Gunsmoke (TV Series) Carmen (1958) User Reviews

Good Story Badly Executed

[Johnny_West · 6/10 · 20 March 2020]

This started out as a good story. A bandit and his girlfriend waylay two cavalry soldiers bringing food and the company pay to Fort Dodge. The first question I had was why would the bandit bring his girlfriend to watch him murder two men in cold blood?

The story builds up when the incompetent Fort Dodge commander shows up in Dodge City to dump the blame on Marshal Dillon. Dillon asks, why weren't there soldiers protecting the supply wagon? The arrogant commander says he always has all his soldiers on military manouvers. It sounds so stupid that is plausible, since any commanding officer can do whatever he wants back in the Old West stories.

The townfolks all find out that there might be Martial Law in Dodge, and they get feisty. The rest of the episode goes downhill because too much time is spent on bar scenes and not enough is spent on Dillon tracking down the Army payroll, and interrogating Ruta Lee.

Ruta Lee is the key, and as soon as Dillon homes in on her, she crumbles because it bothers her that she saw two men getting killed.

The gun fight is lame, since the guy with the rifle, with a great clear shot, sitting in ambush, misses Dillon, who is riding a horse and shooting with a handgun. The ending does not feature the Army Corporal being caught, or a scene where Dillon shows up the Fort Dodge commander. It is one of those endings where you have to imagine that everything probably happened the right way.

The rapid ending did not help this episode

[kfo9494 · 6/10 · 11 July 2013]

The episode began when two cavalry officers are bring supplies to Fort Dodge when their wagon is ambushed and the officers are killed. In the back of the wagon, hid in a sack of vegetables, is the payroll for the fort. The payroll money was a secret so it appears to have been committed by someone with inside information.

When the Cavalry commander threatens to occupy Dodge City and place the town under martial law unless the criminal(s) are captured, Matt intervenes and ask the commander for forty-eight hours.

When Kitty gets suspicious of a new girl, Jennie Lane, that she recently hired- she tells Matt that Jennie has been seeing a clerk at the fort. Matt begins to piece together the circumstance and soon sets up a trap to find the persons involved.

The episode set the ending up rather nicely with much anticipated. However when we finally get to the climax, it was so quick and disappointing that it made the entire show suffer. The story was nice- just wish they could have spent more time on the ending to make the show complete. But since that did not happen we are left with a story that came to such a abrupt ending that viewers felt disheartened.

Note- The episode was titled 'Carmen' comes from the radio version where the female character was named Connie. Not sure why they felt the name needed to be changed to Jennie.

A Pretty Big Gamble

[StrictlyConfidential · 6/10 · 23 April 2021]

(*Major Harris quote*) - "The cavalry can protect itself, marshal."

Jennie Lane sits by and watches as her boyfriend, Nate Brand shoots down 2 military men and steals the army payroll.

Major Harris arrives in Dodge. He tells Marshal Dillon that if he doesn't find the killers within 48 hours, then he will put the town under martial law.

Disappointing

[dougdoepke · 24 June 2011]

Two cavalrymen are waylaid and a payroll stolen. The major from Ft. Dodge suspects Dodge City hoodlums and threatens the town and Matt with martial law. Things heat up when a trooper is killed in Dodge, angering the major who then gives Matt 48 hours to get the culprits.

Not one of writer Meston's better scripts. I'm not sure why the screenplay tips us off early by showing Jennie (Lee) as belonging to the ambushers, but it removes a potentially suspenseful element. Nonetheless, Lee is a strong and appealing presence that Matt is attracted to. Then too, check out the final Turkey Bend scene, which strikes me as both poorly staged and implausibly written even for a brief 30-minute format. All in all, in my book, it's a disappointing entry.

In passing—Why is the episode titled "Carmen". Unless, I missed something, no Carmen either appears or is alluded to. Maybe, the whole effort was a rush job on a tight TV schedule, which wouldn't surprise me given the generally inferior results.

Bizet

[darbski · 8/10 · 24 August 2017]

The episode is saved by the main attraction of Bizet's opera "Carmen"; in this case the absolutely beautiful Ruta Lee. same type of deal; Jennie (Lee) as did Carmen, uses her beauty to ensnare Matt, and get him to follow her into a trap. It don't work, Matt gets the bad guy, she gives up and shows Matt where the loot is. Ruta was stunning, her acting was good, I agree that the ending gunfight was really lame-o, but beauty, used as bait, saves the day. In the Opera she's killed, thankfully, in Dodge, she'll probably just get jail.

Sgt Jones and Pfc Atwood RIP

[jamdifo · 8/10 · 21 July 2013]

The most disturbing and saddest part of the whole episode is seeing the 2 cavalry men played by Ray Teal (Sgt Jones) and Tommy Farrell (Pfc Atwood) get killed in cold blood at the beginning of the episode. They have a short exchange between them, which is hilarious,you get to know them right off the bat, and they are very likable. I thought this was going to be a comedic episode with them 2, then bang, bang, they are both dead by Robert Patten (Nate Brand). I really hated to see those 2 soldiers die. I liked them immensely from their brief airtime. How sad.

Rarely do 2 characters who act and scene written so well make you care so much about them with such little screen time. Too bad we don't ever see them again.

The rest of the episode deals with Dillon, cavalry, Jennie Lane (Ruta Lee), and townsfolk. In the end Dillon overcomes the temptation to be with Jennie and kills Nate Brand, his 62nd confirmed kill on Gunsmoke.

Implausible

[jz1360 · 3/10 · 23 February 2016]

Don't get me wrong, I love the 30 minute Gunsmoke episodes but this one was just about the worst one I've seen.

Robert Patten plays Nate Brand, a crackshot, who ambushes two cavalrymen from far away at the beginning of the episode and takes a secret stash of money they've been transporting unknowingly. Jennie Laine, played by Ruta Lee, is his beautiful but shocked girlfriend.

She goes to Dodge, while he hides out and starts entertaining men at the Longbranch. Meanwhile, the cavalry threatens Matt with marshall law because of the killings. Meanwhile, Jennie tries to seduce Matt.

Somehow, Kitty hears the whole subplot of Jennie sneaking off to Turkey Creek to be with her boyfriend Nate Brand, as well as her cavalry friend who is an accomplice.

The end is where everything falls apart. Matt takes Jennie's bait and accompanies her alone on a ride to of all places Turkey Bend. He talks her into admitting the situation and in the end, Nate Brand, standing hidden in the woods, closer to Matt than he was to the original cavalrymen, fails to take a shot at him until Matt separates from Jennie. In that scene, Brand shoots first, misses and then Matt shoots twice and kills him.

It was one of the poorer efforts but as always, the relationships and action keep the series going.