
A Man Called Smith Full Episode – Gunsmoke, Season #15, Episode #06
Will Smith visited his ex-wife Abelia, asking her to help him fence some stolen gold so he could escape to Mexico. Festus grew suspicious when he spotted Abelia at a shady establishment late at night. “Gunsmoke: A Man Called Smith aired on October 27, 1969.
Explore the plot and trivia of “A Man Called Smith,” or watch the full episode below.
Table of Contents
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A Man Called Smith Cast
The following performers were featured in the Gunsmoke episode named A Man Called Smith:
- Milburn Stone as Doc
- Amanda Blake as Kitty (credit only)
- Ken Curtis as Festus
- Buck Taylor as Newly
- James Arness as Matt
- Jacqueline Scott as Abelia
- Val Avery as Bull
- Susan Olsen as Marianne
- Mike Durkin as Jonathan
- Earl Holliman as Will
- Roy Roberts as Mr. Bodkin
- Sid Haig as Buffalo Hunter
- William Fawcett as Old Prospector
- Ted Jordan as Burke
- Margarita Cordova as Saloon Girl
- Margaret Bacon as Townswoman (uncredited)
- Robert D’Arcy as Townsman (uncredited)
- Rudy Germane as Townsman (uncredited)
- Chester Hayes as Townsman (uncredited)
- Michael Jeffers as Townsman (uncredited)
- Bert Madrid as Townsman (uncredited)
- Fred McDougall as Townsman (uncredited)
- Jimmy Noel as Townsman (uncredited)
- Chick Sheridan as Townsman (uncredited)
- Wally West as Townsman (uncredited)
Full Story Line for A Man Called Smith
Abelia, the widow who once rescued Festus, makes a surprising return. Discovering she’s not a widow, she’s confronted by her outlaw husband, who compels her to exchange his stolen gold for cash.
Full Script and Dialogue
- He don't want to leave. - Push harder. Come on. On your feet. Get up. Come on. We'll be all morning. Somebody's coming, Ma. That goat, she looks like she's all dressed up to go someplace. - She's going to be in the fair. - And win a blue ribbon. I wouldn't be surprised. Bee, aren't you going to introduce me to the children? I'm a longtime friend of your pa's. Will Smith. You wouldn't happen to have something cold inside to drink, would you? We got some lemonade left. I wouldn't want to be putting anybody out. Inside. Listen, good luck with that animal. Thank you, Mr. Smith. You been raised all right. You told me that you would never bother me and the kids. That's exactly what you said. So how about that lemonade, huh? Why'd you come back? What's more natural than a loving husband and father wanting to know how his family's doing? I don't want my kids knowing any different than what I told them. They think their pa is dead. You staying a widow. You got no worries on that part. Bee, I just want you to do me a little favor. What kind of a favor? Nothing that won't keep until you get back. I promised them we'd stay overnight in Dodge. Fine, let 'em stay over. But I want you back to do some talking. Will, you're not gonna ruin my life. Bee, I... I don't want any part of your life. Now... Look, why don't you just go to town, get back. We'll get our business done with, and then... I swear, you'll never be seeing me again. I promise. Go on. Get! Hey! Ha! - Well, Burke, is that yours? - No. I kind of thought I detected a family resemblance there. - Doc. - What? - What am I gonna do with him? - Who? This here tom cat. There ain't no more pens. Well, what have I got to do with the pens? Can't you read that? I am the judge in this contest. And as such, I just may have to pin the blue ribbon on you - when this is all over for stupidity. - Oh! Unless, of course, your mule should decide to enter, in which case, it'd make an awful tight race because I can't tell you apart, except that his ears are a little bit longer. Everything else, as I can see, is just about equal. All right. From now on, I'm a-fixing to order all my pills from the mail order house, you old quack-quack! Burke. Festus... Well, it's nice to see you again, Abelia. Why, you two young 'uns, you growed like a couple of sunflowers. - We brought in our billy goat, Festus. - Think he'll win a prize? Oh, he's got to win a prize. Well, I'll tell you, I'll bet you this here goat is going to win the gold ribbon. - The ribbon's blue, Festus. - Well, but... but this here goat, he's way too fancy just to settle for a old blue ribbon. He... he deserves something that's kind of shimmer-ty and shiny like a gold ribbon. First prize is ten dollars. Well, that's just as good as in your