User Reviews

An excellent episode, although ultimately very difficult to watch because as the story advances the viewer starts getting the feeling that it's not going to end well at all.

Pruitt Dover is a drifter who gets stiffed out of his wages by the reprehensible Ax Parsons, a sleazy freighter who promised Dover $100 for delivering a wagonload of goods to Parsons. Pruitt is a likable young man, although it becomes apparent that he hasn't been very lucky during his young life. Parsons cons Pruitt into unloading the wagon and then tells him to come back at 8pm to get his money, since Ax has to sell some of the goods to raise the cash.

Ax is a drunkard, and he employs the town boozer Louie and pays him with booze. When Pruitt returns in the evening, Ax is drunk and encourages Pruitt to take a drink. So he takes one, and then another and then... well, both of them end up good and drunk. Ax dumps on Pruitt about all the misfortune in his life and finally admits he has no money to pay him. Pruitt gets mad, Ax pulls a knife on him, the lamp gets knocked out, they fight in the dark and Pruitt wakes up the next morning to find the freighter dead. Panicking, Pruitt jumps on his horse and takes off.

The drunk Louie comes along and finds the body. He reports what he knows to Marshal Dillon who sends out inquiries and eventually is informed that Pruitt is under arrest in another town a two-day ride away.

Matt journeys to pick up the suspect. We see here from the reaction of the sheriff that's holding him that Pruitt's a likable young man with a surprisingly cheerful attitude for a guy facing a rope. On the return trip the pair are jumped by a crazy woodsman who plans to shoot Matt but is willing to let Pruitt go since he's a prisoner. Pruitt could make his escape here but instead he jumps the woodsman, saves Dillon and even nurses the wounded marshal back to health.

Matt realizes that Pruitt isn't your typical murderer and he promises to put in a good word with the judge once they get back to Dodge for the trial. Unfortunately, the "regular" judge is sick and a notorious hanging judge takes his place. It's clear to us that Pruitt killed in self-defense but he doesn't remember what happens and being a basically honest guy he refuses to claim self-defense, admitting he just doesn't remember. Dillon gives an impassioned speech in Pruitt's defense, even risking contempt of court, but the judge finds Pruitt guilty of murder and orders him to be hung.

Ironically, Matt now has to accompany Pruitt to Hays City, where the hangman does his work. Matt sets it up so Pruitt can escape when they camp on the road for one night but Pruitt refuses to take advantage of the opportunity. He laments that he's a drifter who enjoys travelling from place to place and he could never enjoy such wandering again as a wanted man. Plus he knows that Dillon would jeopardize his career if it came out that he let Pruitt escape. Reluctantly, Matt delivers Pruitt to the Hays City jail and hangman and in a very moving and difficult-to-watch scene, reluctantly says goodbye.

If there's anything to criticize about this episode it's the relentless inevitability with which the plot advances... you just know Pruitt's luck isn't going to get any better. But it's a wonderful story, very moving and as Westerns go, head-and-shoulders above the typical fare.

Go out of your way to catch this episode!

I never much go into watching episodes I have seen previously, but to this 66 year old man; this episode was the exception. We all pretty much by now (56 years past the original airing) know the story of Pruit Dover, but no episode of any T.V. series or even movies both touch and haunted me as this one did. And I cried again at the ending. I think I know why Dover succumbed to his fate. He basically, during the story, told Matt Dillon he was a drifter all his life, never wanted to get married, raise a family and was always unlucky. He also just got beat out of $100.00 by a nefarios character who he had to kill during a fight. Dover wanted out of this unfair life beset him so he did not claim self defense that every viewer and Dillon knew was in play here. He was tired of life's agonies so he let the law solve his problem. Matt Dillon tried his best to let Dover run free, but Pruitt was tired of life. This was his way out, and as he walked up the gallow's steps with the executioner, he was telling life that he could not take it anymore. Dillon at some later date probably figured it out. Yes, some future date in time that Matt gazed upon the hat Pruitt gave him before he took that walk up the stairs. Matt realized why Dover did what he did that day. A sad and touching episode. The best Gunsmoke episode in its twenty year run. R.I.P. Pruitt.

My wife and I watch the hour-long seasons 7-11 b/w reruns on INSP most nights, and we've done so for long enough that it's no big surprise if we've seen any particular episode before, often quite recently. (We have most of the usual commercials memorized.)

Not last night. We hadn't seen that one together and I hadn't seen it since I was very, very young and when it was in first-run.

It was only after about a half-hour that I realized that I'd seen this episode as a kid in the early 60's - and I mentioned to my wife that I did not remember anything except the shape of the gallows in the final scene and that the condemned had fully co-operated with Marshall Dillon in getting to his execution in every sense . We watched it through, and sure enough, the episode was so powerful that I'd remembered its final scene from that prior viewing at least 55 years ago quite accurately. And yeah, the peculiar shape of gallows without two supporting beams, built with just one vertical beam on just one side, was just as I remembered it. Such things as depictions of hangings, even this implied, off-camera, depiction of hanging, make for strong impressions on young minds.

