Dodge City

The railway is pushing west and a town grows at the end of the line. Dodge City is the centre of the cattle trade; money is flowing and nobody bothers with the law. Jeff Surrett runs the town; the saloons are his, the gaming tables are his, and the sheriff is his man. Wade Hatton brings in a cattle drive. He does not mean to settle. Then a child is shot in the street. Wade takes the badge. He bans the carrying of guns, inspects the saloons and stands against Surrett. At first the town laughs at him. Michael Curtiz directs. Errol Flynn plays Wade and Olivia de Havilland plays Abbie; Ann Sheridan and Bruce Cabot are in the cast. It is an American production, made in 1939. The film was shot in colour, still an expensive choice at the time. The saloon brawl is its best known passage and was counted among the largest fight scenes of its period. Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland played together in many films; this is one of the pair's ventures into the western. The matter it treats is the founding of law; the film ties it to one man's decision. The narrative follows the classic western shape and does not leave it. The film belongs to the many large westerns made in 1939, the year the genre revived. The narrative gives no place to native people and carries the outlook of its period. Its limit is age; the narrative is conventional, the characters one dimensional, and the ending where expected. Who it is for: viewers who like classic Hollywood westerns and Errol Flynn's films. Who it is not for: it is old, conventional, and the ending easy.