Original subtitles

ANNOUNCER: "Gunsmoke," starring James Arness as Matt Dillon.

Yeah, Fergusonville.

Ain't a bad town.

They can sure use me, but it ain't a bad town.

All it needs is a little attention,

a little law, order, and a Winchester, not necessarily

in that order.

Just a little stone-nosed marshaling.

Yeah, old Ferguson would have liked it, though.

Raunchy as it is.

I remember him like it was only 100 yards ago.

I remember one time he-- he picked up

a 300 grizzly yearling he kept as a pet.

And he-- he carried it on down to Danny's bar.

And he sets that old grizzly up on the bar,

and he says to Danny--

You serve sheepherders in here?

And Danny nods.

And then old--

Ferguson.

Ferguson, he'd nod and say, well, then

give me a glass of whiskey, and give

my friend here a sheepherder.

I told you that one before?

In Cross Creek, Hell's Bend, Oblivion, half a dozen others.

Why'd you marry me, woman?

I can't think of one reason.

Drifting from one hellhole to another.

[gunshots]

-Gunfight. -Tom.

Sure.

[gunshots]

Whoa, whoa.

Tom, no.

Tom, Tom! -Gunfight.

-Tom! -Get down.

Get out of the way. -Tom.

Get out of the way.

Tom!

Oh God.

[gunshots]

It's a gunfight, all right, but the question is,

who's doing what to who?

Who are you, pilgrim?

MATTHEW: US marshal.

Marshal?

Let's get busy.

Jack, Ben!

Jack's dead.

I'm hit.

All right, all right!

We're throwing it in.

All right, pilgrim.

Get over there next to that other one, where

I can see you clean and solid.

I'm bleeding.

Along with most of us.

Now lay that gun down flat, a little to the left!

Throw your other guns on that pile.

Now, sit!

Tom, Tom Lynott.

Well, it's a small world for the size of it.

Matt!

Who's them.

I don't know.

Just ambushed you?

The base of these rocks.

I was trying to get to the spring.

Yeah, a badge still draws a crowd on occasion, don't it?

They sure chewed on you.

Well, come on.

I got a buggy down yonder here.

A buggy?

Yeah, a man can't tote his wife around in a pack trap.

Come on.

Penny with you?

Four feet'd be a mile without her.

All right, you left-footed, spine-shooting heroes.

Get on down there!

Or I'll tack you flatter than a bug's pockets!

[theme music]

Doctor, Marshal's been shot.

You got a doctor here?

-You the croaker? -I'm the doctor.

-You got a room? -I have.

All right. Get him on up there right now.

[shouting]

Easy, take it easy now.

You got a jail?

All right, take these dry gussers

and pack them on into it tighter than a long fish

in a short can. Get to it.

You, take these horses and sell them for whatever you can get.

Put the money in the bank. Ma'am!

Yes?

Get this little woman up to a room.

You, close your mouth before the bees hide,

and get these bags upstairs.

As old Ferguson used to say, now let's belly up to the trough.

Wet the whistle.

Well, how do you make it, Doc?

Everything considered, I'd say we're lucky.

One bullet missed his shoulder socket

about a quarter of an inch, another once glanced off a rib,

almost took a kidney with it.

He's gonna need rest, good, long, sound rest.

How long?

It's hard to say, Miss Kitty, but I'd guess a month,

and that'd be on the narrow side.

Well, I'd-- I'd best be going.

See you back at the Long Branch, Miss.

Thank you, mister.

Tom, I heard you talking.

Look, I'm not gonna be in here a month.

More like two weeks.

But whatever it is, I gotta have somebody

looking at after the town while I'm in here.

Well, you got your deputy.

You got some boys here with some sand to them.

You got your nice town with roots reaching out.

You'll make out all right.

No, Tom.

There's a Wells Fargo shipment due in.

Now, Newly and Festus, they're good men,

but I gotta have somebody who's marshaled before, somebody

experienced, Tom.

Oh, no, no, Matthew.

You don't want me.

But just for a couple weeks, Tom, till I get on my feet.

Now, wait a minute now.