pocket right now. You shouldn't build their hopes up too high, Festus. Oh, I ain't a-joshing you a bit. That there is a pearl button bangled billy. Bring him on back here, Jonathan. Let's get him off there. Get him bedded down here. We got to get him ready for this here show, you know, when old Doc starts to judging. Uh, you don't get to town too often, do you, Abelia? Well, raising young 'uns is kind of time-consuming. Oh, ain't that the truth, though. Of course, I ain't never had the pleasure of raising no young 'uns, but... School going good for you two, is it? - I don't like school. - Don't like school? Why, golly bill! When I was going to school... Well, that's kind of a long, drawed out story there. You all fixing to be in town all day, are you? Ma Smalley invited us to stay the night. Except I have to go back to the farm for something. Oh, well, that's a shame. I was hoping that you all could have some vittles with me directly. Not tonight, Festus. Maybe tomorrow. You put that down in your little book now. We'll all have vittles together tomorrow. By golly, you know what I think? I think that Festus has got an interest in knowing that Johnson widow a little better, don't you? I'll tell you one thing, those kids of her's sure admire him, don't they? Well, he'd better kind of watch his step. There's nothing like single bliss I say. But, of course, I guess you know all about that. Well, no, not necessarily, but I'd be willing to hear all about it from you over that beer you promised me. Did I promise you that? Why? You losing your memory now too, Judge? Come on. Whoa! That's a fast trip. Now... What is this favor you want me to do for you? That's real nice, Bee. You always had a way of making a place seem real warm. - I want you gone, Will. - That's funny. I remember a time when you just couldn't wait for me to get home. Oh, you don't have to remind me about waiting up nights for you. Yeah. Well... There's a lot of things about me I never understood. I think it's maybe the liquor, not being able to handle it. Although, I gotta say Missouri prison kind of took away my taste for liquor. - Prison? - Five years. Bee, I was on a stagecoach coming out of St. Louis. I knew that the strong box had gold in it, so I took a chance. I come away with pretty near 10,000 in gold coins. They caught up with me, but they never got the gold. Robbing's something you never did. Well, there's a first time for just about everything. You just tell me what it is you want and get out of here! What I want? You've sure held on to your looks, Bee. You look good. Real good. I got nothing left for you, Will. I lost all that a long time ago. Nothing left, huh? You sure about that? I know you better than you know yourself. Be a real easy answer for me, Will. So much for my spur of the moment thoughts. All right, Bee. Listen, I can't leave a trail of gold all the way to the Mexican border. Just be an open invitation for the law to follow me. What do you know about the Bull's Head Saloon in Dodge? I don't know nothing about no saloons. Yeah. Well, a man named Bull Anders runs the place. I heard up there in that Missouri prison he's always on the lookout for a loose dollar. Now, I want you to take this to him. There's 500 here. You get back 300 in paper. - Do you think that I...? - I think we're agreeing on one thing. I mean, you want me on my way south, right? Unless you don't care if I just hang around for another week or two. Listen, you come back with some traveling money I can use, and you won't be seeing me again. But you give me any problems, Bee, and you're gonna... You're gonna have a lot of explaining to do to those kids. People gonna think it's funny that I leave my kids, and come driving back out here tonight. So come back tomorrow. I don't care what you do. I could do with a good night's sleep. I don't want you in my house. All right. Look for me up along the ridge. You remember the ridge, don't you, Bee? Evening. Glass of wine, please. Place ain't often so beautified. Figured on buying you that wine. Would you just go away, please? Just thinking maybe you was lonely as me. Goodbye. What's on your mind? I have something to sell. I'm listening. It's gold. It's $500 worth. What's wrong with it? Oh, uh... I've had it a long time and I didn't want any questions asked. Never been in circulation. No, I guess not. What are you asking for it? I have to have $300. Say 200, and I think