Gunsmoke (1955) s01e10 Episode Script

Announcer: Starting james arness as matt dillon.
It's hard to figure which is worse, Hating a man because he's different, Or hating him because he's got something you want.
Stupidity and greed.
I buried 'em both out here too many times.
But they always show up again.
I know.
My name's dillon, u.
S.
Marshal.
And I also know that down there in dodge, Down among the randy, hard-living citizens, There'll still be some that haven't learned, That don't understand, The lesson boot hill could teach 'em.
Four hours late again.
Always four hours late.
Every day I gotta spent four hours sweatin' in that oven.
Waiting to welcome another load of gamblers, thieves, gunmen.
This town is an abomination in the sight of the lord.
Should be wiped from the face of the earth.
I reckon mr.
Bailey figures the longbranch will be cooler.
Oh, yeah.
For a man as bothered about salvation as you are, You spend considerable time in those establishments of sin.
My god, I fight sin.
I fight sin.
Not indulge in it.
I gotta lift the spirits of those who have fallen.
I've noticed that your spirits are pretty high when you leave.
Whoa.
Whoa! One passenger.
Huh, welcome to dodge.
It's a miserable sinful town But I suppose it makes no difference to a poor chinese.
Well, look what got off the stage.
A chinaman.
Well, he's going right off with it.
Oh, oh! Chen good boy.
Come working with that.
We don't care why you came, all we care is when you get.
It's gonna be now.
Hey, leave him be.
You can't do this.
The bible- We don't want this chinaman Or any of his friends or family in dodge.
No family.
One man.
One.
Uh, one boy.
Two.
That's good.
What's good about it, howard? Three! Take it out, tim.
Hold it, tim.
What's good about his not having a family? It's good because there's too many chinese In this country already.
We don't want a lot of his kind running around In dodge, marshal.
What's your name, fella? Chen lan wong.
Good boy.
A kitchen place dodge city.
All the time, workin' hard.
No make trouble.
Well, I'm a u.
S.
Marshal, chen.
You're welcome in dodge.
You can stay here as long as you like.
Come on down outta there.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Wait a minute, marshal.
What are you mixin' up in this for? Ain't no law that says We gotta have a lot of chinamen around here.
What's the matter with you people, anyway? I'll tell you what's the matter, marshal: Two years ago, there used to be Three of us bradens.
And one day we find our kid brother lying in the brush, A pick driven clean through him.
You know who put it there? One of them.
We got back to camp, There must have been All of our claim, eating our grub and digging our gold.
We buried jimmy and went out and brought back the vigilantes, But the chinamen were all gone.
And so was our gold.
They worked it clean.
We know about his kind.
Take a look in that box, marshal.
I'll bet it's full of money he stole somewhere.
Me no steal.
Chen, I told you you're welcome in dodge, and you are.
If these two men bother you, you just come to me.
Come on.
Wait a minute, marshal.
You mean you're sidin' with this chinese, marshal? I don't care what he is.
You boys leave him alone.
You let him stay, And there'll be a thousand of 'em here in six months.
Maybe you're right.
We're not gonna take that chance, marshal.
Get a move on, rabb.
Howard.
Thank you, mr.
Dillon, for protecting this boy.
You can count on me to, uh, show those young men The error of their ways, And bring 'em back to true christian tolerance.
Oh, I wish you a lot of luck, mr.
Bailey.
M-m-me very sorry.
No like to bring trouble.
I'll handle the trouble, chen.
Well, what kind of work are you looking for? Oh, me kitchen place.
Very good cook.
Chinese cook, ham and egg, uh, you see.
Oh, mr.
Dillon, we ought to take him Down to dodge house.
I got drunk again last night, and mr.
Green fired me.
Maybe he hasn't found a new cook yet.
All right, chester, take him down there.
Uh, thank you very much.
Come on, chen.
Malt is good tonic for the blood, you should remember that.
Whiskey Ah, it'll ruin your liver and destroy your will.
It's the work of the devil.
Have another beer, mr.
Bailey.
I'll buy.
Yeah, I think I will.
Give me another beer, sam.
Uh, although it'd be my pleasure to buy for you.
If you were drinking the wine of repentance instead of that- That rotgut.
Repentance? For what? For your treatment of that poor chinese.
