Ken Curtis Movies

John Waters does a quirky spin on '50s nostalgia in Cry-Baby, his musical homage to Rebel Without a Cause and Romeo and Juliet. Set in Baltimore in 1954 at the birth of rock & roll, the film features Johnny Depp as Wade "Cry-Baby" Walker. Depp is pure charisma as a juvenile delinquent with a permanent tear slithering down his cheek, a reminder of his state-executed parents. In the depths of his despair appears goody-goody girl Allison (Amy Locane), who has a sexual crush on Cry-Baby. But Allison's Pat Boone-like boyfriend, Baldwin (Stephen E. Miller), the leader of the squares, is dead set against Cry-Baby and the rest of the juvenile delinquents and leads a revolt against them. In the resultant riot, the juvenile delinquents are blamed for the chaos, and Cry-Baby finds himself dispatched to reform school. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

An adventuresome author in 1849 travels to California's Sutter's Fort to work in a saw mill. After gold is discovered, the community is plagued by the antics of greedy treasure seekers. This made-for-television drama is based on the true stories by Bret Hart. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

The record-breaking 20th season of Gunsmoke also proved to be the series' last stand--not because it had lost its huge fan base (the series still managed to rank among the 30 highest-rated series for the 1974-75 season) but because, after two decades, James Arness had decided to move beyond his familiar role of Matt Dillon, US Marshall of Dodge City, Kansas. Of the six main characters, only Arness and Milburn Stone had been with the show from the get-go; Ken Curtis as Festus Haggen was a comparative newcomer, having joined the cast during Season Eight, while Buck Taylor as Newly O'Brien was practically a babe in the woods, with a mere eight seasons to his credit. Wait, we said six regulars, and that's only five. What of Amanda Blake as Miss Kitty Russell, owner of the Long Branch Saloon, a role she too had been essaying since 1955. Well, actress Blake had opted to call it quits at the end of Season 19, after nearly six hundred episodes of warning her erstwhile sweetheart Matt Dillon to "be careful". Rather than hire a Kitty lookalike as Blake's replacement, the produced chose an older, less glamorous but no less talented performer as the new owner of the Long Branch: Fran Ryan, cast as "Miss Hannah". This cast change aside, life went on as usual in Dodge, with stalwart Marshal Dillon keeping a tight rein on his jurisdiction and making sure that outlaws, drunks, bullies, rapists and other riffraff would not remain in town for long (though he no longer shot down an unidentified miscreant in the middle of main street, as he'd done in the opening sequence of the earlier episodes: That particular sequence had long since been replaced by an "action" shot of Matt Dillon riding his horse on the open Kansas prairie). The 635th and final episode, "The Sharecroppers", was a low-key comic exercise emphasizing Festus, in no way suggesting that a two-decade era was about to come to an abrupt end. In point of fact, it hadn't ended--at least not for James Arness, who would star in half a dozen feature-length Gunsmoke specials produced between 1987 and 1995. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

That Gunsmoke was the longest-running dramatic series in TV history was common knowledge by the time the program entered its nineteenth season in the fall of 1973. What few could have predicted that year was Gunsmoke's unassailable popularity despite its age, as proven by the fact that it would rank as the season's 15th highest-rated program, outranking such favorites as Good Times, Barnaby Jones, The Streets of San Francisco and The Carol Burnett Show. Fewer still could possibly imagine that this would be the final season for one of the series' three original stars. No, James Arness hadn't hung up his guns in the role of Marshal Matt Dillon, despite his yearly song-and-dance about retiring, which was generally staged in order to secure a better financial deal from CBS. Nor was Milburn Stone preparing to take down his shingle as Doc Adams, even though he had not entirely recovered from the heart attack that had briefly sidelined him in 1971. It was Amanda Blake,who since the show's inception in 1955 had brought her unique combination of ethereal beauty and earthy practicality to the role of golden-hearted saloon owner Kitty Russell, who was preparing to make her exit. Nothing was said about Kitty's imminent departure in Blake's final regular Gunsmoke episode "Disciple"; in fact, it would not be until the made-for-TV movie sequel Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge in 1987 that we found out Kitty had left Dodge to start life anew in New Orleans. (Ironically, "Disciple" was written in such a manner to suggest that it was actually James Arness' swan song--which of course proved not to be the case!) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Seventeen seasons and 540 episodes since it burst on the TV scene as the first truly "adult" western back in 1955, Gunsmoke returned with 24 all-new episodes in the fall of 1971. Amazingly, two of the original regulars are still on tap: James Arness as US Marshal Matt Dillon of Dodge City, and Amanda Blake as golden-hearted saloon owner Miss Kitty Russell; also, Ken Curtis as Festus Haggen and Buck Taylor as Newly O'Brien are back in the saddle, having been with the series for ten and five seasons, respectively. Conspicuous by his absence for during the first few months of Season Seventeen is Milburn Stone as cantankerous Doc Adams. Having suffered a heart attack, Stone went on a brief hiatus, replaced in seven consecutive episodes by Pat Hingle as Dr. John Chapman, who makes his first appearance in the appropriately titled episode "New Doctor in Town (it was explained that Doc had to go to Baltimore to "update" his medical skills). Stone returned in the season's 12th installment "Gold Train", Part One of the only three-part story in Gunsmoke history. Nor is Pat Hingle the only prominent actor to make a guest appearance this season. Others include Mercedes McCambridge, Ellen Burstyn, Jan-Michael Vincent, Richard Kiley, Pippa Scott, Buddy Ebsen, Harry Carey Jr., Henry Jones, and Jeanette Nolan, in a reprise of her colorful "Dirty Sally" characterization. Gunsmoke closed out its record-breaking seventeenth season as the fourth highest-rated TV series in America--beating out even its NBC competition, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A civil war soldier participates in the Battle of Perryville, 1862. ~ Rovi