we're in business. Well, maybe that'd be all right. Come back tomorrow. Use the back door here. - Tomorrow? - After the bank opens. I don't keep any cash on hand. See you tomorrow. Abelia? - Evening, Abelia. - Festus. It's, uh, kind of a nice evening, ain't it? Yes, it's warming up a bit. I was just a-fixing to go get myself a swallow of coffee. Reckon you'd want to join up with me? No, thank you. I gotta get back to my kids. Evening, Deputy. This here just don't make a lick of sense. All right. Thank you. And furthermore, I want you all to know that every animal in this contest has got an equal chance, no matter how big or how small. I just hope that skunk don't get too unhappy with us. All right, I am the sole judge in this contest, as you can see, and I've made my decision. Shut up, you sound like Festus! Now, the town council may not be too happy with what I'm about to do, because they're putting up all the money, you see. But here's my decision. I'm going to award every animal here a semi-final ribbon, and the dollar bill that goes along with it. I'll be right back in a minute. I can see right now I'm probably gonna be up half the night figuring out a grand prize winner. - Now much more gold you got? - None. Now, you came in here last night testing whether you could sell gold or not. You tested. Now, I'm buying all you got. I haven't got anymore. You know, I think I'll tell the marshal about our little transaction. That way, it keeps me in the clear. I wish you wouldn't. Please? - I haven't got very much. - How much? - A thousand dollars. - Mm-hm. Now, don't bring it into town. No sense letting people see us together, huh? You know that Sloan shack outside of town? - Sort of. - Well, be there at midnight. You get 300 in spending cash. No questions. I'm sorry, Abelia. I didn't aim to scare you. - Thank you, Festus. - Abelia... I don't want to appear meddlesome or nothing like that, but if you got some kind of worries and problem that maybe I could help you with... No. No problem. Thank you. Denver mint. Dated ten years ago. Did Bull Anders give you any idea where he got these? Well, he made a point, I thought, of mentioning that he won them from a drifter about a month ago. Yeah, meaning that I'd have no way of tracing it. Do you have any record of his deposits or withdrawals the past month or so? Oh, I can tell you right off, there's been no activity in Bull Anders' account for the past three months. Then you think this might be stolen gold? Well, I don't know. I sure don't buy that story about his getting them off a drifter. But it's the same story I'll get if I try to talk to him. Look, just hold on to these, will you? I'm going to do a little checking around. Matthew, you just can't be a-pointing your finger at Abelia. Well, here's about as close as I can come right here. Six years back. Deadwood stage. Robbed. Newly minted gold. Well, it'll be all over town if you was to bring her in here and start asking her questions about passing stole gold, don't you see? Festus, I'm as aware of that as you are. But when Bull Anders takes gold coins to the bank and exchanges it for paper, and then Abelia Johnson is seen leaving his place with what has to be that same paper money, what am I supposed to think? Well... Matthew, I'm going to ask you a favor. And you know I don't do this too often. - What's that? - Well, now... now you know that Abelia ain't fixing to run off or nothing like that. And I'll just bet you, me knowing her and them young 'uns like I do, that I could come up with an answer. All right, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'm going to wire Deadwood anyway and get some more information on this robbery, who was involved in it, and so forth. Now, that'll probably take about 24 hours. Anything you can come up with in that time, fine. Well, that billy goat of yours, a prize goat like that, I reckon you got a prize special stall built for him in the barn, ain't you? Nothing special. Why, a prize winning goat like that ought to have a prize stall. What's a prize stall? Why, it ain't nothing to build. Why, I... I could go out yonder and have that thing built before sundown tonight. We wouldn't want you to go to all that trouble, Festus. Would a special prize stall be good for a pig? - A pig? - We were gonna enter her too in the fair, except she never grew up right. - She's too small. - Oh, fiddle. That don't make no never mind. You