User Reviews

... people are willing to believe the most horrible things about Quint (Burt Reynolds) just because he is half Comanche.

Matt is bringing an accused killer back to Dodge City to stand trial. While they are on their way back they run into Quint who is out hunting rabbits with his handy bow and arrow. He joins them in their trip back. They then run across a lone cabin where a woman is digging a grave - among a bunch of graves - in her front yard. The body of her husband is nearby, dead of some natural cause. They all stop to help dig the grave - the woman is exhausted - and to cook up Quint's rabbits into a stew for food for the woman who is now alone. It is never said who the other people in the graveyard are, but some of them are bound to be her children. She, Willa, is now all alone.

Later Quint returns to WIlla's cabin with a deer he has hunted, remembering she had no food there. Willa comes on to Quint who does not reciprocate and Willa says she will make Quint regret turning her down. Later, Willa turns up in Dodge City claiming to have been assaulted by Quint. The thing is, Doc examines her and says she really HAS been assaulted. Everybody initially turns on Quint, believing the worst. Quint refuses to defend himself, angry that the town that is so friendly to him and brings him their blacksmithing business deep down believes him to be such a savage.

This rather routine plot device is redemed by Burt Reynold's acting as Quint. James Arness was interviewed in his later years and asked about what it was like to work with Burt Reynolds. Arness says that everybody could see his talent from the beginning. He said that the role couldn't take advantage of Burt's strongest feature - his talent for comedy. This particular episode is one that makes full use of Reynolds's dramatic chops.

...in this whistful tale of a prairie farm woman, overlooked and eventually left abandoned by them after all of them die...

...this role, which could easily be over or under played, but in Mary LaRoche's hands it is just as it was written... a character who acknowledges a hard-scrabble, tragedy-filled life in a sardonic, yet undefeated manner...

...Mary starred in hundreds of stage and Hollywood productions; and she IS that type of omni-present character actor whose name you can't quite think of...

...Mary is often remrmbered for her roles in the films "Gidget", and "Bye-Bye Birdie"... and for dizens of trlevision episodes on "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "Gunsmoke", "Twilight Zone" among them...

...it IS a rare thing when a character actor's performance literally overshadows those of the entirety of the other cast members...and Mary's superb talents do just that in this episode...

..if you ever have a chance, be sure to catch one of Mary's sterling portrayals...she was a real gem...

Except for the cutesy title, writer Kathleen Hite returns to top form with this excellent script.

Yes, this is one of those 50-minute shows that feels like a feature film, filled with great characters, dialogue---and structured in a way that progresses from beginning to end in a VERY compelling way. Things are a tad leisurely during the burial and dinner scene near the beginning, but that's a minor flaw.

Mary La Roche is fabulous as the tragic, weary woman of the plains, who has just lost her entire family to an unnamed illness. She's very effective in every scene she appears in....as is the entire cast.

The great Ben Johnson is also wonderful--and the writer's interweaving of his character throughout the plot is masterful-- no other way to put it. It's also fun to see the wacky Don Keefer, who brings to life the role of Nally in his own uniquely distinctive way; being turned into a Jack-in-the-Box in the Twilight Zone's "It's a Good Life" is a tough act to follow, but Mr. Keefer really shines here in this crude, despicable role.

YES, I suppose I can understand the lament of other comments here on the repetitive theme of the racial prejudice against Quint--but that's the way things were in real life. I also understand the dismay of the commentator who cites Quint's tendency to attack the very people in Dodge who respect, admire and support him. But the VERY LAST EXCHANGE between Quint and Matt very neatly puts this issue in perspective: Quint has a PROBLEM, which he acknowledges. Hes' a REAL person, which is one of the major strengths of this episode (and the series in general). Great ending.

The musical score is a CBC library job, but it's much better than some other recent episodes. There are three cues that really caught my attention:

1.) at 15:20-- the two Harmonicas (probably over-dubbed); very bare, austere and "desolate", perfectly complimenting the emptiness of Willa's new existence.

2.) at 25:30-- the lilting Harmonica solo with syncopated PIZZICATO strings; really delightful, especially as an underscore to the emotional "uplift" for Willa at that moment.

3.) at 42:30-- the poignant musical cue enters at JUST the right moment in the dialogue, as Willa once again refers to her age and faded beauty.

