Dodge City

1939 - Warner Brothers
Directed By Michael Curtiz


SYNOPSIS

Dodge City is ruled by an outlaw Jeff Surrett (Bruce Cabot) and is the kind of place where it's not even safe for a kid to walk down the street during the day. Trail boss Wade Hatton (Errol Flynn) arrives with friends (Alan Hale + Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams) and is inspired by the extreme violence to take the vacant job of sheriff. He begins to bring law and order to the town, irking Surrett. Surrett's gang starts going after two newspaper reporters (Frank McHugh + Oliva de Havilland) trying to expose him as a crook... giving Hatton enough fuel to take down Surrett and bring peace to the town.

MY THOUGHTS



Westerns had long been the stuff of 'B' movies, but by the end of the 30's they'd come into vogue. Dodge City (along with Stagecoach and Destry Rides Again) rode the first wave of 'A' western pictures and it does it in style.

Practically every Warner Brothers film of the 30's moved at a breakneck speed. Apart from the main set pieces, Dodge City slows down to a more leisurely pace. One of the few Technicolor films of the era, the slower pace shows off the beautiful settings in vivid color even better than the fast-paced The Adventures of Robin Hood. Thanks to the expert direction of Michael Curtiz, even with the slower pace, it doesn't drag at all.

Dodge City plays with every western staple that we now call a cliche (except the duel at high noon.) The barroom brawl (see video above,) gun-play in the streets, a bad saloon girl, cattle drive, new sheriff in town, walking on top of moving trains, lynch mobs are all there and more. The filmmakers take these familiar scenes and make them epic. Most western barroom brawls usually only have about a dozen fighters, Dodge City has at least 50 people battling at once!

Errol Flynn is his usual dashing self and the top-notch production benefits from top-notch supporting players. Like most of their parings, Flynn and de Havilland hate each other but grow to like each other by the end.

Alan Hale usually supported Flynn as a sidekick. Here he gives one of his best comic performances.  Wanting to ditch alcohol, he joins a temperance movement with a bunch of old bitties. The temperance meeting is right next to the saloon and the brawl spills over to the meeting (again see above,) dragging Hale's character back into the fold of the 'sinners.' He's funny throughout the film.

Ann Sheridan seems to relish the 'bad saloon girl' role, but is given little to do apart from sing and dance on stage... but she looks good doing it.

Stagecoach and Destry Rides Again may stand a cut above Dodge City as works of art, but the Errol Flynn-starrer is more fun.