mean you've raised yourself a special porky and you never even brung her in to the fair to win the... maybe the top blue ribbon prize? - Told you we should have entered her. - Well, it ain't too late. - Two chances to win? - You bet you. You know what I'm fixing to do? I'm fixing to follow you all right on back to the farm. I'll take me a look at little Miss Porky and if she looks like a prize winner, I'll tote her right back in here to town and I'll tell old Doc that he's got hisself some more judging to do. Festus... Of course, I don't want to make it appear like that I'm inviting myself. Does she, Mr. Festus, look like a prize? Well, I can see why she ain't growed like she'd ought to. See, she just don't stuff her gullet with anything you give her to eat. She's too intelligent for that. See, she'll just kind of pick and choose whatever happens to suit her fancy, - don't you see? - Can a pig be intelligent? Well, of course they can. Just... just look... look at their eyeballs. You can tell she's just a-thinking away. Look at her. Pie and milk's on the table! She ain't going to have to call us twice for that, is she? - What's the first thing we do, Festus? - Well... A bath? I reckon that could be the first thing, yeah. We can all help you after supper. After supper? You're more than welcome, Festus. Have you ever washed a pig before, Festus? Well, I reckon I did pretty near everything there is to be did, yeah. You all come on and finish off this pie now, before it gets too near supper to eat. You young 'uns run on in and wash your hands. I'll be right there. - How's she looking to you? - She's beginning to look pretty. I told you she was a special kind of a pig, didn't I? Festus, I'm gonna go out and check on some kindling wood. I'll be back in just a minute. Well, Abelia, I can go fetch that wood for you. No, you got your hands full. There's nothing for me to do. You starting to court our Ma now, Festus? We like you a whole lot. Well, I like both of you young 'uns real well too. I'll tell you, I think our little old porky's about ready to dry off. Now, get your rag ready there. I'm gonna hand her to you. Get your rag, darling. Go ahead and dry her off real good. I'm gonna go see if my mule needs tending to. Hold her tight, now. You sure took your time. Festus! She's getting away! She's slipping! Hold on to her! She's trying to get away! She'll get all dirty again! If she runs around in the house, she might hurt herself! - Let me see. - I'll feed and water your mule, Festus. Jonathan, I'll... I'll do... Real easy. Real easy. It's all right. - I think Thomas likes you! - Thomas? We didn't know when we named her Thomas. - All right, who is he? - I couldn't get here. - I said who is he? - He's the deputy from Dodge. - Deputy? - He doesn't know you're here. He's just a friend. - Where's the money, did you get it? - Yeah. But he'd only give me $200. - He squeezes a fat profit, don't he? - He gave me a lot of trouble. What kind of trouble? Well, he thinks I got more gold and he wants to buy it. See, I told him I had a thousand dollars. I don't know why. - I was scared. - Wait a minute. Wait a minute. He wants to buy a thousand in gold? Yeah. But I got to thinking if you wanted more paper money, well, maybe you could dicker with him yourself. Then you get down to Mexico without any problem. - Dicker with him where? His saloon? - No. He don't want me there no more. You know that Sloan shack west of here? He wants me to meet him there at midnight. The Sloan shack, huh? Him and me might be able to do some business at that. Well, Bee, I guess we won't be seeing each other again. I guess that don't make you feel too bad, huh? Be lying if I said it did. Yeah. Well, we got her dolled up pretty as a Christmas tree, ain't we? Now, you just take her real gentle, honey. Don't... don't squeeze her. Just pet her and she'll be fine. And I'll be back directly. You take care of her now. I never seen such a pretty pig. I thought you was fixing to bring in an armload of kindling. - Oh, I'll get it. - Just hold up. I think maybe it's time you and me had this little talk about that fella up yonder on the ridge. I don't know what you're talking about. Well, I'll tell you what I'm talking about. And I'm gonna tell you flat out. Marshal Dillon's gonna be asking you a whole heap of questions about where you're getting all that gold to sell. There's no law against selling gold. That