User Reviews

Joanna Moore does a great job of playing the molasses talking southern charmer in this well acted episode that ends season five for the series. Ms Moore plays Cherry Odell who is living in Dodge and at the time is all alone. Her husband, Slim, has ran out on her and with his partner, Yancey, they set off robbing and stealing. But unbeknownst to Cherry her husband has been shot and killed when trying to rob the stagecoach and the person that shot Slim, Red Larner, just happens to be in Dodge in hopes of finding Yancey who is still on the loose.

With the stagecoach investigator, Red Larner, looking for the other bandit, he becomes smitten with Cherry's looks. He even tells her that he is going to marry her one day (which is somewhat creepy). But anyway when they find Red with a bullet in his back, Matt becomes suspicious that Cherry may know more about the situation that she lets others believe. Matt is going to do a little investigation of his own.

A nice story that was very well played by all involved. Ms Moore was so likable in this episode that we can easily forgive any misstep that Cherry Odell could possibly make. The only reservation about the episode was the ending decision made by Cherry. But then again I hear loose women just heal quicker. Good watch.

Cherry (Moore) is one grabber of a girl, so when Red (Franz) approaches her on the street saying he's going to marry her, we sort of understand even if his courting technique is a little odd. Trouble is that each doesn't turn out to be quite who they seem, especially when we learn Cherry's married to a stage robber. So Matt's got to sort things out.

Better than average episode. There's some suspense in the tangled relationships, along with the eye-catching Moore who delivers an especially lively performance. Also, catch that exceptionally well-written slice of banter between Doc and Matt in the Long Branch. It's a clever hoot. Then too, the entry is distinguished by one of those nifty boot hill prologs where Matt waxes philosophical about those resting not so comfortably beneath.

Joanna Moore plays Cherry, the trashy looking wife of a guy who got killed robbing a bank. She pretends he is a gold miner, and for the past 18 months she has been pining for her man. That seems very unlikely considering that she spends no time at her seamstress store and is constantly walking all over town and looking into bars. Everyone in town new her husband was a criminal, so her "innocent little ole me" routine is sketchy at best. Joanna Moore was the wife of Ryan O'Neal and the mother of Tatum O'Neal, who won the best actress Oscar at the age of ten, in 1973.

Of course, creepy Chester is enamored of Cherry, as he is of any female creature. Like Onie who kept a cow in his bedroom (Moo Moo Raid, Season 5, Episode 23), Chester keeps a sheep behind the Marshal's Office. Red Larner comes along and sinks any chance that Chester has with Cherry. Larner was the railroad agent who killed Cherry's husband. He pulled a photo of Cherry from the dead man's pants (yeah), and fell in love with Cherry. Maniac stalker and registered sex offender are the thoughts that come to mind when Red approaches Cherry and proposes marriage to her on first sight (thus the title of this episode, Cherry Red). Red Larner was played by Arthur Franz, and this was his only appearance on Gunsmoke. He had a creepy face, and was often either a villain, a henchman, a wing-man for the lead actor, or "one of the suspects." He had a long career, from 1948 to 1982.

Along comes the criminal accomplice of Cherry's husband, Yancey, played by Douglas Kennedy. Kennedy could play a mean fat slob when he wanted to. First he tries to take out Red, by back-shooting him. Then he goes to Cherry's seamstress store/home and starts man-handling Cherry. He yells at her that he wants to get a piece of her pie, and gets really nasty and grabby. Marshal Dillon, suspicious that none of these folks were honest, shows up at the right moment and sends Yancey to hell.

Douglas Kennedy was on Gunsmoke four times, and had a long career playing both bad guys, good guys, good husbands, father roles, and almost anything. He was quite versatile as an actor. In this episode, he really delivers the best performance. He goes from friendly to Cherry to vicious and rapacious in ten seconds flat, and he is very convincing and threatening. Kennedy made Dillon/Arness look like an avenging angel of Justice when Dillon shows up to put a slug in his guts.

The story ends as creepy as it began, with Dillon proposing that Cherry follow through on a match made in hell, with the creepy guy who killed her husband. In this sense, Gunsmoke often treated women like they were throw-away objects. Dillon's attitude is "Your scumbag husband is dead, you are no prize yourself, you might as well get married to the creepy guy who has a decent job as a railroad agent."

In other episodes, women who were left alone for one reason or another, got paired up or placed with men like if they were used furniture, not human beings. In some ways, I guess Gunsmoke reflects the American culture of the 1950s? Or perhaps they were going for the attitude of the 1870s? Maybe both eras were the same for women?