Gunsmoke - rare episodes

Gunsmoke

(5 stars; 4 reviews)

These are two rare Gunsmoke episodes. Homely Girl was found in Australia in 2014 and is an AFRTS recording. The story is by Kathleen Hite. Supporting regulars William Conrad, Parley Baer, Georgia Ellis and Howard McNear were Virginia Gregg and Vic Perrin. The Ride Back was found (or "re-discovered") in 2022 in a classic radio program collection that had not been available for many decades. It is a good-sounding aircheck from the original KNX-Los Angeles broadcast. The program is mainly dialogue between William Conrad as Matt Dillon transporting a prisoner, Leeds Martin, played by Lawrence Dobkin. The characters are trying to avoid trouble with nearby Cheyenne who are returning from a raid. They attempt to ambush Dillon and Martin and have other dangerous encounters over three days on their way back to Dodge. The music and sound effects play a critical role in the production as there are no other speaking roles, not even from the Cheyenne. Chester Proudfoot, played by Parley Baer, makes a brief appearance at the very end of the story. The late classic radio researcher Stewart Wright noted that the script was identified as "#10." He believed that the title was assigned later, likely by producer Norman Macdonnell. The title was probably assigned months after the broadcast when they were organizing scripts and recordings for some purpose such as managing series continuity. The script was by Antony Ellis, the first of eight scripts he would write for the Gunsmoke radio series. William Conrad liked the radio script so much that he belived it could become a compelling movie. Antony Ellis used his original radio script as a foundation and developed a feature-length screenplay. The movie was "De- Gunsmoke 'd" with different character names and additional characters and subplots. It was released in 1957 and starred Anthony Quinn and Conrad. Matt Dillon was changed to Sheriff Chris Hamish, played by Conrad Leeds Martin was changed to Bob Kallen, played by Anthony Quinn Lita Milan played a new character, Elena Music was by Frank de Vol, and the theme was sung by Eddie Albert At the time of this posting the movie The Ride Back was not at the Internet Archive, but can usually be found on YouTube. It has also been available as a commercial DVD.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.