Gunsmoke
Shadler
Season 18, Episode 17 · Aired 1973-01-15
Synopsis
Just before he's to be hung, stage robber Shadler busts out of jail, by slugging his last rites priest and donning the robes as a disguise. While burglarizing an uninhabited farm, the escapee helps Deputy U.S. Marshal Newly elude hostile lawmen quarantining a nearby outpost struck by a mysterious plague. Newly believes his pursuers are actually a ring of vultures waiting to loot the dying settlement. When Newly heads back to the besieged town, the fake padre insists on riding with him to minister to the dying citizens. Why is the hardened Shadler risking his health and freedom to throw in with law enforcement?
In the series
This episode is part of Gunsmoke (1955–1975) on CBS.
The long-running western that turned Dodge City into a weekly moral court.
Key cast
- James Arness as Marshal Matt Dillon
- Amanda Blake as Miss Kitty Russell
- Milburn Stone as Doc Adams
- Dennis Weaver as Chester Goode
- Ken Curtis as Festus Haggen