Another STRONG ENTRY in Gunsmoke's 8th Season. LR

PS-- Quint uses the same floppy prop deer (dead) that Chester had in "Tell Chester"

This has got too be one of THE best episodes by far. People complain about Quint but they don't look at this the right way. Watching this as a stand-alone film, with no bias brought over from other episodes and it is a superb film.

~ This has got too be one of THE best episodes by far. People complain about Quint but they don't look at this the right way. Watching this as a stand-alone film, with no bias brought over from other episodes and it is a superb film.

~ This has got too be one of THE best episodes by far. People complain about Quint but they don't look at this the right way. Watching this as a stand-alone film, with no bias brought over from other episodes and it is a superb film.

While Marshal Dillon is transporting Ben Crown, who is wanted for murder, back to Dodge City, he runs across Quint Asper, who is on a hunting trip. The trio stops at the Devlin farm and discover Willa Devlin tending to the burial of her dead husband. The widow is now all alone a long distance from other people. Matt makes Ben Crown bury the dead man, and he encourages Willa to come into Dodge -- or at least go somewhere so she can be around other people. Willa refuses, but she obviously is attracted to Quint.

Quint feels compassion for Willa and takes note that she doesn't have much in the way of food. He decides to ride back to her farm the next with a deer he has killed. Along the way, Quint is seen by Nally and his wife Lizzie. Nally despises Quint, simply because he is half Comanche. When Quint arrives at the widow's farm, Willa mistakes Quint's concern for romance, but Quint rejects her advances and returns to Dodge.

After Matt receives a telegraph informing him that someone else confessed to the murder for which Crown is wanted, the Marshal releases Crown. Crown heads straight for the widow's farm where he rapes her. (Of course, the rape is never explicitly acknowledged. Everyone refers to the incident in more vague terms. "She has had a rough time." Indeed.)

Nally and Lizzie check on Willa and discover she has been assaulted. Nally instantly assumes Quint is the culprit. They take Willa into Dodge and inform the Marshal of the attack. Willa is still angry that Quint does not reciprocate her interest in him, and she goes along with Nally's accusations.

As an isolated episode, Quint-Cident is very well done. The problem with the episode is that since the introduction of Burt Reynolds as Quint earlier in Season 8, every story that involves him revolves around discrimination due to his half-Comanche heritage. For me, the biggest issue is that in each case, Quint immediately takes out his frustrations on his friends. The Marshal, Kitty, Doc, and Chester have never shown anything but friendship and support for Quint since he arrived in Dodge. Yet, every time Quint is the victim of discrimination, he lashes out at one or more of them, especially Matt.

The supporting cast is great in this episode. Mary La Roche is especially well cast as Willa Devlin. Ben Johnson as Ben Crown portrays the same basic character he often played.

Marshal Dillon is taking Ben Crown back to Dodge to stand trial for murder. They comes across Quint who happens to be out hunting. The three start riding back to Dodge when they come across a house where a woman is trying to dig a grave. Willa Devlin is a bitter woman who is burying her fourth member of her family. She is now the only person left in her entire family. When she faints Matt, Quint and even Crown help her out by digging the grave and cooking her something to eat. During this time Willa takes a shine to Quint but wants to remain on the farm where her family is in the ground.

A few days later Quint rides back out to Willa and deliveries a deer and other food to her. But Willa takes this as something like a courting and when Quint rejects her advances, Willa takes this personally and becomes even more bitter.

When Marshal Dillon receives a letter saying that Ben Crown is not guilty, he is released from jail. After being released he rides out to Willa's house and assaults her. When some neighbors bring her in to Dodge she advises that Quint was the one that assaulted her. This causes problem for Quint as some of the citizens are again upset with a half-breed running loose in the streets.

Willa then tells the Marshal that all she was wanting to do was have Quint talk with her for just a few minutes. Then she confesses that it was actually Ben Crown that assaulted her. But will the Marshal be able to find Crown before more damage is done to Quint.

Overall this is not a bad script it just seemed to carry the same theme in season eight again and again. Quint's character has gone through about every Indian hatred that can possible be written. It would be nice to see Quint in an episode other than being accused of some evil crime. But I guess in 1963 these show were popular- they had to be. And for a show that was so long on detail, when the ending came there was little fanfare to the conclusion. Not one of the better shows.