How to Kill a Friend | Gunsmoke (05-05-57)

In this classic episode of Gunsmoke, titled 'How to Kill a Friend' (original air date May 5, 1957), U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon confronts a dangerous web of betrayal and revenge in Dodge City. After being ambushed the night before, Dillon investigates a pair of gamblers—Carter and Duggan—who attempt to bribe him with a cut of their profits. When he refuses, he forces them to leave town on the next stagecoach. But their return, now accompanied by a mysterious stranger named Toc Marlin, reveals a deeper, personal vendetta. Marlin, a former friend of Dillon’s, reveals he was brutally beaten in Silver City years earlier by a mob, with a lawman complicit in the attack. Now a hired killer, Marlin seeks revenge—not just on Dillon, but on the system that failed him. As tensions escalate, Dillon must face not only a deadly gunman but the moral weight of justice, loyalty, and the cost of being a lawman in a lawless world. The episode culminates in a tense standoff at the Long Branch Saloon, where honor, money, and love collide.