It's gonna be more than two weeks.

What do you say, Tom?

Well, this-- this kind of town, this ain't my kind of town.

Them screechers with the hide half off, raw and jumping.

That's-- that's what fits me.

No, you-- you don't want me.

This town can't be without a marshal.

Takes too long to get another one.

Just two weeks, Tom.

Or more.

All right.

Thanks, Tom.

Your wife is at the hotel, Mr. Lynott.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, I'm obliged to you, ma'am.

Old Ferguson'd never believe this one.

Well, at least Penny'll get some sleep.

What's the matter, Kitty?

I'm fine.

No, something's wrong.

What is it?

No, there isn't anything wrong.

I was just, well, wondering if you'd made the right choice.

Look, you try and get some rest, and I'll

have Sam bring you some broth.

There you go.

Well, here's to your good health and good fortune.

Thank you.

You're wondering about Tom.

The wine and cheese are unwelcome.

I know that, Kitty, but you are wondering about Tom.

What makes you think that?

A woman's intuition about a woman's intuition about men.

He saved Matt's life.

Matt's wounded, can't defend himself,

and the man that defends this town depends Matt.

Oh, I know.

Tom has led a wild, raw life.

He's a good man, Kitty, a strong man, and a kind man,

at the root of things.

But, well, just a little different.

I'm sure Tom's a good man at the root of things.

If I did have a question to ask, it would be about that

difference you talk about.

I just wonder if it would help to enforce the law

or make it tougher.

Now, anyway, here are these old boys come right along,

and they come on old Ferguson.

And the Apaches have got him buried in the sand,

like an ant.

And he's down there.

And this old boy looks at him.

He says hey, Bill.

He said, this pilgrim's got himself wide for trouble.

And old Ferguson said, no, no.

I ain't in no trouble.

And the boy says, why ain't you?

He said, it's simple.

I got a fine horse under me!

That's true.

That there old Ferguson must have been a pistol's pistol.

He sure sounds like it.

MAN: Get him thorough.

Fight, fight!

Here.

I'll throw him in jail for you, Tom, Newly.

Oh, no.

That ain't necessary, Festus.

Well, he's drunk and fighting on the street.

Festus, they're all right.

They're good old boys.

When they surface, they're gonna need a drink, Sam.

Put it on my tab, will you?

All right.

Well, pilgrims, this day's been a year, but it's been an hour,

and my edges are starting to show.

Try not to wake me with the shooting and yelling, huh?

Going to bed?

You ain't going to bed, are you?

On a Saturday night?

It's just sure as big scares in the summer light,

things is different.

Kitty, you sure you've used of those before?

Sure, taking down and hems and things.

Look, I got a free hand here, see?

Would you just lie still?

But look--

You could always grow a beard, you know?

Maybe half a beard.

How are you feeling?

Well, Doctor, I don't know.

Under the circumstances here--

That's not a circumstance, Matt.

That's a mortal threat.

Oh, you two relax.

Razors were invented by women, or should have been.

No question about that.

Let me take a look at my patient here.

Up.

What?

That hurt?

It did, huh?

But you're coming along.

Doctor, how's Tom coming along?

Well, his methods are a little different from yours,

but that shouldn't concern you.

[inaudible] Matt.

Tom's a good man.

You take two of these every morning before breakfast

without fail, and I'll have you back on your feet before

long, as good as new.

[crashing]

[shouting]

What's going on out there?

All right, drop your knife, or I'll air out your bread basket.

Drop it.

What's going on in there?

This one.

This one took his knife to old man Weaver something terrible.

All right. Come on.

You're going to [inaudible]

Now, hold on.

Festus, just-- just hold on there a minute.

What happened here, Shaw?

You mean you know this tangle-footed yahoo?

They was going on about my Mignon.

What's a Mignon?

That's a lady's name.

Well, if they was talking about his woman, then maybe--

Not his woman.

It's his jackass.

His jackass?

Well, that rips it.

Now, hold on, Festus.

When you've been blowing it with a critter,

you get attached to it.

Well, this here's old Shaw.

This is the best old tracker ever

helped the army out of cactus.

