Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge (1987)

To me, this movie is perfection.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of the premiere of "Gunsmoke", so I watched "Return to Dodge". Is this TV movie as bad as some people say it is? No. It's worse.The story can be briefly summarized as "A lot of people are out to kill Matt, and a few to help him." That's it."Kill Matt" was not an uncommon story line, and several excellent episodes were built around it ("The Jailer", "Matt Dillon Must Die"). These episodes worked, because they had dramatic elements that took the story beyond whether Matt would live or die. This is important, students, because... "We know Matt isn't going to die!""Return to Dodge" has all the dramatic punch of a thrice-used tea-bag. In addition to the requisite clips from series episodes, most of the story has people running around and shooting at each other, and little else.It only gets involving in the last five minutes, when Matt has his final confrontation with Will Mannon, in which Kitty plays an important role. (Kitty never took **** from anybody, while remaining "feminine".) It's the only satisfying part of the story, and you have to wait one hour and 55 minutes for it to arrive.Attention must be paid to the horrible makeup and costuming. Kitty often looks as if she just crept out of the crypt. And it seems some unattractive animal attached itself to Matt's head and died there. * (He wears his hat through most of the second half, likely after seeing a rough cut of the first half.)I don't understand reviewers' objections to Matt being a trapper. He's fundamentally a loner, unable to commit himself to close relationships -- especially with women.Ken Curtis didn't appear in "Return to Dodge", supposedly because he was offered less than Amanda Blake. This is probably true, but I wouldn't be surprised if he'd read the script (little more than a rehash of "Mannon") and decided to avoid contact with this turkey.Given that the production team (including a writer and director who'd worked many years on the series) presumably had more than a decade to work on this story, its abject failure is startling.* Mountain men, plainsmen, etc, often wore their hair long. Matt's "do" bears zero resemblance to how such long hair actually looked (qv, Custer and Hickok).

Okay, there were a few shortcomings as others have pointed out. It would have been nice had a few more of the old cast regulars joined in this reunion (Ken Curtis, Dennis Weaver, Roger Ewing, Burt Reynolds...) But they didn't, for whatever reason, so what can be done? However, the movie did provide flashbacks to the original Mannon episode, which aired in 1969. So we got to see many of the regulars in that way.I had actually forgotten that Amanda Blake was in this movie until watching it again yesterday on streaming video. So, seeing her was more than enough. I recall that she had contracted cancer some years earlier which required oral surgery. So, if her speech sounds a bit slurred, that is why. In the flashbacks, she looks lovely, and a good 20 years younger. However, in the movie, it is repeatedly mentioned that only 12 years have passed since Mannon terrorized Dodge. 12 years wouldn't age someone that much. I was kind of surprised to learn that she was only 58 when this movie was shot. She looked a good 8 to 10 years older. My apologies for saying that, but again, perhaps it had to do with the major health issues which she was forced to suffer through. The only other problem I had (and it was a minor one) was that in the original Mannon episode, Steve Forrest's character was apparently killed by Matt in a shootout. Yet here he is being released from a 12 year prison stint to hunt Matt down for revenge. No doubt the viewer is expected to assume that Mannon was only wounded and did not die. However, since flashbacks were being employed to tell other aspects of the story, perhaps a timely flashback, even a make-shift one, (with Mannon being carried off to Doc Adam's office?) could have sufficiently addressed this confusing situation.Having said that, I absolutely LOVED this movie!!! I grew up watching Gunsmoke with my Dad, as a young kid in the 50's and 60's. It was my all-time favorite show. Thus, there was naturally some excitement to observe how Matt's character had evolved since the show ended some 12 or 13 years earlier. I was not disappointed. The writing was excellent, the directing right-on. The action began from the get-go, and it didn't skip a beat. There were a few tragic plot twists (Holliman's character being accused of murder), and some clever one-liners by Matt ("you could put his brains in a teacup"), while describing someone's IQ. You've got your trademark scummy, bushwhacking saddle-tramps. And you've got your peaceful, friendly Native American women, who by the way, are rather easy on the eyes.If not for a couple of minor flaws as mentioned above, I would give this 10 stars. For any Gunsmoke fan out there, I highly recommend this movie. James Arness recently left us, but his legacy lives on. RIP, Marshall Matt Dillon.

"Gunsmoke" was one of my favorite westerns growing up, I was very excited when the 1987 reunion movie "Return to Gunsmoke" was made.Unfortunately I wished they had brought back all or most of the regulars that were still living. Ken Curtis, Burt Reynolds, Dennis Weaver, and Roger Ewing were in this if they only had a cameo appearance. Another reviewer wrote that James Arness acted more like his "Zeb Macahan" character than "Matt Dillon", and the ex-Marshal would have definitely "NOT" became a mountain man?? They should have open the movie with Matt & Kitty married and living peacefully on a ranch, with Matt a rancher/cattle buyer.Newly O'Brien as the new doctor of Dodge,since "Milburn Stone" (God Bless Him)"Doc Adams" has passed away. In the original series Newly was being trained by "Doc" in many of the latter year episodes.The Marshal should have been Claude Atkins, Glen Corbett, or even Alex Cord,they looked the part of a Lawman. "Mannon" character was superb, for him to be released from prison and go after Matt & Kitty. This would have turned by rating of 6 to a 10!!

While it's a joy to see Matt and Kitty back together, this movie sorely lacked any hint of the Gunsmoke magic. In a nutshell, Matt Dillon is now a mountain man, Kitty has left Dodge and Newly O'Brian the former gunsmith and deputy is now marshal.Will Mannon, the evil gunslinger who appeared in a self-titled episode of Gunsmoke, is released from prison to kill Matt and the judge who put Mannon in prison. Another prisoner, Jake Flagg, who is an old friend of Matt's, breaks out of prison by using the warden as hostage. Flagg needs to warn Matt about Mannon. The gunslinger shoots the warden and Flagg is now wanted by a young, overzealous deputy and some bounty hunters. Several of the unscrupulous bounty hunters actually stab Dillon who is found and taken back to Dodge where he awakens to find Miss Kitty. Matt tries to help protect Flagg meanwhile Mannon returns to Dodge where he torments Miss Kitty as he did in the original episode. Back then he had raped Kitty and beat her, something Matt did not know.Okay, inconsistencies. First, but this is my opinion, Matt would not have become a Mountain Man. It's just not him(maybe they got him confused with his Zeb Macahan character from How the West Was Won). Second, Kitty explains why she left Dodge. It's a flashback from the episode "The Badge" where Matt is shot and Kitty just can't handle seeing him hurt anymore. Any fan of the show would know that this episode(don't know when it aired but certainly not in the last year of the show) ends with Matt meeting Kitty and sort of convincing her to come back, which she does. The movie made it sound like she never came back. Amanda Blake left the show in 1974. There are reports she claims she was sick and tired of the character and the commute(she was living in AZ at the time). Others question that producer John Mantley fired her for money reasons. They allegedly did not get along at all. Third, in the episode Mannon, he is apparently shot dead from how the episode ends but I guess it could have been interpreted as him possibly surviving.Those are disappointments show-wise. Other ones that made fans cringe are James Arnesses' hair and make-up, absolutely scary. Kitty looked her age and did not look bad at all. Amanda Blake had contracted AIDS and she later died from the disease 2 years after this film. Ken Curtis did not return, he reportedly wanted more money than Blake. Finally, Matt and Kitty never kiss at the end, they never even get together. She see's him through a window and sheds a tear as he goes back to his lonely life. Reportedly, the original script had Matt walk into the hotel where Kitty was(and you could use your imagination). There were too many Flashbacks which took away from developing the plot to this movie. They actually show one Flashback twice.John Mantley produced the movie and I was surprised someone with such a grasp on GS let this be the end product.Also, the cover art for the movie on this website only show's James Arness. There is another version which has a small picture of Kitty on it.Otherwise, it's fun to see M&K back together.