The Gunfight at Dodge City

My vote has always been that of all the great stars identified as western heroes, none was more upright than Joel McCrea. In fact whenever he tried to vary that character, the results usually weren't that good. Even in comedy parts like his films with Preston Sturges, he's still an honorable man, albeit caught up in some lunacy.

McCrea never crossed the line into making himself look ridiculous like Dudley Doo-Right and The Gunfight at Dodge City is a case in point. Here he's playing Bat Masterson who has come into Dodge City after a killing in another town and buys an interest in the Lady Gay Saloon owned by widow Nancy Gates. Brother Ed Masterson, played by Harry Lauter is the town marshal and he's keeping company with preacher's daughter played by Julie Adams.

Brother Ed is shot in the back during a cowboy hurrahing of Dodge City and Bat steps in to take his place. He brings some law and order back to Dodge City and makes both friends and enemies in the process. And he's got both the women mentioned before interested in him.

Fate would have it, a friend from another town comes back in his life. He wants him to bust his brother, who's mentally retarded, out of custody. The brother has killed a man who was making fun of him. He owes this guy big time and he has a responsibility to his badge in Dodge City.

I won't say anything, but Joel McCrea never took the less honorable route in his cinematic career. And as for which woman he winds up with? See the film.

Also look for an unusual performance against type from Richard Anderson. Anderson usually plays nice guys and he's best known for being Lee Majors boss in the Six Million Dollar Man. He's a serpentine villain here and a good one.

I saw this when I was 12 years old when it was the second feature of a double bill. That's what McCrea westerns were relegated to at that time. But Joel McCrea was a real cowboy hero to this 12 year old.

Still is.

It deals with the gun-down that cracked the West wide open , as Bat Masterson (Joel McCrea) doesn't look for problems , but he doesn't walk away from it . When an army sergeant in Hays City attempts to shot Bat and dies for this attack , Bat heads for Dodge City where Ed , his brother , is city marshal and a candidate for county sheriff running against the nasty Regan (Don Haggerty) . While Masterson buys a share in a local saloon called ¨Lady gay¨ , partnering with the widow Lily (Nancy Gates) . Then , after an ambush carried out by the corrupt Dave Rudabaugh (Richard Anderson) , Bat , helped by a fine Doctor (John McIntire) , finds himself a candidate for sheriff and the heir to Ed's intentions toward Pauline (Julie Adams) , a minister's daughter . As Bat Masterson is elected to the job and is determined to find the killer and to maintain law and order and make Dodge City safe.

Better than average Western with Joel McCrea as the famous gunman and gambler Bat Masterson . As it stars Joel MacCrea who performed lots of Westers as ¨Unión Pacific¨, ¨Buffalo Bill¨ , ¨the Virginian¨, ¨Ramrod¨, ¨South of St Louis¨ , ¨4 faces West¨ , ¨The Oklahoman¨ and his final classic ¨Ride the high county¨ along with Randolph Scott . It contains a good cast as John MacIntire as a good Doctor , Richard Anderson , Don Haggerty , Timothy Carey , James Westerfield as reverend and two gorgeous girls : Julia Adams and Nancy Gates who previously played opposite a different Bat , George Montgomery , in the Western ¨Masterson of Kansas¨ . The movie is inspired on true events . Thus , Bartholomew ¨Bat¨ Masterson (1853-1921) spent the last twenty years of his life as a popular sports writer on New York newspaper . Previously he had taken part in the battle of Adobe Walls in 1874 in which a small party of hunters beat off a fierce attack by hundreds of Indians , events narrated in the meeting between Bat and the old man at the beginning of the film . In 1878 the marshal of Dodge City was shot by two cowboys , Bat rushed to the scene and gunned down the killer . Bat was appointed as deputy U.S. marshal by the Mayor and shortly after captured noted outlaw . Along with Bat were hired to keep the peace as lawman Wyatt Earp and Bill Tilghman . In 1902 he settled in N.Y.City and became a successful sports writer on the Morning Telegraph and he died at his desk from a heart attack . Masterson said he has not killed as many men as was popularly supposed though he had experienced a great many difficulties . The picture is set in Dodge City , Kansas , the most celebrated of the cowboy cattle towns , became a major railhead cowtown for the cattle driven up from Texas over the long trails , during the cattle boom Dodge shipped more than 250.ooo head a year . The free-spending cowboys attracted professional gamblers , badmen , saloon and brothel keepers and became a rough town in the best traditions of the wild west . Dodge City reigned as ¨Queen of the Cowtowns¨ until final XIX century when the free range cattle industry came to an end .

The film is an enjoyable western and well written by Martin Goldsmith based on a story by Daniel Ullman . Agreeable and evocative musical score by Hans J. Salter . Colorful and glimmer cinematography by Carl E. Guthrie . Production is in charge of Walter Mirish , an usual western producer: the Magnificent Seven saga . The motion picture was rightly directed by Joseph M. Newman . Joseph made all kinds of genres : drama , thrillers as ¨King of the roaring¨, ¨The story of Arnold Rothstein¨, ¨Love nest¨, ¨Great Dan Patch¨ , ¨Jungle Patrol¨ and a classic Sci-Fi : ¨The Island Earth¨. The flick will appeal to western moviegoers.

We've seen it all before in so many Westerns, even to the cosy buggy ride out into the country for a bit of romancing. If the tagline was "All The Thundering Might Of The Most Famed Gunfight Of Them All!", then this was hyperbole even by Hollywood standards; when I sat down to watch it it I thought it might be a reworking of the OK Corral shootout, but it wasn't; the inevitable gunfight at the end was quite tame, and its outcome predictable. McCrea was in his latish fifties when the film was made, and it would have been a sad swansong for an usually-watchable actor; thank goodness he went onto make "Ride the High Country".

Absent from this film are Wyatt Earp, Masterson's close friend and colleague in Dodge City, and Masterson's dapper clothing, a lifelong trademark, two major flaws in the film. His avoidance of public office doesn't ring true, either. The plot itself takes considerable liberties with the truth. (The television series "Bat Masterson" was closer to the truth in spirit and sometimes in fact.)

However, McCrea's intelligent and introspective portrayal of Masterson is on the mark. The acting of him and the rest of the cast carry the film, which is saddled with uninspired direction.

I enjoyed this. It provides everything one expects from a Western: good plot, revenge, love, conflict between law and personal conscience, plenty of gun-play, and mood. And a few excellent quotes. Try: "The distance between here and that street is the distance between a rabbit and a man." The beginning is refreshing too. Before the title and opening credits, a world-weary McCrea is telling a simple teenage boy who admires his prowess with a gun what it really is like. How scared one is, how little it has to do with heroics, and how awfully wretched one feels afterwards. In this film, the gunfights are fast, and mostly in the dark. That's probably more accurate than so many more overblown sequences in other films. The performances on everyone's part, even the baddies', are in many ways unexpectedly subtle. Take Regan, the bad Sheriff. Look at his strange, tormented eyes. None of it's overplayed. If it's raining outside, get out the popcorn and curl up with this.