We worked together some.

Them was the days, Tom.

Yeah, right to the edge they was, Shaw.

The old man's all right, I guess.

He's pretty well cut up, though.

Maybe I'd better get Doc Chat.

Yeah, maybe you better do that.

I am drunk, Tom.

Hard to notice, Shaw.

If I was you, I'd get my gatherings

together and get out of town.

Now, this old boy might have had some friends

you didn't know about.

Thanks, Tom.

I'm-- I'm real sorry.

All right.

Give my love to Mignon!

Old Shaw.

You're turning him loose?

Why, he carved on a man.

Yeah, he's an alligator when he gets liquored up.

But why not?

He's served his time in the devil's pocket.

He never killed anybody, that I know of.

Well, don't you think he ought to be throwed in jail?

That don't change a man under the skin, pard.

Top of that, the taxpayer stands the loss.

Come on.

Buy you a drink.

Did Tom take care of that?

Yeah.

Tom's taken care of it.

Now I'm gonna take care of you.

Now, Kitty, look, take it easy.

Slow.

Doctor.

[inaudible]

[inaudible]

That's rotten.

Yeah, and all that's left, therefore most enjoyable.

Well, paper claims Tom Lynott's up to Dodge.

Tom what?

Lynott, that's before your time.

Tom always did know where the cushion was.

Nickel, how long we been here?

I dunno.

Rolfin, how long we been here?

Go ask that gin rangler.

He'd know.

Bar keep, where you at?

Hey, pass that whiskey.

There's a rat in here.

How long we been here? Ain't no rat in there.

Fella says there's a rat in there.

Drink everything, eat everything, fight.

Nothing left but four-year-old pigs feet'd make a duck jump in

and keg of trade whiskey even a mule'd stay wide of.

Ain't no rat in there.

What day is it?

Come here and raise the dead, break things,

how do I know what day it is?

Can't you put that thing up, Wallace?

Well?

Thursday.

We've been here three days?

Could have been three years.

There's a rat in there.

That ain't a rat.

That's a mouse.

A mouse?

You reckon Tally got jailed?

Not Tally.

They ain't built his jail yet.

Seems this Dodge marshal got himself bushwhacked,

and old Tom was riding through, and was prevailed upon

to take the job till the marshal is all unleaded

and back on his feet.

This-- Ly-- Lynott, he a friend of yours?

Like another rib.

Well, that gives me an idea.

Wallace, you ain't never empty, are you?

Dodge.

Now we gots to wait somewhere for Tally.

Now, this place ain't nowhere.

So the right kind of thinking is, we ride

on to some genuine somewhere.

Now, Dodge ain't that far out the way.

Tally come riding into the bar, he tell them where we's at.

Sure be some funning.

They got them a real town up there.

Doins, we could see old Tom.

And we could loosen the wolf some.

Come on.

Let's get to riding.

I know what I'm gonna do!

Hey, boy.

Here, better eat up for the trail.

MAN: Come on, baby!

Pays to pray sometimes.

[knocking on door]

Miss Lynott?

Yes?

I'm Mrs. Weaver.

I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage, Mrs. Weaver.

My husband's the one got knifed yesterday.

Oh, I'm terribly sorry.

I didn't know.

Your man don't talk to you none, Miss Lynott?

Please, come in, Mrs. Weaver.

I-- I ain't forward usually, Mrs. Lynott.

Please, please, sit down, Mrs. Weaver.

Miss Lynott, maybe if I talk to you.

Miss Lynott, my Bill drinks.

I'd say he'd have to drink, having the furies he's had,

trying and failing.

But mostly he's godly.

And I know, because for 28 years,

I done live every day with him.

And I ain't saying when Bill drinks his sense of humor

ain't low on sense, but he's not a mean man.

He got knifed, Miss Lynott.

And it ain't he'll be laid up for a month.

He's had his flat times.

It's-- it's that we come to Dodge cause Dodge had law.

And against the law to go knifing.

But that man, your man.

Your man, Mrs. Lynott, he just-- He just let that man ride off.

And him so drunk he didn't know north from sagebrush.

