Matt jails the wife-abusing Sam Baxton on suspicion of murdering two squatters on his land, but after Baxton gets locked up, a third squatter is murdered.Matt jails the wife-abusing Sam Baxton on suspicion of murdering two squatters on his land, but after Baxton gets locked up, a third squatter is murdered.Matt jails the wife-abusing Sam Baxton on suspicion of murdering two squatters on his land, but after Baxton gets locked up, a third squatter is murdered.
- Director
- Writers
- William N. Robson
- John Meston(uncredited)
- Norman MacDonnell(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaA namesake of the character "Eric Hoffer" is the real-life Eric Hoffer (July 25, 1902 - May 21, 1983), an American philosopher. He was the author of ten books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983.
- Quotes
Doc Adams: Well, I can't sit around neglecting my other patients waiting for you to get shot.
Marshal Matt Dillon: Might make more money that way.
Doc Adams: The only way I could make any more money around here is to have your job.
Marshal Matt Dillon: Ha! And you wouldn't get rich that way, either.
This is a half hour show at this point, so there is no time to clearly demonstrate that Sarah Baxton is and always has been madly in love with her husband Sam Baxton, although he at least verbally abuses her and seems to love only money.
One squatter on the Baxton ranch plans to shoot another squatter because his cow ate his corn. Matt stops the shooting. So later when the original target of the other squatter's wrath is shot on his front porch, Matt figures he knows who did it. But THAT squatter is dead on his front porch too!
At this point Matt figures that the shooter must be Sam Baxton, and he arrests him and takes him into Dodge, only to find out that a third squatter on Baxton's land has also been shot dead and that the fourth and final squatter is leaving before he ends up dead. With Sam Baxton in jail, he could not be the shooter of the third squatter, so Matt plans a trap to catch whoever the murderer might be.
Of course the question I have is - If Baxton has four squatters on his ranch, why didn't the law toss them out? Didn't they leave Baxton with no way to defend his property rights? There is no explanation of this whatsoever other than to call the squatters "homesteaders". As a native of Texas I am familiar with the old homestead laws. Some of their customs reach into 21st century Texas law. But in order to claim the land of another as a homestead the original owner had to basically abandon the land and the homesteader had to continually occupy that abandoned land and improve it. You just couldn't move into land on somebody's working ranch and "claim this land for Spain" so to speak.
Also in this episode I notice something that Matt and Kitty definitely have in common - they both love a good bit of gossip. Considering both of them require being able to read people in their respective lines of work, this probably should be no surprise.
This episode seemed rushed and patched together, but the main characters are always a joy to watch.
- AlsExGal
- Jul 14, 2022
Details
- Runtime30 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
- 4:3