I watched a lot of TV as a kid during the Kennedy years, but there aren't many whose episodes I can remember. (Twilight Zone excluded!) This one hit me in the gut as an under-ten-year-old and it hit me again in the gut last night after all those decades. Here I am searching for stuff about it online the next day!

This episode is rich in detail - down to the drunk deputy in Hayes City with an utter contempt for human life, seeing all condemned as guilty and evil and deserving the rope. And who uses his small authority to torment men in their final hours. A detail about the uselessness of a preacher to join in that final walk. An arrogant "by the book" judge with no deep or abiding familiarity with actual justice. The fallibility of human nature, our common imperfection and propensity for evil even as good or well-intentioned people. I didn't notice if this came from the hands of Kathleen Hite but I expect so, because she seems to have written the very best episodes of a very good lot.

This one is deep and rich, with phenomenal acting, a believable plot, and a very heavy and universal set of moral lessons, not just one, but many lessons woven into the texture of the story. This is a grand tour of the human heart, the good, the bad, and the ugly. If any TV genuinely counts as "Literature" or deserving a place of honor in the Humanities, it's The Gallows.

I originally saw this episode perhaps six to seven months ago. As an avid Gunsmoke fan being 65 years old, I never saw the first ten years of episodes being too young. I have been watching the hour long black and white episodes from Years 7 through 11, and this is the best of the 175 episodes and probably the best in the entire Gunsmoke collection. It is John Meston's masterpiece that I viewed again today. It is haunting and will not leave you alone as such an injustice is done with the hanging of Pruitt Dover, a flawed but basically good man who just had a string of bad luck with his latest lapse of judgment trusting a scoundrel and being cheated out of $100.00 that he was truly owed. They both get drunk, the scoundrel pulls a knife on Dover, and Dover, in a drunken state, kills his attacker. He runs but Dillon captures him, but even Dillon know this person was not a murderer. This fact was reinforced after Dover saves Dillon's life on the trail from a range hunter who shoots Dillon. Dover nurses him back to health and returns him to Dodge with Dillon's promise he would do everything he could to have Dover avoid a hanging. This is where the wheels of justice derail. A replacement judge discounts the good deed Dover did and that self defense could have possibly been in play here. He sentences Dover to hang despite a fierce protest from Dillon. The balance of the episode has the viewer hoping the judge will change his mind or that Dover takes advantage of one of the opportunities Dillon gave him to escape. You're convinced this will happen, but as they arrive in Hays, the place where the hanging is to take place, you slowly realize this is not going to end well. As Dover and the hangman walk up thee steps to the gallows, Dillon walks away too shaken to see the eventuality. Pruitt Dover is hung and the Marshall walks away in silence stunned that such a miscarriage of law, one that he pledged to uphold, was carried out. If you watch the episode, it will leave you sad and you will not forget Pruitt Dover. He was a drifter....yes, but he was a man that was basically good and deserved a better fate. I am sure Dillon never forgot him and kept the hat Pruitt gave him prior to taking his last steps up to the gallows where his fate awaited him.

There isn't anything I can write here that kenstallings-65346 did not say in his excellent analysis of this episode.

I will somewhat reluctantly venture into political territory here, so you may want to stop reading at this point. This show is certainly an indictment of justice in the Old West, but it is just as much an indictment against capital punishment overall. When any so-called justice system wields the right to sentence a person to die, it is going to inherently leave room for mistakes to be made. If we accept that the justice system has the right to enact such measures, we have to accept there will be people that will unjustly suffer as a result. I think this episode drives that point home all too well.

With that said, this is television at its finest. One doesn't expect such profound storytelling from television in the early 1960s.

As a lifelong fan of Gunsmoke, this was one I just watched for the very first time tonight as it was filmed in 1962, a time when as a ten year old, I apparently missed when it first came out. i was absolutely blown away by it. I knew the writing was excellent in the early to mid 70's episodes, but this was one of the best ever. I never saw Matt with such a dilemma to actually let a sentenced man free. It reminded me more of something Clint Eastwood might do as Dirty Harry. This was some moral conflict that Matt internalized, not reminiscent of early 60's characterization of the Gunsmoke players., especially the stoic and unemotional Matt. The only other person i could see Matt letting free of a potential murder charge was old Doc Adams. I couldn't believe the story could end that way. Surely Matt wouldn't let this man hang? Then again, would he have possibly set him up to leave with out stopping him, and not follow the letter of the law? A likable character that saved Matt's life and he would surely affect Matt for the rest of his life. Both played off each other with subtlety and to perfection. Thoroughly enjoyed this episode, left me with a feeling of sadness for all the characters though. Would watch it again in a minute, one of the best ever. Unforgettable.

Screenwriting like this doesn't come along very often. I found myself thinking that surely, somehow, some way, Pruitt won't have to die! Maybe the other old drunk from the store would come forward and confess, which would be a standard scene. Or, maybe Pruitt would suddenly remember exactly what happened, or maybe an eyewitness would show up. Nope. Not to be.

The pure sense of impending doom, and the loss of basically a good man caught up in bad decision making (getting drunk with the loser store owner) will cost him his life.

I can picture Matt placing Pruitt's hat somewhere that he sees it everyday, to remind him that justice is a hard thing to make happen sometimes, and that, just because someone is convicted of a crime, doesn't necessarily make him less than a human being, that everyone deserves some measure of dignity.

In the end, I suppose Pruitt did serve a purpose in another man's life....in Matt's.

As most of the reviews suggest, this episode from the 1962 season of "Gunsmoke" was one of the best in the entire 20 year-long series. Jeremy Slate portrays a carefree drifter who somehow gets accused of murder even though it was obvious that it was self-defense. A vindictive judge sentences him to hang and Marshal Matt Dillon, who does not agree with the judge's verdict, is assigned to transport Slate to a nearby town to be hanged. On the way there, the Marshal is ambushed by a wild hillbilly and Slate steps in to save his life. Dillon, now feeling he owes Slate for helping him survive certain death (and believes his sentence is totally unjust anyway) allows Slate to escape. But Slate will have none of it. After wrestling with his own conscience, he rides back to Dillon and turns himself in. His explanation is that he didn't want to spend the rest of his life running and being a "wanted man." Dillon, with great reluctance, is now forced to bring Slate in for his scheduled execution. It is obvious that Dillon loathes this duty and can't help feeling that Slate does not deserve to die. He knows the law in this case is entirely wrong, but he's obliged to carry it out. Slate himself has given him no choice. The ending of this sad tale will stick with you long after the final credits roll. Both James Arness (Dillon) and Jeremy Slate (one of Hollywood's more under-appreciated actors) do great work in this episode and their chemistry together on the screen is outstanding. There's are a lot of reasons why "Gunsmoke" lasted twenty years on prime-time television. This grimly realistic and well-acted episode is one of them.

All of the other reviews have it right. This might be the single best episode of Gunsmoke. When Matt Dillon slugs the smart mouthed deputy in Hays City and told Pruitt "that was for both of us" was classic. A well written episode, perfectly directed and acted. I wish I could rate this 11 stars.

I won't go over the same ground as other reviewers have already done, as they have provided a good understanding of what happened in this episode.

The performances by the actors were excellent, and the story was a compelling one that holds your interest from start to finish.

What I want to focus on is how this perversion of justice could have happened. I'm neither a lawyer or a historian of the Old West, so I wondered how was it possible that the heartless judge's ruling was allowed to stand? Could his ruling not have been appealed to another court, perhaps even to the Supreme Court?

I was also curious as to why Pruitt didn't have a lawyer to represent him, nor why he wasn't tried by a jury instead of a judge. In doing some basic research I learned that it wasn't until March 1963 that the Supreme Court ruled in Gideon vs. Wainwright that those accused of a crime are entitled to a lawyer, regardless of whether they can afford one or not. Clearly drifter Pruitt would not have been able to afford a lawyer. That answered one nagging question, but one more remained.

Matt told Pruitt he would do everything in his power to help Pruitt, and that makes sense since Pruitt saved his life. And while Matt did testify to the judge in Pruitt's favor, I think he could've done more. Matt could've turned to Kitty to get the money to hire an attorney to defend Pruitt. I have no doubt Kitty would have agreed to do that if Matt had requested it. Of course the logistics of getting all that done before Pruitt faced the judge could have presented it's own set of problems, however Matt didn't even try to do that.

I think if Matt had done that this story might have had a better ending.

I had great difficulty watching this. I once had a traveling judge hand my two oldest children over to my pedophile ex. When the error was shown to the actual judge, he said, "I'm not hearing this case twice." I fled to Mexico with my children. The hardest part was noticing the judgement contained no concern over the fact that the stabbed man was killed with his own knife or why is was out in the first place. The brotherhood of of Matt and his prisoner each willing to protect each other touched me deeply. I love Gunsmoke and all the main characters.

...this well directed, well acted episode of Gunsmoke revealed the fact that Court imposed death oenalties and true justice were, at times, mutually exclusive...

...the character of Pruit, excellently rendered by veteran actor Jeremy Slate, is owed $100 by an emotionally defeated, alcoholic Dodge City storage and Transfer business owner, Ax, played by Robert Stevenson who refuses to pay Pruit unless he gets drunk with him...after a drunken melee, Ax is killed with his own knife...and without any witnesses, Oruit is charged with his murder...

...in spite of the facts that Pruit saved Marshall Dillon's life; and that the only person to see Priit leaving the business is the town drunk; a by-the-book Circuit Court Judge convicts Pruit and sentences him to death by hanging...

...there was only one reprieve from a Circuit Judge's death penslty at the time; a Presidential Pardon...which was rarely granted...

...Pruit, though given multiple opportunities to escape by Matt Dillon; maintains a much higher level of chracter and integrity than the judge who convicted him, as well as the drunken sheriff's deputy in Hays City assigned to oversee his hanging...

...this episode aired in March of 1962, when the death penalty was a hot button issue...with more and more states passing legislation to outlaw it...

...as such, this was one of the most compelling episodes of Gunsmoke; and a fitting swan song for veteran director Andrew B. McLagan...