there just depend upon where you get it at. It was given to me. Long time ago. I admit I wasn't sure it was come by honest because of who give it to me. And... and this here fella up there, he had nothing to do with it at all? He's just a man friend that I've been seeing. You want to know something, Abelia? You ain't even a passable liar. Festus, I swear to you, it is all true! Now, ever since Uncle Phildrin give me that new gold for a wedding present, I was suspicious. I got to figuring maybe he might have stole it. But Uncle Phildrin died and... that secret is buried with him, as they say. And you've been a-keeping it all this time and you never once tried to use it, did you? No. Not until I really needed it. Now, I admit, I might have been wrong to sell it to that saloon fella. Well, I've gotta go put my kids to bed. I thought there was a man behind her someplace. Just take a seat there. I didn't come prepared for any gunplay. There's not gonna be any, friend. I'm here to transact peaceful business. I'll tell you one thing, we're gonna make a better deal - than you gave that woman. - All right, I'm willing to talk price. Maybe you can save me a trip to the border. They're paying 60 cents on the dollar down there. Can you do that good? - How much gold you talking about? - Ten thousand, just about. - Got it with you? - Yeah, I got it with me. Only thing is, if we make a... If we make a deal, how would you peddle it? That's easy. I run a poker game in the saloon. I just push it through the bank. You're not telling me you put that 500 you got from Abelia through the bank? I had to. It's the only way I could pay her off. - I got no cash of my own. - That was new gold. Anybody could look at that and know that's never... - that's never been handled. - Well, I said I won it from a drifter sometime back. Nobody can prove different. You're stupid if you think that Dodge marshal ain't gonna be - on top of you from now on. - Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Look, there are other men who are willing to buy that gold. We can still make a profit. How could you be so stupid and live so long? No sense in letting 10,000 in gold walk out the door. Stupid... - Real mess, ain't it, Marshal? - Sure is that, all right. Well, thank you for letting me know. Oh, it was nothing like a favor I was doing. I was afraid if I just rode on, maybe somebody'd be coming after me, seeing my tracks by here. Marshal, there's a plain blood trail out there. - Whoever it is, he's hurt bad. - Well, good. I'll see if I can pick up a trail on it then. Get his body into town, will you? Thanks again, old timer. I got the scare of my life, Marshal. Come by, see myself having a shelter for the night, come in here to find this. - I'll get the mare. - All right. Here, John. Hold her now. Real easy. Don't squeeze her hard now. Come on, darling. Jump right up in the wagon there. And scoot over so's old Johnny can get in. Now, chinny up there, Jonathan. Hold her, quiet. Easy, Thomas. Here, sweetheart. Now, hold him. Real easy. Don't want to get him all jumpity and fussed up, do we? He has to be happy. Shh! Easy. We weren't supposed to see you again. I run into something I didn't expect. Where have you been? Meeting with Bull Anders. Get him going into town with the kids. You stay behind. I need your help. Will, why didn't you just keep riding south? I keep bleeding, you're gonna have a body on your hands to explain. Now, get that mare out to him. Oh, Will. You've made so many mistakes. Just get them away. There. Here, I'll take her, Abelia. Come on. There we are. All set. Scooch over, Johnny. - Let your mama get up now. - Listen, Festus. I'm going to set some stew fixings to simmering, then I'll come on in town later. I'll... I'll come in on the plow horse. Well, Abelia, there ain't no call for you to do that. We ain't in all that big a hurry to get there. Well, I've got one or two other things to do, so I'll just meet you later. Now, you two kids behave yourself and mind Mr. Haggen, hear. - We will. - We will. - All right, Johnny, go ahead on. - Yah! Hold up, Jonathan. Johnny, do you reckon you could drive him on into town by yourself? - I done it plenty of times, Festus. - Good. Well, I was just thinking I ought to do some jawing with your ma, and that way, see, I can ride on into town with her. - You won't be long, will you, Festus? - Oh, no, darling. Fact is, we'll probably catch up with