half out of her wits.
Oh, Doc, he was right over me.
Yeah, all right, he's all right. Just calm down now. You're all right.
Who was it, Miss Perkins? Was it that Bruno?
Yes, that's who it was.
Oh, now she's more conditioned to talk now, Freepy.
I ran, but he came after me and he chased me, Doc.
Oh, no.
Doc, what are those gashes? Unnormal.
Well, I don't know yet, Santa. Looks like some animal clawed at me.
You need some half animal, don't you, Doc? Now, Frisbee, you're a fool. Get out of the way.
Come on, now. Come along, Hazel. Right up here. Fool, am I?
Maybe I'm just fool enough to believe that the women folks ought to be protected.
I say it's time something was done.
I say we got to stop that ugly brute and stop him for good, like they used to do in the old country.
Yeah, well, but how do you mean, Frisbee?
My grandpappy knew. He told me when a hateful, unnatural monster like Bruno was found, they burned it.
And they took what was left and drove an oak stake through it. Then they were safe. And not before.
Well, I never heard of that.
Seems to me the Marshal...
The Marshal had his chance.
My chance to do what, Frisbee?
It was you who let that critter loose on us, Marshal. What happened to Hazel Perkins is your fault.
Hazel Perkins?
Bruno grabbed her, Marshal. She's all beat up and scared after death.
Or is she?
She's up in Doc's office.
What are you aiming to do, Marshal?
I'm aiming to find out what really happened, Frisbee.
We've had about enough talk. We want action.
Just one more word out of you and I'll give you more action than you can handle.
After I've talked to Hazel, if Bruno Thayer needs bringing in, I'll go get him and I'll bring him in.
But I'll do it without you or anybody else.
You'd better hurry. You sure better hurry.
This land is your land. This land is my land. This land was made for you and me.
Stephen Foster came from Alabama and Al Jolson was always Alabama bound.
Even though there was no particular validity to these claims, there was a definite sincerity behind them.
For, Alabama has a sense of charm and hospitality unlike any other state.
Maybe Stephen Foster didn't come from Alabama, but Helen Keller did.
And so did a lone wolf train robber named Rube Burrow.
And what if Jolson didn't go there? George Washington Carver did.
And his experiments at Tuskegee brought international fame to him and the state.
For all the deep radical changes experienced by the cotton state, some things never seemed to change.
Each spring the fields and roadsides are carpeted with primroses.
Green fields turn pale pink and roll wave-like in the wind.
Alabama, like much of the South, seeks to combine twentieth century industrial progress
with the barn raisings and candy pulls of an earlier era.
And what is more, Alabama succeeds.
Hand me that bottle, will you, man?
Yeah, sure, sure.
There you are.
Just hold still now, Hazel.
Oh, that stings a little, doesn't it? But it's better than getting blood poisoning.
Now, Hazel, I know you're still upset, but try to think clearly this time, huh?
Now, just once more. Before you saw Bruno, what happened?
Oh, well, my horse shied and threw me.
And what did your horse shy from?
I don't know. But the next thing I remember is that hideous face bending over me.
And then what?
He grabbed me, and I felt his long nail sink into my arm.
This arm here where the scratches start?
Oh, yes, of course.
And then?
Well, then he began to laugh.
To laugh?
That's right. It was dreadful, just dreadful.
I tried to fight him off, Marshal, but he was terrible strong.
Well, Hazel, why didn't Bruno laugh the last time?
Well, what do you mean, Dr. Adams?
Well, I mean that every time you tell this story, it gets better.
You figure you're pretty important because you've been chased by Bruno Fair.
I think you're beginning to enjoy it.
Enjoy it?
Enjoy it. Sure, he's ugly, and perhaps you were shocked by his face.
But you're not entitled to tell lies about him to be sopped up by some of the fools in the town.
Oh, Dr. Adams.
These scratches were made by a dog or a coyote or maybe a wolf, but not by a man.
And the only reason that animal didn't kill you is because somebody killed it first.
Bruno saved your life, didn't he? Didn't he?
Oh, yes. Yes, he did.
The wolf that made my horse shy came after me, and Bruno killed it.
But he scared me half to death, Doc, with that face, that horrible face.
Well, I didn't mean to.
Marshal! Marshal!
Yeah, what is it, Sam?
Frisbee and some others just left the Long Branch to get Bruno.
I sent Chester after your horse.
Oh, thanks, Sam.
They was talking wild, Marshal. They're going to kill him, sure.
Kill him? Oh, I didn't realize, Marshal. I'm sorry.
It's not me you owe an apology to, Hazel.
Oh, Bruno, I couldn't. But I'm sorry. I am sorry.
Well, that's what I'll tell him, Hazel, if I get there on time.
There he is. He ducked in his shack.
We got him trapped now, just like we wanted.
Go spread out and circle him.
Watch me. We'll close in on my signal.
Hazel! Hold it, come on!
We're just saving you some trouble, Marshal.
What are you planning to do with that wood stake, Frisbee?
I'm going to nail down a monster with it, that's what.
All right, Frisbee.
Now, don't you try to get up around the spender of this piece of oak across your skull.
Now, the rest of you men, get back on your horses, and don't stop in Dodge City.
If I see any one of you there again, I'll lock you up. Now, move!
Chester. Yes, sir?
You hold Frisbee right here. If he makes a move, you kill him.
Yes, sir.
Bruno. Matt Dillon.
Can I come in?
Sure.
You saw those men out there, huh?
I saw them.
You know that they were out here to get you, didn't you?
I figured somebody'd be coming out here.
That girl got pretty scared of me.
But there wasn't anybody else around to help her.
Aren't you even going to defend yourself?
I hadn't decided, Marshal.
I saw what you did to them, though.
I'm grateful.
Grateful? For what?
For saving her life.
Yeah. Yeah, for saving my life.
Well, it looks like you really wanted to live after all, doesn't it?
Yeah, I guess it does.
Hazel Perkins says to tell you that she's awful sorry for the way she acted.
Oh? Yeah.
Well, I'll see you, Bruno.
Oh, uh, here, here's a nice piece of oak wood for you.
Make yourself a hat rack, huh?
I think you'll be having some friendly callers one of these days.
So long, Marshal.
So long, Bruno.
The Star Spangled Banner plays
Gunsmoke, produced and directed by Norman McDonald, stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
The script was specially written for Gunsmoke by Les Brutchfield, with editorial supervision by John Meston.
The music was composed and conducted by Rex Corey. Sound patterns were by Ray Kemper and Bill James.
Featured in the cast were Parley Bayer as Chester, Howard McNeer as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty.
George Walsh speaking.
Join us again next week for another specially transcribed story on Gunsmoke.
This is the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.
The Star Spangled Banner plays