Miss Lynott, I ain't had no schooling, only living,

but the law is like the Bible.

It ain't how you look at it.

The words there, it's just there.

I-- I ain't usually forward, Mrs. Lynott.

Oh, you're welcome any time.

Mrs. Weaver.

Pleasure for your company, Mrs. Lynott.

Well, she done had her say.

Her man was knifed.

I know.

By a drunk.

And you let him go?

Penny, it takes all kinds to make a world.

The Bible says that too.

Only Mrs. Weaver, she seems to have forgot that.

Sure, old Shaw was drunk, always will be.

Past his time, old Shaw.

Those old boys pushing west, if all they had

was strawberry sundaes, you'd be wearing feathers in your hair

and moccasins on your pretty feet right now.

But Mrs. Weaver, I mean, this isn't push out or two

tops, or any of those places.

This is Dodge City, people trying to make something last.

And only laws will do it.

And you can't just see them any way

that makes things comfortable.

Well, listen to you.

I'm sorry.

TOM (VOICEOVER): How'd you become a deputy, Matt?

MATTHEW (VOICEOVER): The law.

The land needs laws, and the men to work them.

TOM (VOICEOVER): Why'd you?

[chuckling]

Got paid.

MAN: Hey, Lynott!

You old switch jumper.

Which rock you squeezed under?

Come on, marshal!

Let's soak this skins from the inside!

Oh, Mrs. Lynott, can Tommy come out to play?

It's Tally's bunch!

Hey, cut the noise and get off the street.

Take a sharp left to the best trough in town.

First drink's on me!

I ain't seen them since--

The lazy little hamlet of Glory Hole.

Blood you couldn't step over every Monday morning.

That's right.

That front sight aimed at hope, you called it.

That's the one.

But you sure could hear its heart.

You sure could.

Hey, you remember the time he was chasing old man Sven?

What was that for?

He rode my horse upstairs after [inaudible].

That git!

Now, that's what I call a highly comforting

past for a town marshal.

Matt says he's a good man, he's a good man.

I'll bet Matt didn't know this bunch of good friends.

He knew you patched up Bill Weaver, didn't he?

He did.

I didn't wanna tell him too much.

He still needs his rest.

Let's have another, mister.

The name's Sam.

Mr. Smiling Sam.

Help yourself.

Courtesy of the Denver and Western.

Tally'll push in later, will he?

Sooner than later when he finds out you're here.

Who's this one?

Oh, now that there is Wallace.

Tally picked him up in Bone West.

That's the new kind you get now.

Got himself a bad temper and a worse gun.

Got it coming out so fast a hawk couldn't see it.

Yeah, well, he's handy riding out,

but just a cub kid for living lie.

Aint' that right, Billy boy?

Comes the cub kids, you take first money.

You say that again, I'll put a hole in you

you can drive the northbound through.

I ain't saying you couldn't, Billy boy.

But if you was to do that, you'd have to bury me.

And you might bend your mind figuring out which

end of the shovel was which!

This is good whiskey.

Ain't no rat in there either.

MAN: Oh, that wasn't no rat.

That was a mouse. -Yeah, it was a mouse.

Ma'am, that's dangerous stuff.

Matt sure wouldn't sign to it.

But we haven't had any real trouble yet.

No, ma'am, not yet.

But I believe that's a bunch could

take a town's 15 years of hard effort

and leave nothing but mayhem.

And he blame sure ain't marshaling

the way the folks in Dodge is used to marshaling

and being dead.

Well, I agree with you, Festus, but what

are we're gonna do about it?

Well, somebody ought to tell old Matthew.

I don't want to be flapperty--

Festus, Festus, will you look at that?

MATTHEW (VOICEOVER): Lynott gentleman?

He's about four doors down in the Long Branch Saloon.

Much obliged.

Deeply.

Trouble, that there Lynott draws trouble like summer

melons draws blue flies.

It's like I was saying, Newly, there's another sample

somebody ought to tell Matthew.

Well, you're the head deputy.

Why don't you tell him? I'll go with you.

