When Jake MacGraw was a young man, he was given a long prison sentence. Now it is twenty years later, and he has been released. On his way to Dodge City, he encounters two men he had met in prison. They think MacGraw has a large sum of money. MacGraw kills the two men when they draw their guns on him.
When MacGraw arrives in Dodge with the two dead men laying across their horses in tow, the townspeople begin fretting over MacGraw's presence and his reason for coming to the town. When MacGraw was sentenced to prison, he made several threats, and some of the people in Dodge -- including Matt Dillon -- were present at the time.
MacGraw approaches Kitty Russell about a job playing the piano at the Long Branch Saloon. When Kitty allows him to audition, she discovers he is an accomplished piano player -- a talent he developed in prison.
The piano-playing ex-con seems to enjoy keeping the Dodge citizens guessing why he has settled in the town. He begins paying special attention to a young man in town named Dave Wilson and Wilson's girlfriend, Ella Horton. Wilson is involved with some cattle rustlers, because he wants to marry Ella and is not content to live life as a ranch hand.
As the story progresses, Jake's intentions become more evident, but the full truth is not known until late in the episode.
J. D. Cannon is excellent as the mysterious Jake MacGraw. The character possesses an air of confidence and purpose, and that only frustrates everyone worried that he is in Dodge City. Cannon's only other Gunsmoke role was as the character Pike Beechum in Season 10's "Big Man, Big Target" episode.
Michael Larraine makes his only Gunsmoke appearance as Dave Wilson. Larraine appeared in several television shows during his short acting career. Today he is a published poet.
Diane Ewing is Ella Horton in her single participation in a Gunsmoke episode. Like Larraine, her acting career was short.
Watch for actor Ned Wertimer as the character Jed Douglas, who is convinced MacGraw is in town to kill him because he was on the jury that convicted MacGraw years earlier. Wertimer would later play Ralph the doorman in a recurring role on The Jeffersons television series.
Sid Haig and Allen Jaffe, two frequent Gunsmoke heavies, make brief appearances as the two outlaws that confront MacGraw at the beginning of the story.
While the "mysterious stranger in town" is not a completely unique story idea, it is handled well with a few nice twists here. I especially enjoyed the way the multi-layered story reveals the mystery by peeling back the layers one-by-one. Long-time fans of the show will remember a time in the show's history when this story would have been given a much darker treatment.
When MacGraw arrives in Dodge with the two dead men laying across their horses in tow, the townspeople begin fretting over MacGraw's presence and his reason for coming to the town. When MacGraw was sentenced to prison, he made several threats, and some of the people in Dodge -- including Matt Dillon -- were present at the time.
MacGraw approaches Kitty Russell about a job playing the piano at the Long Branch Saloon. When Kitty allows him to audition, she discovers he is an accomplished piano player -- a talent he developed in prison.
The piano-playing ex-con seems to enjoy keeping the Dodge citizens guessing why he has settled in the town. He begins paying special attention to a young man in town named Dave Wilson and Wilson's girlfriend, Ella Horton. Wilson is involved with some cattle rustlers, because he wants to marry Ella and is not content to live life as a ranch hand.
As the story progresses, Jake's intentions become more evident, but the full truth is not known until late in the episode.
J. D. Cannon is excellent as the mysterious Jake MacGraw. The character possesses an air of confidence and purpose, and that only frustrates everyone worried that he is in Dodge City. Cannon's only other Gunsmoke role was as the character Pike Beechum in Season 10's "Big Man, Big Target" episode.
Michael Larraine makes his only Gunsmoke appearance as Dave Wilson. Larraine appeared in several television shows during his short acting career. Today he is a published poet.
Diane Ewing is Ella Horton in her single participation in a Gunsmoke episode. Like Larraine, her acting career was short.
Watch for actor Ned Wertimer as the character Jed Douglas, who is convinced MacGraw is in town to kill him because he was on the jury that convicted MacGraw years earlier. Wertimer would later play Ralph the doorman in a recurring role on The Jeffersons television series.
Sid Haig and Allen Jaffe, two frequent Gunsmoke heavies, make brief appearances as the two outlaws that confront MacGraw at the beginning of the story.
While the "mysterious stranger in town" is not a completely unique story idea, it is handled well with a few nice twists here. I especially enjoyed the way the multi-layered story reveals the mystery by peeling back the layers one-by-one. Long-time fans of the show will remember a time in the show's history when this story would have been given a much darker treatment.