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 a U.S. Marshal and the smell of gun smoke.
Gun Smoke, 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 chancey job, and it makes a man watchful and a little lonely.
Sister!
Well, good morning, Miss Kitty.
What in the world are you doing in the long breath at this hour?
Washing glasses.
Your what?
Well, to stop you from kindly doing it for Sam.
I can see that. Why?
Well, see, last night Mr. Dillon was out of town and you were so busy and I needed a little dab of money to pay you a barrel of this.
So you borrowed us some Sam.
Yes, ma'am.
And you lost.
Yes, ma'am.
Now you're working off the debt.
Well, I don't get paid until the end of the month.
Is that coffee you got going here on the stove?
It sure is. I set it to boil and when I opened up for you once.
I'll have a cup if you haven't cooked it to death. It's the mug's end of the party.
I got it. You can just sit there at the table. I'll bring it to you.
Okay.
You know, I've been thinking that working in a saloon might not be too bad a job to pat.
It's warm. There's always people around to swap lies with. Big old stoves to set your feet on.
I forgot my talk.
Thanks, Chester.
I guess it's not too bad here, Chester. But it gets to be the same old story.
What do you mean?
Well, I get awful tired of people, especially men. It seems like the world's made up of men.
Well, now I'm just getting really tired.
I know what I mean, Chester. All those spoofing, hollering cowboys. And every one of them that hits the saloon wants to dance after they've had a few drinks.
Well, at least they ain't fighting.
You ever dance with one of them?
Well, no man. But you can't blame the man for feeling a little spry when he hits town after being out on the trail for a couple months.
No. I guess not. Not really.
And besides, what in the world would you do if you weren't running along, Brand?
I don't know. Get married, maybe.
Well, you couldn't do that.
Why not?
Well, there ain't nobody been courting you.
I mean, well...
No, there's been nobody courting me. That's the fact.
Miss Kay...
Why would it be hard to leave here and settle down on a ranch or something?
Well, there's good many towns.
Like Matt, maybe. A woman would be a fool to fall in love with Matt Dillon.
It'd be like trying to light a house with one candle.
What do you mean?
It could go out so easy, so fast.
Well, there's some good men on ranches.
Yeah, I've seen those country women who come into Dodge ranch wives.
They made them pretty once before they started getting up before dawn every day and cooking and milking and feeding the animals and walking around in the dirt.
Most of them you can't tell if they're wearing gloves or not.
I know.
What are you doing, Chester? Trying to get rid of me? Get me married off?
My gracious, no, Miss Kitty.
I like that thing to do.
And you better get back to finishing up those glasses.
There's Saturday, you know, and that seems a big night.
Oh, well, I'll be done in a few minutes.
Sam's out having his breakfast, and I promise I'd have the place all readied up by the time he got back.
Thanks for the coffee, Chester.
You're welcome.
I'll see you later.
All right, Miss Kitty.
Chester Wesley, proud foot, you talk too much.
Hey, Tom, just tell how you want that box fight up in San Francisco.
I've been kicking with one blow, ain't that the way you tell it?
One blow, all right, in the 23rd round.
Tom, you couldn't stand up 23 rounds much less fight that long.
Well, I swear I whupped him and I told the scratch over a round.
23 rounds and I've beaten him every round.
Sounds like you must have been a pretty good fighter back in them days.
A strong fighter I was.
I tell you, it's just too bad, Tom, you're all soft and broke down there.
Soft? No, I ain't soft.
No, you are.
You feel that. You feel that much.
Here, have a.
You know what your facts say? He ain't so soft as that.
It's too bad he can't fight no more. Ain't it, Brady?
Might work up a pretty good match. Tomorrow night maybe. Yeah.
I can fight.
No, Tom, you ain't done it for a long time and you couldn't beat nobody.
I'll lick anybody you fight.
No, Tom, we wouldn't want you to.
I can lick anybody in the house. Come on, come on.
No, Tom, don't bother his ass.
Anybody can lick anybody.
Anybody? I don't know, a fella high than mine's a real box fighter.
It don't matter. My name's Big Tom Bird. I can whip anybody.
Fight to a finish, winner take all?
Fight to a finish, winner take all.
Call him over, Brady. Be right back.
Come on, come on, you bring him on. Bring him on, will ya?
Yeah, he's coming, Big Tom. He's coming. He's coming right up.
Anybody, Big Tom Bird can whip anybody.
Even me, Tom? Can you whip me?
Any man in this room, just step out there.
You better look at me, Tom.
I don't care who.
Creel, Tom. Hat Creel.
You Creel?
Remember me?
Hat Creel.
I beat you once before, Tom Bird.
No, not fair. You never beat me fair.
I beat you blue. I beat you until you was crawling away.
That was a foul and dirty fight.
You scared, Tom? Is that it? You scared to fight him? You scared?
I'll fight him.
If you show up.
Oh, I'll be there. I'll be there.