Well, I don't want to be no--

Well, this old Tally's still drunk as a rum goose,

but holds himself stiff as a preacher, you know.

Which he looks like, with a piece

all tore up and got himself a top hat.

So anyway, I took him out of there,

and I took him in the bar, and watered him a little,

and I says to him, well, what happened to you?

Starts running into a burnt bear.

And he looks at me, and he says, got married.

says, well, where's the bride?

Well, he says, last time I seen her,

she was coming for me a knife big enough the hay with.

One of the other boys says, what's her name, Will?

He says, boys, I done left so quick I can't remember.

But they got-- got to breaking things up in there.

I shooed them on out of there and over to the Bull's Head,

taking Tally along with them.

What's your name, Will?

Can't remember.

You all right, Penny?

Huh?

What's the matter, sweetheart?

Why didn't you jail them, Tom?

Jail them?

Why?

The law.

Oh, pet, pet.

Honey, I know your feelings.

You've told me about them before.

Mrs. Weaver.

Comes a time every woman gotta think to change

what don't need changing.

Now, honey, the law is something you gotta work with.

You gotta ease things.

You gotta play a little bit on one side

and play a little on the other, and then just sort of ease

into things.

The shortest trail a law had ever made was to a tombstone.

Now, don't you worry, sweetheart.

I know what I'm doing.

No. No, you don't.

And I never knew it before.

-Penny. -You're wrong.

I love you, Tom.

But you're wrong.

[knocking on door]

Sorry to bother you, Mr. Lynott,

but they're tearing up the Bull's Head,

and Marshal Dillon said--

All right, all right.

Tell Festus to go on down there and ask

them to hold it low as a favor.

Well, maybe you're forgetting, Mr. Lynott, you

sent Festus and Newly down to me to check on Ben Kilty

being there. -I what?

Sent Festus and Newly down to me.

I never sent anybody anywhere. I'll be right down.

Once again, old timer.

Get another pair of them.

Again.

Well, you're doing fine.

[gunshot]

Did Sam deliver my message, Doctor?

Yeah.

Well, why isn't Lynott down there?

I couldn't say, Matt.

That ruckus is coming from friends of his.

Friends?

DOCTOR: That's right.

Where's Festus?

Lynott sent Festus and Newly over to me.

Ben Kilty's been reported over there.

Both of them?

That only leaves Lynott.

-That's right. -Give me my pants.

You sit back there.

You said I'm doing fine.

You're doing fine in bed, not out of it.

Come on.

I'm gonna sit on you, if I have to.

Matt, you've been telling us how good your buddy Lynott is.

Now's his chance to prove it.

Let him handle it.

[chuckling]

Now, that's a good boy.

[gunshot]

All right.

That's enough!

Patterson, if shamrocks was luck,

you'd be in a valley of them.

How's that for shooting, Tommy, [inaudible]

What would Ferguson say about that now?

Say you're liable to inherit that old sodbuster's 13 kids,

and that's an unlucky number.

Oh, you reckon 13?

Long winter nights.

Give me a couple of shots of high grade there, will you?

Pull up a chair, Tom, and sit down.

You know Wallace over there, don't you?

Yeah, I've seen him.

How are you, son?

Ain't got no truck with lawdogs.

Well, you're gonna have to hold it down some.

Yeah, yeah. I know.

We was just calling you over.

I figured.

Now, what's all this about Ben Kilty?

I figured that'd fetch you over here.

It was all Wallace's idea.

Wallace, always thinking!

I heard Ben Kilty was gunned down up at Fort Stick.

You know, you heard just right.

Some old boy lay enough lead in him to bottom a boat.

And then we rolled into town and saw the posters still hanging.

We just figured that the word hadn't got out yet.

Weren't nothing at all to fake up

a note from you, telling them two deputies to ride down to

[inaudible].

Old Billy boy got the whole idea in his little tin head.

Like I told you, for a crooked, he just plain

beats a mesquite fence.

Tom, old boy, how'd you like to dust out of this country?

What?

You heard right.

You know, things is getting tighter

than a swarm of locusts.

There ain't no place to move anymore.

You can't flap your arms.