Oh, he's chinese, all right, but you can bet he's not poor.
I didn't mean poor in material ways.
Well, whether you meant it or not, he ain't.
Up in the gold camp, all the rich ones had boxes Just like that.
They keep the money in it.
We've seen 'em.
Do you seriously believe this chinaman is wealthy? I know it.
They never spend a dime.
Live all year off a little rice and some bacon rind.
They save their money in a box just like the one he's got.
There's only one thing more important to a chinaman, And that's his pigtail.
The ones that got 'em Would cut their throat before they'd cut it off.
It's their big medicine.
Now, I don't hold with killing people, But we don't get rid of this one, And they're gonna be thicker than flies inside a month.
Well, killing chinamen ain't really the same As killing people.
No! No bloodshed.
I- I think I know a way To make him to leave without violence.
Well, if you can figure it out, we'll do it.
Finish your beer.
We'll buy another.
Huh? Uh.
Unh.
Come in.
Hello, doc.
Chen.
You know, chen, you'd have been better off Doing the job yourself.
Doc here is as likely to pull a good one as a bad one.
Forgiveness isn't one of your virtues, is it, matt? Well, you pulled a perfectly good tooth that night.
You still charged me for it.
Well, I don't know why not.
I pulled the bad one too, didn't I? Yeah.
Once you sobered up.
Sobered up? I had been 48 hours without sleep.
I had delivered two babies, Thirty miles apart, In the dead of winter.
I should've left it in there.
It might've taught you a lesson.
Let your jaw ache.
Taught you a lesson.
What kind of lesson is that, doc? Humility.
I always figured I was kinda humble.
Huh.
You're about as humble as a turpentined cat.
There you are, chen.
Oh, yes, here.
You better come back And let me take a look at that in a day or two.
Thank you, doctor.
I will.
How much do I owe you? Well.
.
Give me a dollar.
Very good.
Very good? What happened to all that, um? Very-good-chinese boy, All-time-worky talk, chen? That's the way you expect me to talk, isn't it? I guess it is.
Most men resent a chinaman Who doesn't talk the way they expect him to.
I wish to avoid trouble.
But trouble comes, regardless.
Wait a minute, chen.
Who cut it off? The same two men.
They came to my room last night.
They said if I didn't leave town, They would be back and cut my throat.
Then they cut off my queue and took it with them.
That makes my disgrace even worse.
Disgrace? The queue- or pigtail, as you call it.
-Was once a sign of manchu subjugation, But now it represents our pride and respect in ourselves And our country.
I can never return to china without my queue.
Oh, chen's going back to china to get his wife, matt.
I've been married Since I was 8 and she was 2.
I'm trying to save enough money to get my wife And bring her back with me.
I love this country, and I want to make it my home.
But when I go back to china, I will have my queue Or the lives of the men who took it.
Don't go trying to kill anybody, chen.
I'm very sorry, marshal, to cause you trouble.
No, trouble's his business.
Thank you, marshal.
Thank you, doctor.
You think they'll give him back his pigtail? I think they will.
Evening, kitty.
Evening, matt.
They got quite a crowd here tonight.
Sam got the bright idea Of offering every other drink on the house To any trail hand that had to come in here.
Looks like he's a pretty good businessman.
Well, if he keeps up, I might as well move on out to their camp and join up.
I think it'd be easier.
They'd be glad to have you, kitty.
You think so? I know so.
Hey, there, marshal.
Evening, miss kitty.
Evenin'.
You may have a beer with me, miss kitty? No, thanks.
I'm, uh- I'm giving my stomach a rest.
Later, maybe.
Why don't you leave this place, miss kitty? You don't belong here with the sinners.
I know.
We've talked all about that.
You seen howard or rabb tonight? Not yet.
They'll be in pretty soon, I expect.
What are you looking for those two for? Well, I want 'em to return a little private property To a friend of mine.
Howard and rabb stealing? All right, boys.
That's enough.
Keep clear, marshal.
This is texas business.
You're in dodge now, and that makes it my business.
If you wanna fight, get outta town.
Why don't you let 'em go at it, marshal? They weren't hitting nothing except each other.
And little enough of that.
Look, I said if you wanna fight, get outta town.
Now, that goes for all of you.
You're so used to killing, You forget a man needs a fight sometimes Just for pure enjoyment.