All right, boys. And more than I did. We gotta fight.
All right. It's your money.
Come in. Come in.
Oh, it's you, Tom.
You're in town pretty early this morning, aren't you?
Oh, I need some doctoring.
You?
You got a pill you can give me, Doc.
Well, now, Tom, I have to know what the matter with you first.
Well, it really ain't anything serious, Doc. Only, I gotta be in good shape by tonight.
Well, I suppose you tell me what's the matter.
Oh, it happens all the time, Doc. And it, oh, it just goes away all right.
But I figure you can give me a pill.
Sit down, Tom.
Well, I wasn't aiming to visit, Doc.
I said sit down.
All right.
Now, tell me what's the matter.
Oh, it's just them giddy spells, Doc. Sometimes when I get up, I can't walk straight, and that's a fact.
Been happening long?
A month or two, I guess.
Take your shirt off.
Well, not way, Doc.
Take it off, I say.
Oh, Doc, well, come on.
Man, I can't get some pills out of all this fuss.
Oh, Doc, you're mothering, Doc.
Now then, breathe in.
Out.
In.
That's fine.
Yeah.
Yeah, well, all right, you can put your shirt back on.
Yeah.
Well, do I get the pill now?
Yes, I'll give you some medicine, but I want you to do just what I say.
Sure, Doc. Just so you fix me up for the night.
I want you to rest for a few days. Take it easy.
Why, Doc, would it be all right if I started to do that tomorrow?
What's the matter with right now?
I can't rightly be quiet tonight, Doc. I got to fight a man.
Fight a man? You mean with your fist?
Yeah.
Why, that would be the worst thing you could possibly do.
No, Doc, the worst thing would be if I didn't show up.
I mean it, Tom. It could kill you.
Why, it's just a brawl that isn't that important.
Call it off, Tom.
I got to show up, Doc. I got to fight this man.
I told you it might mean your life. Aren't you afraid?
I was afraid of him once, Doc.
Calling afraid. It's stuck in my core ever since.
But I ain't going to be afraid again, no matter what it costs.
Sure is a funny thing, Mr. Doom.
Oh, what's that, Chuster?
The men on these circus.
What about them?
Well, you'd think men such as these, you know, murderers and robbers and such like, you'd think they'd be easy to spot.
Well, they are when they're working.
Well, now that ain't what I mean. I mean you'd think you could tell just by looking at them.
I can.
No, now, Mr. Dillon, I'm talking about when they're just walking around town easy like.
Like they was having a day off.
Why, then you couldn't hardly tell one of them crooks from anybody else.
Oh, not if you're lucky.
I swear they love folk in this town that's worth looking to need men are.
Not you take old Cass, for instance.
And tell Dalby, he ain't none too good looking either. Them two's are just.
Matt, I want to talk to you.
Okay, Doc.
Matt, I want you to stop a murder.
A murder? What murder?
Tom Berra. You got to do something about it, Matt.
Big Tom? Why, who'd want to kill a real nice fellow like him?
All right, Doc, what's this all about?
Well, you know how Tom is, whenever he gets drunk he starts talking about his fighting days back in San Francisco?
Somebody's going to kill him for that?
I'm afraid it's going to work out that way, Matt.
Joe Brady and Hob Clare brought him this fire from St. Louis.
A fellow named Creel. They've got Tom to agree to fight him tonight.
There's a lot of betting going on.
Well, what makes it murder, Doc?
If Tom Berra fights one round, it'll kill him.
I just examined him, I know.
Then why didn't you tell him not to fight?
I did, Matt, I did. But he's as stubborn as he is sick.
He says he's got to show up and fight.
Even if it'll be the end of him, that doesn't make sense.
Not to you, not to me, but it does to Tom.
It seems as Creel beat him once before and beat him bad.
He's never been able to forget it. And he's determined to make up for it now.
What can I do, Doc?
Stop it, Matt.
I might like to, Doc, but I don't see how I can. There's no law against a prize fight.
There's a law against murder, isn't there?
Now look, Doc, I have a hard enough time doing the things the law authorizes me to do.
But you can lock him up until the fight's over.
What's he done?
All right, Matt. All right.
You get a chance to stop killing before it starts, and you tell me it's against the law.
But what's the law for?
Very good to me, Mr. Donnie. Old Doc sure did stomp out of here mad, didn't he?
Yeah.
Seems to me he's being just a little bit unreasonable.
Maybe he's right at that, Chuster.
That's a good question. What's the law for?
Bert. Tom Bert.
Oh, it's you, Marshal. Come on in.
Thanks.
Sit down, Marshal. Just, will I sweep these things off that chair?
Never mind, Tom. I want you to come along with me.
Come along where, Marshal?
Back to Dodge.
You mean you've come to get me?
That's right, Tom. I came to get you.
Why, Marshal? I ain't done nothing. I ain't no law-breaker. You know that.