you before you get to town. Now, Jonathan, you be real careful, do you hear me? - I'll be careful, Festus. - All right, now. Go ahead. Talk about dumbness. Putting that gold through the bank, if that don't take the cake. I'm wondering about that deputy being around here now. He's in town. Only thing you got to worry about is finding someplace to hide out, maybe up... in the mountains until you're able to ride out of here. - That still don't answer my... - Abelia? You around? Abelia? Figured I might ride into town with you, if'n you don't mind! No, don't! No, I won't let you kill him! - Get rid of him. - Will! Get rid of him! I didn't expect you back, Festus. Why don't you quit playing these silly games? - You have to go. - Who you got hid in that barn? It doesn't matter. He will kill you. I ain't gonna give him no cause but to talk. Well, you're a man in pretty poor shape. Festus? - Who was that? - There's a United States Marshal. - You tell him to ride out of here. - He ain't that kind of a marshal. - Festus? - In here, Matthew. Things ain't looking too good. You come on, Marshal, if you want... if you want to bury some people! By the blood trail I've been following, we'd better talk about getting you to a doctor. You knew all the time they were closing in. She never knowed no such a thing. You better get out yonder and have some talk with that marshal. Talk would just be about a rope. Five years I thought about it, just coming back, getting the gold and riding south. Unless you get yourself some doctoring, you ain't fixing to ride no place. I'm the only one who's helping me. Bee, come with me, Bee. - We'll make the border. - It's too late, Will. I'm saying you're coming. And you're knowing I'm not. You're putting your life on the line, Marshal! I'm ready. Marshal? Marshal? I'm... I'm leaving. I'm head... I'm heading south. Nobody... nobody get in my... Nobody... Nobody... Nobody... Nobody... My name... Will Smith. Will... Them kids of yours, they... sure... sure look... They're fine. Good manners. Will Smith. You remember that. Will Smith... Will Smith. I guess a man's entitled to be buried under the name he chooses. Well, I'll tell you there's just... just no doubt about it here. This blue ribbon and first prize has got to go to this beautiful St. Bernard here and his owner, young Tom Brennon. We lost. All right. Now, hold on here just a minute. We have another award. And this is a special award for intelligence. Now, this is going to be given to a very unusual specimen whose name is... Well, I think his name is Thomas. It ain't a he, Doc. It's a she porky. Well, all right. Anyway, this award, along with these ten silver dollars, which was collected or it was gathered or... Well, maybe we hadn't ought to go into that. Anyway, this is gonna be given by one of Dodge City's outstanding citizens, who wishes to remain anonymous. Undoubtedly, because he probably can't spell it. There you are, son. Congratulations on your very intelligent pig. Well, didn't I tell you? Did I tell you us Haggens had a good eye for good hogs? - Ten dollar prize! - Thank you, Festus. Oh, that wasn't nothing at all. I'll tell you what we're gonna do now. We're gonna go down and celebrate by eating ice cream until our eyeballs just poof plumb out of our heads, like I told you before. Come on. Bring the goat too. I've never felt sillier in my life. Awarding a ribbon for intelligence to a pig. Well, Doc, I think you carried it off real well. Oh, I don't think there's any doubt as to who they'll pick to do the judging next year either. Well, I'll tell you one thing about that. He ought to be in the fair. He'd win hands down. There's nobody like him. And if he did, I know exactly where I'd like to pin a ribbon on him.
Behind the Scenes of A Man Called Smith
The night this episode aired on CBS, it received a lighthearted mention on NBC’s “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In (1967).” Comedian Dick Martin humorously informed viewers who missed the western’s weekly installment that the plot revolved around a wealthy cattle baron who found out his cattle weren’t as rich as he thought.
Looking for More Gunsmoke Episodes?
“Gunsmoke” makes for excellent viewing, whether you’re watching solo or with family. This American Western TV series originally aired on CBS. The sixth episode of Season 15 is titled A Man Called Smith.
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