Gunsmoke – Return To Dodge revives the exploits of Marshall Matt Dillon (James Arness), made famous by the Gunsmoke television series that played in the 1950s and has lived on until the present day through the wonders of syndicated reruns.

In this film, Dillon is now retired and trying to live a quiet and peaceful life, but when a band of thieves attacks, he's stabbed when he tries to defend himself. Word travels fast and Dillon's old friend, Miss Kitty, now residing in New Orleans, heads back to Dodge to make sure that he's doing ok. Her timing sucks though, because just as she arrives, Mannon is sprung from prison and bent on getting his revenge against everyone who was involved with sending him there in the first place.

As Mannon makes the rounds, the bodies start piling up – first the judge, then the Sheriff. Dillon figures it won't be long before he and Miss Kitty are next. Meanwhile, Dillon's old friend, Jack Flagg, also imprisoned, tries to convince the warden to let him out so that he can help Dillon take down Mannon and prevent any more deaths from occurring.

Gunsmoke – Return To Dodge is a pretty entertaining little made for TV western that references back to two episodes of the original series, Mannon and The Badge to give us a little background on some of the characters. Luckily, you don't need to have seen the original episodes to make sense of the film as all the info you need is regurgitated here for you. This makes the film a good starting point for those who maybe aren't so familiar with the series as everything you need to get started with it is supplied for you and while it takes place within the continuity setup by the TV series, it's a self contained story.

As far as the quality of the movie goes, it plays like an above average episode of the series. Arness is solid as always in his role as Dillon, and Amanda Blake is very likeable as Miss Kitty. Steve Forrest in the role of Will Mannon is probably the best of the bunch though, grimacing and threatening his way through the film on his quest for revenge. So while the film isn't really treading any new ground, it still proves to be an entertaining and fun movie that, despite the stigma that 'made for TV movie' usually carries, is worth checking out.

Video:

This movie was originally made for TV so with that in mind, it shouldn't be surprising to find that it's presented in a fullframe presentation. For the most part, it looks pretty good too. There's some mild grain present and a little bit of edge enhancement but the colors look nice and there's a reasonably high level of detail present throughout.