They told me you were talking pretty loud as it's swinging pretty wide in the long branch last night.
Oh, well, there wasn't nothing to that. You know how it is. Marshal, a man gets a little too much bad liquor in him once in a while, and it makes him act foolish.
Sounds like breaking the peace to me.
Now, come on, Tom. Get your horse.
Now, listen, Marshal, I just can't go getting myself locked up this afternoon. I got to be back at the long branch tonight.
There isn't going to be any fight, Tom.
Marshal, I got to fight this man. You can take me in tomorrow, or tonight. You can take me in tonight, yeah. But I got to show up first.
Get your horse, Tom.
You don't know this Creel, Marshal. He beats folks to death because he likes to eat. He fights foul and cruel, and he laughs about it.
You laughed at me once, Marshal. I got to fight him.
Not tonight, you know.
Marshal, you're rigging this thing against me. You got no right to hold me.
You going to take me on, Tom?
I ain't going to don't jail.
Hold it, Tom.
You got me beat, Marshal. I won't draw against you.
That's better.
But I ain't going to forget about this.
You'll have time to cool off. Now, come on, let's go.
Hello, Matt.
Hello, Kitty.
Sit down.
Thanks.
I'm glad you're here.
No trouble?
Oh, there will be in a few minutes. They got a fight scheduled out back.
There isn't going to be any fight, Kitty.
Well, how are you going to stop it? There's a lot of money changing hands, Matt.
Tom Bear won't be showing up.
Big Tom? He's never missed a fight in his life.
No, he's missing this one. He's in jail.
In jail? What for?
Well, I'll tell you about it sometime.
Don't tell me, tell them.
Who?
Brady and Clay and their fighters. They're right on time.
Yeah. I'll see you later, Kitty.
Thank you so much.
Your name Creel?
That's right, Marshal. Hack Creel. I see you've heard of me.
Yeah, I've heard of you.
You come to see me, Frank?
I come to tell you that there isn't going to be a fight.
Oh?
Well, that ain't your affair, Marshal.
Let the Marshal talk, boys. This might be real interesting.
There won't be a fight because Bear won't be here.
I told you he should have lined up somebody else. I knew he'd be afraid to meet me again.
He's not afraid. He's not showing up because he's in jail.
Listen up, boys. The Marshal stopped the fight.
He got Bear locked up.
Hey, Marshal, you ain't no coward, do you?
I'm sorry, boys, but that's the way it is.
Sounds to me like the Marshal's getting a little meddlesome.
I don't like him, Marshal.
The Marshal thought pretty big about my kind of fighting, especially when he's wearing his gun.
Now, the gun has nothing to do with it, Creel.
And the kind of dirty tricks you use haven't anything to do with an honest fight either.
You take off your gun and I'll cut you to ribbons for that Marshal.
Yeah, I understand that's one of your specialties.
And hiding behind that gun is one of yours.
Looks like you have a Marshal with a stripe down his back, boys.
The gun's off, Creel.
Sam, here, hold this for me.
Sure, Marshal.
All right, anytime, Creel.
I'll show you gunfighters.
He's down, Creel, he's down.
Come on, Marshal, you got a bottle?
I'll fix you.
All right, Creel, come on, get up.
He won't be getting up for a while, Marshal.
All right, give me my gun, Sam.
Yes, sir.
Now, now, you all right?
Yeah, Kitty, I'm all right.
Well, I guess there's much for my plate here.
What a mess.
I'm sorry, Kitty, I guess I just got mad.
Yeah, I guess you did.
Mr. Dillon, I sure am glad you're here.
My great fly, what happened to you?
Never mind, Chester.
What's the trouble?
Well, Tom Burr, the doctor's with him in the back there.
No?
Doc.
Oh, there you are, Matt.
I'm having a mighty sick man here.
He tried to pry the bars apart to get out, and the effort nearly killed him.
Is he all right now?
He'll be all right if he's careful.
Marshal.
Yeah, what, Tom?
I guess you knew what you were about locking me up.
I guess I wouldn't have done no good enough like that.
Don't you worry about it, Tom.
Cleo won't be back here.
You fought him, Marshal?
Yeah.
You whipped him?
Until he wouldn't get up.
Oh, that's good, Marshal.
That's good.
Doc, what, Chester?
You finished the pound now?
Yes, I guess so.
He'll be all right if he rests.
Why, you best start doctoring someone, Mr. Dock.
Mr. Willem, right.
What did you say?
Oh, see, that's old Matt.
Oh, that closed eye is a beaut.
It doesn't matter, Doc.
There's not much around here I want to look at anyway.
Come on, I'll buy a dozen stuffers.
Gun Smoke.
Produced and directed by Norman McDonald, stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
The story was specially written for Gun Smoke by Marion Clark, with editorial supervision by John Meston.
Barry Baer as Chester, Howard McNair as Bach, and Georgia Ellis as Kiddie.