Twisted Heritage

Miss Kitty's stagecoach gets held-up at gunpoint,and that is just the start of her rocky adventure! Veteran actress Virginia Gregg,(a solid Dragnet regular) plays a strong and forceful part as the matriarch of a family that has seen much better days. Not the best of episodes,but still worth watching.

I've been watching a lot of these episodes on Pluto TV. One thing that I find really annoying is Kitty's rude and snotty behavior, regardless of where she is. Oh, yes, I know -- this is supposed to be what makes Kitty a "whole lotta woman" but seriously, her snide remarks, dirty looks and tirades in this episode while she is at someone else's home would, in my opinion, get her kicked out on her womanly rump if Jessie was the tyrant she is made out to be.

Ah, well, Kitty's smart mouth in this episode is weak in comparison to some of the episodes where her sneering voice just drips contempt when conversing with men who are animals and killers. The scriptwriters must have been aware of this; hence, Jude Bonner (William Smith, later Falconetti in "Rich Man, Poor Man") and Mannon (Steve Forrest, later Joan Crawford's lover in "Mommy Dearest")

The story begins with Kitty Russell riding a stagecoach. Every Gunsmoke fan knows this means tragedy is inevitable. (One must wonder why Miss Russell continued to use stagecoaches for transportation given her history with them.) A man flags down the stagecoach driver and boards the carriage. His horse was injured on the trail and had to be killed.

As the stagecoach continues its journey, it is stopped by two bandits. They kill the driver and discover the strongbox on board contained only a small amount of money. However, when they force the male passenger to hand over his wallet, they find he is carrying quite a bit of cash. The passenger then manages to kill both bandits, but he is also shot. This leaves Kitty stranded with the stagecoach and a seriously injured man.

Kitty, being the strong, tough woman she is, somehow manages to get the man back on the stage and drives it along the trail. She encounters a wagon belonging to a mining family named Dagget blocking the trail. She explains the desperation of her situation with the wounded man, and the Daggets refuse to help when they discover the man is Blaine Copperton. The Daggets and Copperton families are bitter enemies, because the Coppertons consider the Daggets squatters on their land.

Kitty eventually makes it to the Copperton ranch where she finds the fiesty Jessie Copperton -- Blaine's mother. The Copperton matriarch is accustomed to giving orders and immediately includes Kitty as a subordinate, which does not go over well. Nevertheless, Mrs. Copperton soon develops a level of respect for Kitty, because she sees that Kitty is a strong-willed woman, too.

Young Tracey Copperton is Blaine's meek, withdrawn daughter. Her grandmother despised Tracey's deceased mother and opposed Blaine's marriage to her. Jessie directs some of that same disdain toward her granddaughter. Kitty instantly takes pity on Tracey for the way Jessie bullies her.

After tending to her injured son, Jessie escalates the feud with the Daggets by taking some of the ranch hands and visiting the Dagget's shack. She has her men set fire to shack, and they shoot one of the Dagget boys in the leg. This leads to the Daggets kidnapping Kitty and Tracey. They demand Blaine Copperton come to their mine so they can exact some "eye-for-an-eye" revenge by shooting him in the leg.

Virginia Gregg's performance as Jessie Copperton is her last for this series. Gregg appeared in a total of seven Gunsmoke episodes over the years. She was a favorite of Jack Webb who cast her repeatedly as many different characters in both the original Dragnet series and the 1967 reboot. Her specialty was playing strong, often cantankerous, sometimes treacherous, females.

John Ericson makes his only Gunsmoke appearance as Blaine Copperton. He does not have that much to do in the episode, because he is unconscious during most of his screen time. When he does have the opportunity to act, he mostly just scowls.

Lisa Gerritsen had appeared just a few episodes earlier in the awful "The Miracle Man" episode, although the inferior quality of the earlier episode was certainly not her fault. In this story, she plays Tracey Copperton.

The Daggets, who have some of the worst teeth of any characters in Gunsmoke history, are played by familiar Gunsmoke guests. Nora Marlowe is Ma. Marlowe could play all types of characters, from the jolly, kindly character, to much more devious nasty types. Conlan Carter and Charles Kuenstle both commonly played villainous types on Gunsmoke. They play the two Dagget sons.

Steve Raines once again plays a stage driver in this story. Raines appeared often in Gunsmoke episodes, and many of those appearances was as a stagecoach driver.

The idea behind this story is certainly nothing new, and it comes across as lazy and sloppily handled. The story meanders all over without making much of a point or resolving anything. Is the story about the problems in the Copperton family stemming from the dominant matriarch? Is it about the ongoing feud between the Coppertons and the Daggets? Did Kitty Russell only buy hats on her shopping trip? She wears the same dress for the few days the episode spans.

The regular Gunsmoke character featured in this episode is Kitty Russell, of course, but even Amanda Blake appears to be going through the motions this time around. She spends most of her screen time giving other characters disapproving looks. Bonus disappointment: learning that she prefers her steaks "burnt to a crisp."

There isn't much involvement from the other Gunsmoke regulars, but, as with Blake, there is nothing inspired about any of the performances.

This syrupy episode is just plain awful, other reviewers can go into painstaking details but I will talk about my grievance. There is a trite theme of absentee father, neglected lil girl, apathetic Gramma, and meddling interloper that makes all well in the end here. It's been overdone and you can see the outcome from miles away. I can't believe how maudlin this show was, I'm rewatching these episodes through adult eyes and I am not impressed at all. When I was young and dumb, I ate this drivel up like tiramisu.

Kitty is not her usual obstreperous self as she is out mouthed by queen harridan Mrs. Copperton (Virginia Gregg). I must say I confused this actress for Louise Latham but she looked too homely to be the delicate beauty Louise Latham was. Louise Latham makes me think of light, butter cookies while Virginia Gregg makes me think of slabs of autopsied genitalia.

Virginia Gregg just makes my skin crawl for some reason; she looks cadaverous and stiff with a drooping mouth and thick lips, she could be the white twin of the unsightly Helen Martin from 227. Kitty is shutdown by Mrs. Copperton as she blares out orders. Kitty looks extra garish with the clownish amounts of makeup,

There is a long-standing feud with Ma Daggat and her boys. Ma Daggat is played by the Ruddy and sexy corpulent Nora Marlowe, Nora wears an inhumanly thick and glaringly fake grey wig that I'm certain was later worn by Bill Bixby as the intermediate metamorphosis creature on the Hulk tv show.

I couldn't stay for the whole ride, I jumped off this manure wagon before the sticky end.

Edit (after seeing the last half) I (and any other observant men) would be remiss if I didn't remark on Miss Kitty's dress she donned around the halfway point. Didn't the wardrobe dep't know that the placement of the stunning beadwork was, umm, sugggestive?! Too funny!

Watching it on XfIniTy DVR ($260/month) and the next day it was somehow no longer available. Looked like a good show, though... But any Gunsmoke with Miss Kitty (giggle) on a stagecoach is going to be fraught with misadventure. Another reviewer said (regarding another episode) that Miss Kitty should avoid stage coaches because it never ends well for her... Well derp, it's a work of FICTION - an actual DRAMA! The conflict we all tune in fer!!

XfIniTy DVR ($260/month) is a complete total waste of money. Just gotta say it here. . ...Oh I see the new IMDB rules need SIXTY-NiNE more characters. Here ya go, ya wankers!