We were just having fun.
You got no sporting blood.
All you got's a badge and a fast gun.
I just might find time to accommodate you, texas.
No, you ain't.
I'm gonna fight him all the way back to camp.
Just as soon as we've had another drink.
You're always spoiling somebody's fun, Ain't you, marshal? If you wanna stop real trouble, Get that chinaman outta town.
I thought I told you to stay away from chen.
Stay away from him? He's been following us all evening.
Wherever we go, he's right with us.
Just standing around, staring.
I'm warning you, marshal: I'm gonna put a bullet in him before he gets me.
You're not gonna put a bullet in anybody.
You're gonna give him back his pigtail, And leave him alone.
His pigtail? What are you talking about? You went up to his room last night And cut off his pigtail.
No, we didn't.
He's lying, marshal.
All them chinamen is liars.
Look, I want that pigtail.
Now where is it? I don't know nothing about no pigtail, mr.
Dillon.
What's the matter, you collecting pigtails? You know, the marshal's here to keep the law.
And the law says there ain't gonna be no stealing.
Somebody stole a pigtail.
Marshal's gotta find it.
Maybe we all better help him look.
I know where he can find a dozen pigtails.
Down at fred henry's hog ranch.
Texas, maybe you'd better just turn around And finish that drink, huh? Now.
That goes for you too.
Now, you want me to beat the truth outta you? Wait a minute.
It's your own rule, marshal: No fighting in town.
What are you trying to do? Make everybody else obey the law, except you? You're a little off the trail, aren't you, mr.
Dillon? If these men done a crime, Then arrest 'em and throw 'em in jail.
But you got no call to beat a man without proof.
That's right.
You wanna fight, get outta town.
That's your rule.
We don't wanna fight with the marshal.
He's the best man dodge ever had.
All we want is a drink.
Just one thing: Chen's gonna get that pigtail back, If I have to take off this badge To find out who's got it.
Well, that's all right with me, marshal.
But don't you forget, There's plenty of men in this town That'd cut that chinaman's throat for that treasure box.
Let me know when they leave.
Yes, sir.
What are we gonna do now? I don't know what we're gonna do now.
As to mr.
Bailey, maybe he's got another smart idea.
He'll leave.
He'll leave tonight.
At 7.
How are you gonna manage it? I'll talk to him first.
You meet me there in ten minutes.
They leave yet? No, kitty's watching 'em.
I thought I better tell ya.
Tell me what? Well, they gave the pigtail to mr.
Bailey.
Then he went out.
Maybe he went to give it back to chen.
Well, I don't know, mr.
Dillon.
Rabb gave him a gun too.
All right.
Oh.
Tell me where the treasure box is.
I'll get the pigtail for you.
Tell me! Under board.
Board.
Board.
Where? Where? Where?! Under table.
Table.
Table.
Board.
Quickly.
Get up.
Oh.
W-why you kill chen? You get the box.
In a minute, Howard and rabb will be here, With the marshal right behind 'em.
He'll find 'em here, With your body and this gun.
They'll hang.
I regret it, but you gotta die.
Not yet bailey.
You hurt bad? I'll be all right.
Thanks you, mr.
Dillon.
You saved my life.
He must have been crazy.
He wanted my treasure box.
Mr.
Dillon.
Somebody's coming.
ChenDon't do it.
They took my queue.
The chinaman killed him.
All he was trying to do was help.
Is that why you gave him your gun? He asked me for it.
He said he might need it to scare the chinaman a little.
I killed him, not chen.
And now, I will kill you both.
Unless you give me back the queue.
Chen.
You don't have to kill anybody.
Marshal, I will not lose my honor as a chinese.
Your honor as a chinese? Chen, you said you wanted to bring your wife here.
To make your home in this country.
Well, if you do that, You've got to live as an american, Not as a chinese.
If you have to kill two men over a pigtail, You don't belong in dodge or anyplace else in this country.
Wait a minute, boys.
You've got something to do first.
What's in it? Nine dollars and 27 cents.
This piece of paper.
In america you would call that a marriage license.
You see, it is only a treasure to me.
Yeah.
I see.
Well, chen, let's get you over to doc's And get your face patched up.
You were right, marshal.
Would you please consider keeping this as a souvenir?