George Kennedy goes in every direction, from evil, mean, crazy, controlling, and finally he tries to be nice. Too little, too late. Kennedy plays Warden and he has an unhealthy hold over his dim-witted lackey Trainey (Christopher Connelly), who is enthralled by and also terrified of Warden.
Two years earlier, Warden was the Warden of some kind of prison for kids, and it caught fire with his wife and daughter inside. Why Warden had his wife and child locked up in a prison is never explained, and just one reason the story is not very credible.
Even dumber is that Trainey had the key, but could not open the lock to the front gate, so 30 prison kids and Warden's wife and child died. Trainey never figured out that the reason the lock would not open is because Warden gave him the wrong lock. It took Trainey two years to figure out that Warden had given him the wrong key, when Julie Parrish (Bullfoot's Indian daughter) reasoned out that if the key did not work, it must have been the wrong key. Even then Trainey was mystified by her logic. I have to rank Trainey as one of the dumbest characters to ever appear on Gunsmoke.
There is a weird homo-erotic sub-plot here which is never explained. Essentially Warden killed his wife and child and 30 others so that he could live with Trainey in a wagon for two years. Trainey wants to leave Warden, but Warden blackmails Trainey as the killer of 30 kids, and is constantly guilting him. Trainey thinks Warden saved him from hanging, but it was Warden that got everyone killed.
At some point George Kennedy crosses paths with Anthony Caruso, who is playing Bullfoot, the stereotype Indian who is a theif that sells his daughter to strangers, because she is trained to run away and return home. Caruso admits to Matt Dillon that he used to sell his dog, until the dog did not return, so now he sells his daughter. Kennedy buys the girl, and goes nuts when she takes off. He then wants to kill Bullfoot, and capture the girl.
Cool Dawn (Julie Parrish) is the pretty non-Indian white girl who plays Caruso's emotionally abused Native American child. Festus immediately gets enamored of the girl too, since she is barely 16 and he is 40. Trainey is in love with the girl too, since he finally sees a way to escape the clutches of Kennedy /Warden. Kennedy & Trainey eventually go back to kidnap Cool Dawn, and Caruso / Bull Foot gets shot.
Festus rescues Bull Foot and takes him to Dodge. Marshal Dillon is on the case now, and Justice will be done. At the end, Cool Dawn settles for Trainey, and Bull Foot / Caruso does some more outdated stereotype remarks. Trainey thinks Bullfoot is funny, and wants to marry into his family.
The best highlight is that Dillon dispenses Justice with his gun in this one. Cool Dawn is bright, so why she loves a father (Caruso) that sells her to travelers is beyond me.