There's a badge behind, around, and underneath every tree.

And you, you old rolling bush, you-- you weren't cut

out to be no lawman, no how.

How'd you like to just cut out?

Mexico?

Canada? That's it.

Canada!

All you have to do is hunt for the shade, and lay in it,

and worry about nothing.

How'd you like that?

I'd like that most purely, but it-- it gets down to the how

of it, don't it?

Dodge.

Dodge?

Well, sure, just laying there like a babe on the blanket.

I reckon it's pretty near foolproof.

Oh, it's 800% foolproof.

Well?

What do you say, Tom boy?

What do you say?

Ain't nothing in the way.

Let me just get this straight.

You-- you're suggesting that I-- that I throw in with you

to-- to clean out this town?

Yeah.

That's what I thought you meant.

Never did meet a lawdog had brains

enough to put in a thimble.

Lawdog, this whole town just laying out

there bigger than a skinned mule, just

prime right for the taking.

You're quite a little planner, ain't you?

Give you an hour, I will.

Be out of town, or I'll come killing.

Wallace always did have a big mouth.

You should have warned him.

Lynott throws a long loop, but he

don't never let go of the tail.

All the same, he's one of us.

And Tom said he was gonna come a-killing in one hour.

We ain't gonna cut and run, well?

Never have.

Get him up.

Yeah, you were right, Matt.

You always was.

I coulda stopped it all at the start.

What do they aim to do?

Go through your town like a bull through a cobweb.

It's your town now, Tom.

I know what you're thinking.

It's me drawing them here, sure as ants to garbage.

The law these days with changing time,

it's-- it's just hard to understand

something that's simple.

That's incredible.

I mean, that is just incredible, to just up

and leave just like that.

No, he's not leaving, Doctor.

He's not?

No, he's gonna stand up to them.

Oh.

Penny.

Get up, Penny. -What?

Get your things packed.

[inaudible] Wait here for me.

What is it, Tom?

Oh, nothing.

Nothing except the law.

That law you keep talking about all the time.

Tom, you be careful now.

I should have been a freight driver.

Talking to the hind end of mules makes more sense.

Tell me, Tom.

Don't ask no questions, Penny.

Just do as I say.

Don't ask no questions.

Lynott!

Hello there, Lynott!

It's been a whole hour.

Let's talk!

You can see how it is.

So let's talk.

We've got plenty of time.

I'm gonna gun him.

Hey, shut up, boy.

I'm doing this.

Oh, Tom.

You hear me?

Man just made a point here.

Ain't nothing to do but to talk.

And seeing as how we stand you five to one.

Tom!

That little old rifle ain't gonna cut it.

We're gonna kill you, Tom.

Likely.

Likely?

Look around.

Why, we could kill you before you killed us, if you

had two guns in each hand.

You're a dead man.

Likely.

I ain't waiting on no old man.

Tally.

Get out of town.

I ain't waiting on nobody!

Get out of town, Will.

You'd follow through, wouldn't you?

I would.

That's what I figure.

You're crazy, Lynott.

We'll be down across the border when that halo of yours

don't fit no more.

Well, it was a good idea most of the way, boy.

The deceased's family is entitled to something.

We was doing you right, Tom.

You ain't never gonna understand that, are you?

Come on.

Let's go.

Tom, that was close.

That shotgun, that's mine.

I know, Doctor.

I just didn't have time to check with you.

Oh, no, Marshal. You don't understand.

See, this thing is brand new.

I haven't had time to buy any shells for it yet.

Old Ferguson's never believe that one either.

Matt, we thank you.

We really thank you.

We're gonna be happy in Wichita.

I'm glad I was able to help.

Tom, I'm much obliged.

You'll double, Matt, for true.

You know, it puts me in mind of Nilo,

when you and me was green.

Come a long way, ain't we?

Yeah, I guess so.

Well, keep her dry, Matt, and loaded.

Yeah, and, Tom, be sure and say hello to old Ferguson for me.

I'll do that.

ANNOUNCER: Stay tuned for exciting scenes

from our next "Gunsmoke."

[theme music]