Vengeance!: Part I

When three cowboys named Zack Johnson, Bob Johnson, and Floyd Binnes come upon a suffering calf, they make the unfortunate (for them) choice to put it out of its misery and butcher it to prevent attracting wild animals. A rancher named Parker owns a sizable portion of land in the area, including the land where the calf was killed. Parker and his men take a dim view of the dead calf and attack the cowboys. Parker only intends to send a message, but Binnes hits his head on a rock and dies, and Zack is severely injured. Only Bob, who is the adopted son of Zack, escapes without any serious injuries.

The nearest town is Dodge City, of course, and Bob and Zack Johnson make their way there where Doc Adams begins treating Zack's injuries. Bob meets a young woman named Angel, and a romance begins to blossom between them.

The younger Johnson has some unique, distinct ideas about life. Although he relates the earlier events to Matt Dillon, when they ride to the town Parker runs, Bob denies having seen Parker and his men before. Later, Bob tells the ailing Zack he plans to "make Parker pay" for killing Floyd and hurting Zack, but he clearly wants to do it his way with no regard for the role of law enforcement.

Any review of this episode requires addressing the presence of James Stacy as the character around which the story revolves. At the time this episode was filmed, Stacy was an up-and-coming Hollywood talent. Although he had appeared in some films, he made his name in television. Shortly after this episode of Gunsmoke was filmed, he began playing the character Johnny Lancer in the television series Lancer.

Stacy, who chose the name James because of James Dean (his birth name was Maurice William Elias), led a turbulent life. His first marriage to Connie Stevens ended in divorce. He met co-star Kim Darby while filming this episode of Gunsmoke, and they were married briefly and had a child together. He lost his left arm and leg when a drunk driver hit him and his girlfriend when they were riding a motorcycle. The accident killed his girlfriend. He was able to return to acting after a long recuperation and won Emmy awards for a couple of his post-accident performances. He retired from acting in the early 1990s. He was later arrested multiple times for prowling the homes of underage girls. After he was arrested for molesting an 11-year-old girl, he fled to Hawaii where he attempted suicide. He was subsequently convicted and served a prison sentence.

Even Stacy's death was odd. He was administered an antibiotic injection in 2016, experienced a severe reaction, and died of anaphylactic shock.

The actor Tim Olyphant portrayed Stacy in Quentin Tarantino's film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Stacy's performance is the highlight of this quality, two-part episode. He perfectly portrays the somewhat dark Rob Johnson character who certainly insists on living his life on his own terms and refuses to listen to others.

But Stacy's performance is not the only notable aspect of this story. Clearly, the producers went all out when casting the characters. Kim Darby plays the brooding, meek Angel character. She had appeared in the Season 12 episode "The Lure." John Ireland is his usual, nasty self as Parker. Morgan Woodard is Zack Johnson. Paul Fix plays Sheriff Sloan, whose sense of law and order begins and ends with whatever Parker says. Buck Taylor makes his first Gunsmoke appearance as Parker's impetuous son, Leonard. Of course, Taylor would join the cast as Newly O'Brien before the end of the season.

Richard C. Sarafian directs the episode. Soon after this episode was filmed, he directed the classic film Vanishing Point.

Another reviewer mentioned Part 1 could easily stand on its own, and I agree. Although the first part of the story definitely lays the groundwork for what is to come, it is unusual for the first part of a two-part episode to be contained so concisely.

James Stacy doing his best James Dean.

Heats up at the end and certainly had me waiting for Part 2.

The first part of this two part show begins when three men are on the prairie and come across a lame calf. As was routine in the west, the men killed the calf so that the wolves would not be able to get the meat. As they are cutting up the calf for a meal, in rides some cowboys lead by land-baron Mr Parker that has a town named after him and a hired sheriff that does exactly what he is told. It was Mr Parker's calf that they killed so he takes revenge on the three men. He kills one man, badly injures, Zack Johnson, and only minor wounds Bob Johnson. Now Bob Johnson vows to take revenge out on Mr Parker.

The rest of this episode is setting up for the climax that will happen near the end of the tale. Bob will, very cleverly, use some unique psychology against the Parker's in order to begin a scheduled plan in seeking the revenge he craves.

This episode, on its own, could have made for a nice show as the story could have finished after an street scene inside Dodge. But the writer forced Bob to take a turn toward the town of Parkertown (owned by the Parkers) to continue his revenge against the death of others. So the story will advance as we move into the second part of the saga.

Interesting to see Buck Taylor playing a bad guy character. Unfortunately, not that well. He is much better as the amiable gunsmith Newly later on in the series.