Despite stiff competition from NBC's top-rated Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, the venerable CBS western Gunsmoke continued to flourish in its (relatively) new Monday-night timeslot during its 14th season on the air, finishing the year as America's sixth most popular TV program, with a 24.9 ratings share. Still at peak form were the series' veteran stars James Arness as Matt Dillon, Amanda Blake as Miss Kitty, Milburn Stone as Doc Adams and Ken Curtis as Festus Haggen, with relative newcomer Buck Taylor no less impressive in the role of garrulous gunsmith Newly O'Brien. Also, though the program had started way back in the censor-ridden 1950s, Gunsmoke had admirably grown and matured with changing times, offering hard-hitting episodes about racial prejudice, sexual harrassment, child abuse, alcoholism and other social ills that were just as timely in Dodge City of the 1870s as they were in the United States of the late 1960s. Among the talented actors appearing in guest roles in the 26 episodes comprising Season Fourteen are future Dallas patriarch Jim Davis, octogenarian character man Burt Mustin (playing a man even older than himself!), John Ford "regular" Harry Carey Jr., longtime Michael Landon costar and associate Victor French, soon-to-be Police Squad stalwart Leslie Nielsen, and the ubiquitous Bruce Dern, who seems to have appeared in every TV western ever made except for The Cisco Kid. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Beginning with its 12th season, Gunsmoke switched from black-and-white to color, one of the last major network series to do so. This necessitated the reshooting of the series' familiar opening sequence, in which Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) outdraws an unidentified desperado on the deserted main street of Dodge City. Happily, the sequence was moved back outdoors, where it belonged: During the past several seasons, the "showdown" opening had been staged in a painfully phony studio "exterior". Also,the addition of color rather surprisingly enhanced rather than detracted from the naturalistic "look" of the four main players, James Arness, Amanda Blake (as Miss Kitty), Milburn Stone (as Doc) and Ken Curtis (as Festus). Unfortunately, for the most part the series was still weighed down by the phlegmatic writing that had plagued season eleven; of the 29 new episodes this season, only a handful (notably the two-part season finale "Nitro!") are truly memorable. Conversely, the season's guest-star roster is much stronger than in the previous year. Among the talented players making one-shot appearances are such up-and-coming youngsters as Bruce Dern (and his then-wife Diane Ladd), Jon Voight, Tom Skerritt) and Zalman King, and such veterans as Carroll O'Connor, Fritz Weaver and Alan Hale Jr.. And in the episode "The Jailer", the great Bette Davis etches an searing portrait of an embittered woman who lives only for revenge. With the western format in the doldrums on network television, and with Gunsmoke's ratings lower than ever, the decision was made to cancel the series at the end of season 12. But at the very last moment, CBS president William Paley decided to give the venerable property a new lease on life--and in a brand-new timeslot. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The fact that Gunsmoke is able to enter its 10th season despite ever-descending ratings is a tribute not only to the series' solid story and production values but also its most fervent fans. Had it been any other series, Gunsmoke would have ground to a halt as the result of its many artistic setbacks during its tenth year on the air. For one thing, the series lost its longtime producer and spiritual guide Norman McDonnell, who had grown weary of battling over story content and dialogue with star James Arness, who for all intents and purposes now "owned" the Gunsmoke franchise. McDonnell's replacement was British-born Philip Leacock, who at first seemed to have a strong grip on the series' established formula, but who within a year would compromise Gunsmoke's austerity and realism with an influx of writers unfamiliar with the western format--not to mention a plethora of "celebrity" guest stars who were hired more for name value than their appropriateness to the series. The first inkling of this trend occurred during the first weeks of Season Ten, when Leacock dreamed up a publicity stunt whereby local TV personalities from the various