Gunsmoke Song for Dying (1955–1975) watch online HD

This episode combines many aspects of life to make for one good story that was an entertaining from beginning to end. From laughter, to regret to sorrow, this episode scanned the entire gambit of emotion.

The story follows a man named Martin. Once he was a doctor and decided thirteen years ago to give up the practice when drinking was more desirable. Recently a man, Will Lukens, had a young wife that was having a hard time with a child birth. Lukens sent for Martin but he never arrived and Lukens blames Martin for her death. Now with his three sons, Will is hunting down the guitar playing Martin to kill him for letting his wife die.

When Martin arrives in Dodge he plays and sings for the people in the Long Branch. When someone tries to kill him the townsfolk know that Martin is a hunted man and wants him to leave town. But Martin is tired of running and will face down Lukens and his boys in the town of Dodge.

There is much going on in this episode with some familiar faces in the cast. Lee Majors (Big Valley fame) and Roger Ewing (soon to be Thad Greenwood) are two of the three Lukens boys that are with their father to seek revenge. With the suspense of the showdown and the lonely sounding songs from the script, the episode has rather a haunting theme. The story was excellent and the acting well done. A show that when the credit began to roll you know you had been entertained. Good watch!

Theodore Bikel rides into town, all 300 pounds of him. He is never actually shown riding a horse, just getting off. The worst part of this episode is that Bikel is traveling from town to town getting drinks at bars by singing. Bikel's singing is awful even by the low standards of singing cowboy Westerns. Bikel's horrible singing is highlighted on at least four occasions, so be ready to hit the mute button on the remote.

Bikel plays a burned out hack doctor who is being pursued by the incredibly obnoxious and nasty Robert F. Simon. Simon usually plays an unreasonable and vicious guy in nearly every role. In this episode Simon is his usual vile character, as he literally beats his adult sons (including young Lee Majors) into trying to bushwhack or murder Bikel. Simon is upset that Bikel did not save the life of his much younger Indian wife, when she was giving birth.

Overall, this is a tough episode to watch. Bikel and Simon are two incredibly ponderous and horrible actors. They overwork every scene, and make what could be an average story into something that seemed to take three hours.

Ignore the review by Johnny_West as it sounds like he has a personal dislike for two fine actors, Theodore Bikel and Robert Simon. The previous review complains about the singing (which I thought was pretty good) and attributes it to Mr. Bikel. I believe it is another artist, not Mr. Bikel. You should watch and form your own opinion, don't decide based on the opinion of Johnny_West.

I wish to echo what coneywithcheese had to say! In fact, this is the first time I am putting a review on here, I signed up specifically to make some comments I feel were (marginally) important. All in all, I would say that this is a better than average episode of a much better than average series. However, for me, being a fan of many types of music, music history, and the history of modern entertainment, I found the pieces with Theodore Bikel singing to be the high points of this episode. Not only was Theodore Bikel well regarded as an actor, one that could give incredible depth to difficult characters, he was also a world renowned folk singer. He spoke several languages fluently. And sang songs from many nations. In his day, his recordings and albums sold very well. Sadly, he is one of way too many wonderful artists that are too soon forgotten. That is one of the best parts of older television series. Sometimes in some shows, in a few series it might be often, they showcase an artist or routines, comedy, or songs, most of us would never hear otherwise. Gunsmoke did not have very many such episodes. In several we do get to hear Ken Curtis singing for a bit. Most of those do not really show his talents, he was trying to play up the hillbilly bum part. In this episode, we get to hear Theodore Bikel doing one of the many things he did very well. And while you are at it? Enjoy the story.

Nice gentle story for a change with npt too much random senseless killing until,the end. Fine, multi award winnimg actor, Bikel adds depth to the story.The endless "revenge for my whomever" theme really gets overused on Gunsmoke