User Reviews

Veteran character actor Richard Hale (here aged 68) makes the best, though a gruesome, impression in this episode, as "Mr Moon", one of few surviving Delaware braves who were relocated to Texas supposedly for their own good. Method actor Kim Hunter ("A Streetcar Named Desire", 1951) guest stars as a missionary widow whose husband has been killed by Comanches and who poisons four friendly mission Delawares in revenge. Rowdy (Clint Eastwood) overdoes his usual gallant bit in falling for the older Kim and protecting her against all those who would bring her to justice, including his own very patient trail crew. Though Kim at first (and second) sight seems to overdo her portrayal of a sheltered woman from Back East knocked off balance, it rings true that someone so narrowly indoctrinated as the Christian fanatic she plays might show many of the same characteristics seen here. Mr Moon earns his keep by executing Kim by Winchester at the very end -- in the script's tacit understanding under the doctrine of poetic justice, that she was indeed responsible for the murders, and was calculating and not insane.

Incident of the Dog Days Apr 17, 1959 Incident of the Calico Gun Apr 24, 1959 Incident of the Misplaced Indians May 1, 1959

Charles Marquis Warren used Gunsmoke's second pilot, "Matt Gets It" as the series' premiere because he wanted to show his hero as a fallible human being, rather than some kind of superhero. He didn't start Rawhide with "Incident of the Dog Days" but he could have. Mr. Favor decides to take a chance driving the heard through a desolate place to a stream located beyond it. He also makes some judgements about some of his men that backfire. He winds up with a skeleton crew that comes upon a dry stream. He's at the end of his rope and orders the remaining men to leave. He'll stay and watch his cattle die. But they refuse to leave him. The best episode of this series so far.

Jack Lord, who often played villain before he got his own show, (he was the bad guy in the premiere of Have Gun Will Travel in 1957 and also played one on Gunsmoke before that and would on Bonanza after this), leads a gang that takes over the drive by capturing Rowdy and then Mr. Favor and threatening to kill them if the others don't cooperate. What they are after is interesting. The famous theme song talks about how the drovers will be "livin' high and wide...at the end of my ride". I always thought they'd be paid when the drive was over and the cattle sold. But in this episode a banker comes out to meet them with a payroll. That's what Lord and his gang are after. But the banker isn't buying the cattle and the drive isn't over. Also, there's no reference to a "calico gun", although Jack seems dressed kind of fancy.

The Incident of the Misplaced Indians is actually the Incident of the misplaced woman. She's played by Kim Hunter, who was emerging from the blacklist. She plays the wife of a recently diseased missionary who has lost her mind. She's afraid of Indians and longs to be back east. The drovers find he making candy in a house with a couple of Delawares, (they are the misplaced Indians, among those tribes relocated from the east coast) lying dead outside her door. Another later shows up and attacks her with a knife before dying of what? Favor takes her along on the drive, hoping to drop her off at the next town. Pete suddenly gets very ill. He had grabbed some of the candies and later eaten some of them. They are full of arsenic. Strong performances carry this one through.

"Incident Of The Misplaced Indians" was first aired on television May 1, 1959.

Anyway - As the story goes - While scouting a campsite, Rowdy stumbles upon a cabin littered with dead Indians around it. Inside, he finds Amelia Spaulding who convinces Rowdy that she knows nothing of the carnage. However, one Indian has lived and reached his tribe.