CBS affiliates throughout the land would appear in minor roles on Gunsmoke; for example, Chicago talk-show hostess Lee Philips showed up as a frightened stagecoach passenger, while Milwaukee kiddie-show emcee Tommy Richards was seen as a big-time gambler. These appearances, though amusing, invariably smacked of gimmickry, something Gunsmoke had never been guilty of in the past. By the time Gunsmoke reached the end of its tenth season, producer Leacock would have gone far beyond local TV personalities and provided guest roles for the likes of Jean Arthur and Betty Hutton--talented ladies admittedly, but rather out of place in Dodge City. Also, Dennis Weaver,aka the loyal lovable deputy marshal Chester Good, had left the series, never to return. The producers still hadn't hit upon a suitable replacement for Chester, despite trying out Burt Reynolds in the role of halfbreed blacksmith Quint Asper and Ken Curtis as mercurial hillbilly Festus Haggen. Fortunately, Curtis firmly cemented his position on the series with the mid-season episode "Deputy Festus", and would remain with Gunsmoke until its final episode ten years later. For Reynolds, however, Season Ten was the end of the line: he was clearly far more comfortable as a leading man than as a supporting player, and within seven years he would ascend to the top of his profession in theatrical features. Happily, James Arness, Amanda Blake and Milburn Stone were still in fine fettle in their respective roles as Matt Dillon, Miss Kitty and Doc Adams. And, of course, Gunsmoke benefited from a steady stream of reliable supporting players, among them George Kennedy, Denver Pyle, Jack Elam, Mariette Hartley, Claude Akins, Jeanette Nolan, Hal Needham and Forrest Tucker. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Filmed in panoramic Cinerama, this star-studded, epic Western adventure is a true cinematic classic. Three legendary directors (Henry Hathaway, John Ford, and George Marshall) combine their skills to tell the story of three families and their travels from the Erie Canal to California between 1839 and 1889. Spencer Tracy narrates the film, which cost an estimated 15 million dollars to complete. In the first segment, "The Rivers," pioneer Zebulon Prescott (Karl Malden) sets out to settle in the West with his wife (Agnes Moorehead) and their four children. Along with other settlers and river pirates, they run into mountain man Linus Rawlings (James Stewart), who sells animal hides. The Prescotts try to raft down the Ohio River in a raft, but only daughters Lilith (Debbie Reynolds) and Eve (Carroll Baker) survive. Eve and Linus get married, while Lilith continues on. In the second segment, "The Plains," Lilith ends up singing in a saloon in St. Louis, but she really wants to head west in a wagon train led by Roger Morgan (Robert Preston). Along the way, she's accompanied by the roguish gambler Cleve Van Valen (Gregory Peck), who claims he can protect her. After he saves her life during an Indian attack, they get married and move to San Francisco. In the third segment, "The Civil War," Eve and Linus' son, Zeb (George Peppard), fights for the Union. After he's forced to kill his Confederate friend, he returns home and gives the family farm to his brother. In the fourth segment, "The Railroads," Zeb fights with his railroad boss (Richard Widmark), who wants to cut straight through Indian territory. Zeb's co-worker Jethro (Henry Fonda) refuses to cut through the land, so he quits and moves to the mountains. After the railway camp is destroyed, Zeb heads for the mountains to visit him. In the fifth segment, "The Outlaws," Lilith is an old widow traveling from California to Arizona to stay with her nephew Zeb on his ranch. However, he has to fight a gang of desperadoes first. How the West Was Won garnered three Oscars, for screenplay, film editing, and sound production. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Paladin (Richard Boone) is hired to bring outlaw Bud McPhater (Ed Faulkner) to trial. Unfortunately, rumors persist that Bud's brother has died of diptheria. Before proceeding any further, Paladin, his prisoner and several other people are compelled to await confirmation of those rumors in the town of Soledad Crossing--whose citizens are violently opposed to being exposed to a possible diptheria epidemic. This is the final episode of Have Gun, Will Travel's fourth season. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi