The theft of a sack of potatoes leads to increasingly violent hostilities between the Scooper and Galloway families.The theft of a sack of potatoes leads to increasingly violent hostilities between the Scooper and Galloway families.The theft of a sack of potatoes leads to increasingly violent hostilities between the Scooper and Galloway families.
Photos
Harry Dean Stanton
- Harley
- (as Dean Stanton)
John Breen
- Townsman
- (uncredited)
Loren Brown
- Townsman
- (uncredited)
Herman Hack
- Townsman
- (uncredited)
Chuck Hamilton
- Townsman
- (uncredited)
Anne Howard
- Townswoman
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- John Meston(uncredited)
- Norman MacDonnell(uncredited)
- Charles Marquis Warren(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFirst of four episodes directed by Dennis Weaver.
- SoundtracksOh! Susanna
(uncredited)
Music by Stephen Foster
Played on banjo heard in Long Branch Saloon
[background music; barely audible on the DVD issued 2012, "The Sixth Season, Volume Two"]
Featured review
Great Cast Wasted
As 1950s TV shows go, this episode had a great cast. Jeanette Nolan, who was only in three scenes for a few seconds, was a guest eight times on Gunsmoke. Three of those times she played Dirty Sally, the crazy old lady. Believe it or not, that became a TV series in 1974. "Dirty Sally" lasted only one season, but it was the only spinoff TV series that came from Gunsmoke!
Jack Elam was the next heavy hitter. He was on Gunsmoke fifteen times. On this episode, he gets some good scenes with Doc Adams and with Warren Oates and Ken Lynch. Elam plays the father of the twelve year old boy that is wrongly accused of stealing potatoes. The boy dies thanks to blood poisoning due to getting cut up on the fence wire, when Ken Lynch and Warren Oates shot at his horse and the boy fell on the wire. That was made worse because the boy had to walk home, and his parents (Elam) neglected to take him to see Doc Adams.
Warren Oates is the next top dog on this episode. He was on Gunsmoke ten times. He was also Sgt. Hulka on Stripes, he was on 1941, Blue Thunder, The Border, and a lot of TV shows. He gets some prime time here, and is featured in a gun-fight with Jack Elam and James Arness. The action in this episode is pretty good.
Harry Dean Stanton, who had a long career appeared on Gunsmoke eight times. Stanton got killed off in Alien (1978) when he was looking for his cat, and was the crazy Brain in Escape from New York (1981). In this episode he bushwhacks Ken Lynch, and then gets into a gun-fight with Matt Dillon.
Ken Lynch was on Gunsmoke twelve times. Usually he played a villain, back-shooter, second-rate gunfighter, or just a plain old thug. Lynch later became Sgt. Grover on McCloud, with Dennis Weaver. Here he shoots a kid off a horse, and into barbed wire. Then he takes the kid's horse, so that the poor kid has to walk several miles with a mangled leg. The kid later dies of blood poisoning from the wire. That is a typical Ken Lynch performance.
Ancient Cyril Delevanti makes an appearance at the end of this episode as the nearby shack resident who confesses that he is the one who stole the bag of potatoes that got a boy and three adults killed. Delevanti was on Gunsmoke eight times. In keeping with the mean-spirited tone of this episode, I half-expected that either Marshal Dillon or Warren Oates would shoot Delevanti too, when he confessed. That would have made this a perfect "everyone dies" John Meston episode.
This episode is typical of the Gunsmoke screenplays by the always depressing, socio-pathic John Meston. As a kid, I read Grapes of Wrath, where all the poor farmers are mostly helping each other out, and have good hearts. Apparently Meston never read that book, or the Bible, and all his prairie Christians are evil, vindictive, conniving, adulterous, thieving, and vengeful souls who kill each other over potatoes.
Potatoes was the cheapest crop during the 1800s. So a bag of potatoes was probably worth less than ten cents. So four people died over ten cents, in the dark Western world of John Meston.
Jack Elam was the next heavy hitter. He was on Gunsmoke fifteen times. On this episode, he gets some good scenes with Doc Adams and with Warren Oates and Ken Lynch. Elam plays the father of the twelve year old boy that is wrongly accused of stealing potatoes. The boy dies thanks to blood poisoning due to getting cut up on the fence wire, when Ken Lynch and Warren Oates shot at his horse and the boy fell on the wire. That was made worse because the boy had to walk home, and his parents (Elam) neglected to take him to see Doc Adams.
Warren Oates is the next top dog on this episode. He was on Gunsmoke ten times. He was also Sgt. Hulka on Stripes, he was on 1941, Blue Thunder, The Border, and a lot of TV shows. He gets some prime time here, and is featured in a gun-fight with Jack Elam and James Arness. The action in this episode is pretty good.
Harry Dean Stanton, who had a long career appeared on Gunsmoke eight times. Stanton got killed off in Alien (1978) when he was looking for his cat, and was the crazy Brain in Escape from New York (1981). In this episode he bushwhacks Ken Lynch, and then gets into a gun-fight with Matt Dillon.
Ken Lynch was on Gunsmoke twelve times. Usually he played a villain, back-shooter, second-rate gunfighter, or just a plain old thug. Lynch later became Sgt. Grover on McCloud, with Dennis Weaver. Here he shoots a kid off a horse, and into barbed wire. Then he takes the kid's horse, so that the poor kid has to walk several miles with a mangled leg. The kid later dies of blood poisoning from the wire. That is a typical Ken Lynch performance.
Ancient Cyril Delevanti makes an appearance at the end of this episode as the nearby shack resident who confesses that he is the one who stole the bag of potatoes that got a boy and three adults killed. Delevanti was on Gunsmoke eight times. In keeping with the mean-spirited tone of this episode, I half-expected that either Marshal Dillon or Warren Oates would shoot Delevanti too, when he confessed. That would have made this a perfect "everyone dies" John Meston episode.
This episode is typical of the Gunsmoke screenplays by the always depressing, socio-pathic John Meston. As a kid, I read Grapes of Wrath, where all the poor farmers are mostly helping each other out, and have good hearts. Apparently Meston never read that book, or the Bible, and all his prairie Christians are evil, vindictive, conniving, adulterous, thieving, and vengeful souls who kill each other over potatoes.
Potatoes was the cheapest crop during the 1800s. So a bag of potatoes was probably worth less than ten cents. So four people died over ten cents, in the dark Western world of John Meston.
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- Johnny_West
- Apr 21, 2020
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- Runtime30 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
- 4:3
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