User Reviews

This episode is somewhat reminiscent of "Cotter's Girl", in that it unleashes a rather naive young woman on the poor souls of Dodge, but it adds a dark angle missing from that earlier tale. It's a trademark Kathleen Hite script in that this ep has some heart to it; it's not just another gunslinger whodunit. I always appreciate the light Hite shines on members of the Dodge-at-large society that the show usually glosses over, and here, we get a glimpse of what life might be like for the orphaned girls of the frontier.

Dodie's interactions with the men and women of Dodge are by turns amusing and heartrending, and thoroughly entertaining. One of the better hour long episodes.

I just saw his episode today and was taken by Kathleen Nolan's performance - and the believability of her portrayal as Dodie. If I wasn't already aware of her in other productions, chiefly in "The Real McCoys", I would have sworn that I was watching a very talented teenager in the lead role.

In reading the other reviews, I find I could agree with each one of them (except one in particular) on both positive & critical/negative comments. There really isn't much I could add to the reviews except for the idea/question of why didn't they do this as a 2-part episode...?

There was a lot that was stuffed into this episode, as it is; but with more time I think different scenes & personalities would have been more fully developed leading to a better more satisfying ending. It was interesting & telling how James Arness carried his main scene at the orphanage and closed out the episode. Also, with extra time the pacing would have been more consistent without that rushed feeling at the very end.

Still, it was a very good production with plenty of emotion to go around; and thought-provoking ideas or scenes of what life was like in a time & setting of such roughness, apathy & poverty. Like another reviewer mentioned, it did pull at my heartstrings and brought some tears to my eyes. I couldn't help but think about or wonder "what if" it were my daughter(s) - or what it must have been like for my female ancestors of those times & morés.

"Call Me Dodie" is my personal favorite of the many "Gunsmoke" episodes. The story has considerable charm and a remarkable portrayal of the title character. And it introduces a nice bit of symbolism, bookending the 60 minute September 1962 episode with a kite. In fact, it goes out on a shot (panning up) of the kite and its string tangled in the Pleasant Valley Orphanage sign; symbolic of the controlled freedom of Dodie's expected future. An absolutely brilliant ending.

Dodie was one of the first parts 30-year-old Kathleen Nolan played after leaving "The Real McCoys", at the conclusion of the series' fifth season. It was a remarkable performance as Dodie was a wide-eyed seventeen year-old orphan out to aggressively experience the world, starting with Dodge City. That Nolan is completely convincing in this part, both from an acting and a physical perspective, is simply amazing. You recognize her voice but there is complete physical transformation, wiping years off her Kate McCoy character.

The episode simply transplants the storyline of "Sparrows" (United Artists' 1926 silent feature) to Dodge City with Nolan playing Mary Pickford's Molly character. Molly was also the oldest child at an orphanage. The orphans in both stories are treated like slaves. Pickford was 34 when she played the 17 year-old Molly. I suspect that the casting of Nolan was inspired by Pickford's believability in this similar age disparity situation. In both the character takes on a dimensionality from the stretch required of both actresses, who sell their young characters so effectively that little suspension of disbelief is required of viewers.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Episodes like "Call Me Dodie" just remind me of why Gunsmoke has been on the air for 60 years, with no signs of slowing down. Over and over again, they explore the heart of human depravity like nothing else in the history of television, fearlessly going underneath the surface of polite society to reveal the dark hearts of women and men. The relentless focus on female perversity and peril, the neverending insistence on casting beautiful, compelling actresses to play these parts, all written and directed with inspiration, make Gunsmoke the best hour long drama to have ever been on television, bar none. Test episodes like "Dodie," "The Squaw" (Season 7) and "The Cabin" (Season 3) against any so-called criticism and it will leave them crumbled and broken under the sheer power of this television program. Only Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone" was better, but it being only 30 minutes, is really in a different sphere of concern. For hour long dramas, Gunsmoke is the best of all time.

Dodie (Kathleen Nolan) plays a dreamy teen, trapped in a dismal orphanage that is really a front for a child labor racket run by the proprietors, a brother and sister. They beat the girls to keep discipline. One day Dodie decides to take on the woman who runs the place when her brother is away and get the keys away from her. She succeeds, but the woman hits her head as a result of the fight and may die. Dodie runs anyways. She soon hitches a ride to Dodge City with Doc Adams and begins exploring the town. Since she has been in the orphanage since she was five, the ways of the world are strange to her. That includes the reactions of men who were a bit on the wild side to begin with when an attractive and forward young woman confronts them. Soon Matt Dillon has his hands full with the aftermath of fights between men started over the clueless Dodie.

The funny thing is Dodie is not the least bit afraid she'll be found out as the person who injured/(killed?) the keeper of the orphanage. She is just enjoying life one day at a time in a way that seems almost creepy. She seems to have completely turned her back on the poor younger girls still trapped in serfdom back at the so-called orphanage.

Kathleen Nolan is a good actress, but she had just finished a five year stint as Kate of The Real McCoys, wife in a farm family that has moved from West Virginia to California. She was playing a thirty something level headed housewife who seemed older because she was playing pseudo mom to her husband's much younger adolescent sister and brother. Then she was written out of the show with the script saying she died of a brief illness. And almost immediately, here she is, playing someone who is supposed to be the age of the girls her pseudo step son would have been dating in the previous series. This is just a bit too much background information to just forget about and for me to suspend my beliefs.

Dodie escapes an orphanage and the brutal yoke of a couple that uses child labor to wash and iron laundry and other drudgery. Dodie makes her way to Dodge City via the fortuitous meeting with ole Doc Adams. She has not a penny to her name but all cowpokes in Dodge are scrapping to show her a good time. The extremely naive Dodie let's her pent up whorish nature rule her as she begs saddle bums to make vigorous love to her; this is implied. Not once while cavorting with these wastrels did Dodie think of the plight of the poor little girls stuck at the orphanage. Dodie longs to be a saloon girl and altogether forget her lamentable past. It seems like this episode was frittered away indulging Dodie's carnal nature, barely 4 mins was left for Matt to show up and arrest the villains. It was unnatural and rushed, everything was saccharine and tied up tidily.

Another note is ole Doc's saintly restraint of his sexual nature; Dodie throws herself at him and all he does is act like an innocuous grandfather. All he wants is to feed her a hot breakfast when in reality Doc the man would want to feed Dodie something else. Doc was more holy than Gandhi

How long are we to believe Doc Adams could suppress rabid sexual compulsions innate in every man? All Doc does is wrinkle his eyebrows, wipe his mouth and let out a sound of detestation at the slightest crossroad of something that challenges his nature.