Dodge City is in the midst of a drought, as is any place within a reasonable ride of the town. Most of the water supplies have gone dry. There is a well in Dodge that still has water, but it is running out. Marshal Matt Dillon has implemented rationing and has someone guarding the well around the clock to prevent thievery. (Never mind that this is not something a U.S. Marshal would normally do, but that was often true of Dillon and Gunsmoke.)
Dr. Tobias -- who claims to be a rainmaker, among other things -- just happens to ride into Dodge. Matt knows this "doctor's" whole schtick is a scam, but the people in the town are desperate. Matt orders Tobias to engage the people in a rainmaking scam to give them hope and buy some time while Festus Haggen explores some other options for water at some place called "Stinkin' Springs."
Director Marc Daniels does as good a job as possible with this story. The viewer can almost feel the misery of the town folk, the oppressive heat, the sweat, the filth, and Matt's frustration as the people become increasingly desperate.
The biggest problem with this episode is that there is simply not enough material for an hour-long episode. Much of the story comes across as filler to stretch the episode to an hour. There are long talking scenes. There is a side story involving a selfish man on the run from the Army that appears to have been added in an attempt to introduce some excitement into the proceedings and to fill time.
I also find the situation introduced in this story to be unbelievable. I can certainly understand a severe drought impacting the economy of a large region -- that kind of thing still happens today. However, I do not understand the complete lack of water to even sustain life. Dodge City and Kansas as a whole were not isolated from the rest of the world. I would think enough water could be transported into the area -- by train, if necessary -- to provide water for people to drink. It is also mentioned early in the episode that there are some contaminated water sources in the area. Contaminated water can be boiled to kill harmful pathogens, and this has been known since the late 1600s.
Another of the more glaring problematic aspects of the storyline is that a little over halfway through the episode, Festus voluntarily takes off for Colorado in search of water, and we never see him again or hear of his fate.
This is the only episode of Gunsmoke written by Francis Cockrell, who had previously written several episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Cockrell was also writing for the Batman television series around the same time this episode was written.
Veteran character actor Guy Raymond is Dr. Tobias in this story. This is the last of three Gunsmoke appearances he made. Other familiar faces include Ted Gehring and Karl Lukas. Several of the Dodge City regulars show up here, as one would expect.
The ending is predictable, and the story is thin. Even worse, the episode is simply neither compelling nor fun to watch. Normally I enjoy the episodes set in Dodge and featuring many of the citizens, but this story fails on a few levels.
