Dodge City Film Review

While watching this Western, it occurred to me that people back in 1939 (best year in film history) must have had a lot more patience than modern audiences. Other than a magnificent barroom brawl that must have lasted ten minutes of people getting thrown out of windows, broken tables, smashed mirrors and bottles, hundreds of punches thrown and landed and chairs over heads, there was basically no action till the final few minutes. The whole film was a build-up from the first meeting between Errol Flynn and the villain Bruce Cabot to the shootout that was like a sexual release. All foreplay. But filled with humanity, drama, romance, tragedy and Americana. The Conquest of the West. Civilization comes to town. Gun laws and taxes. The Republican Party would have hated it. All shot in beautiful stunning Technicolor. But the same thing was going on all over the continental USA. Rowdy towns being tamed, families moving in from the east looking for a better life, outlaws being caught and hanged. By men like Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson. In this and the film Virginia City, also directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Flynn, interestingly there are no Native Americans in the story. Which for me is a plus as they are normally portrayed so negatively. This was just white men and the slow march of Manifest Destiny. No blacks allowed in either.

Michael Curtiz was a prolific director, first in his home country of Hungary and Europe and then after moving to American in 1926 he continued with a number of good but not extraordinary films. In 1935 he was assigned to direct a middling Perry Mason film called The Case of the Curious Bride starring Warren William. When Curtiz was announced by Warner's as the director of the big budget Captain Blood later in the year, William thought he had an agreement to play the main character and was shocked when he learned that instead it went to the actor who had played a corpse in the Curious Bride. Errol Flynn by way of Australia. Curtiz wanted someone new to the screen and thought he had found him in the dashing matinee handsome Flynn. They made each other famous. Flynn was a natural. Not as an actor - he basically played the same type of character in most of his films - handsome, flippant, heroic, irresistible, the perfect smile and charming - but when he was on the screen, he dominated it. Even when he co-starred with Olivia de Havilland. The three of them were to quickly knock off three classics - Captain Blood, The Charge of the Light Brigade and Robin Hood.

Westerns though were back in fashion with John Ford's Stagecoach taking the genre out of the B film category. But could you take Flynn who fit his swashbuckling roles so well and put him into a Western. As a safety precaution, they bring de Haviland and his good luck piece, Alan Hale, with him. And basically, you replace a sword with a six-shooter. Flynn was to make eight Westerns but I don't think any of them matched up to his swashbuckling roles though perhaps They Died with Their Boots on comes close and Virginia City is a very fine film. The Sea Hawk with Curtiz directing came in 1940 but that was to really be Flynn's final swashbuckling role. Perhaps they were going out of style. Or he was bored with them.

The railroad came to Dodge City and turned it from a sleepy little town into a hub for the cattle men to bring their herds to be shipped off to the rest of the country. Along with people came the usual traits - gambling halls, women, gun fights and killings. Hatton (Flynn) is one of those cattlemen who brings his product to market. On the way he had to wound the brother of Abbie (de Havilland) who then was killed in a cattle stampede that he had caused. Thus putting in place their enmity. It isn't a great role for de Havilland but she looks like a shiny red apple and is the needed foil and love for Flynn. In Technicolor.

Hatton comes across Surrett (Cabot) who runs a casino and wants more. He and Hatton butt heads but when offered the job of Sheriff, Hatton turns it down. He and his two friends - Alan Hale and Guinn "Big Boy" William - both of whom play the same role in Virginia City - are not stay at home men. Only one thing can change his mind and nope, it isn't Abbie but you see it coming a mile away. Once he puts on the badge he cleans up the town. But even then there is no action - he just fills the jail with men.

Clearly, Curtiz wasn't looking for a standard Western of multiple gunfights every few minutes. He was looking for the story of America. Even the final gunfight feels like his heart isn't in it but it had to be done. Appearing also in a very fine cast is Ann Sheridan as the dance hall girl, Frank McHugh as the newspaper publisher, Henry Travers as the doctor and a bunch of character actors - Ward Bond, Gloria Holden (Dracula's Daughter), William Lundigan, Victor Jory (who also plays a swine gunman in Virginia City), John Litel and Henry O'Neill - all familiar faces in hundreds of films.