Well, well. So this is Dodge City, huh? Sort of smells like Fort Worth, don't it? "Dodge City, Kansas - 1872. Longhorn cattle center of the world and wide-open Babylon of the American frontier - packed with settlers, thieves and gunmen". "Dodge City... rolling in wealth from the great Texas trail-herds... the town that knew no ethics but cash and killing". Enter trail boss Wade Hatton, cunningly disguised as a dashing Errol Flynn... Dodge City, an all action Western from start to finish, finds Errol Flynn (in his first Western outing) on tip top form. Based around the story of Wyatt Earp, Michael Curtiz's expensively assembled film charms as much today as it did to audiences back in 1939. All the genre staples are holding the piece together, dastardly villains, pretty gals, wagon train, cattle drive, iron horse, Civil War, shoot outs, fist fights and of course an heroic Sheriff. All neatly folded by the astute and impressive Curtiz. Aided by Sol Polito's fluid Technicolor enhanced photography, and Max Steiner's breezy score, Curtiz's set pieces shine as much as they enthral. A burning runaway train and the finest saloon brawl in cinema are the stand outs, but there are many other high points on which to hang the hat of praise. Very much a male dominated film, it's with the ladies that Dodge City fails to reach greater heights. Olivia de Havilland, who is always a feast fo…

A mediocre western set to be carried by the charisma of its two leading actors. Root out the bad guys and get the girl is what "Dodge City" can be boiled down to. It has many predictable moments that you don't have to be an astute viewer, to see coming. That fact does, however, not make it a drag to watch, which is down to the phenomenal cast. Olivia de Havilland doesn't get much to do except to stand around and look pretty, which is such a waste of one of the finest actresses the medium ever had. Flynn is charming and charismatic as ever. Alan Hale does a great job as the funny sidekick that you cannot help but adore as the film goes on. One thing the film itself deserves praise for, is its bar fight, which has to be the nuttiest one I have seen in any western. They go all out, and I can't imagine someone didn't get hurt for real during it. It's a motion picture mostly for die hard fans of cast members such as Flynn or de Havilland. Other than that, there's not much to it. If you're not the biggest western fan, this surely won't win you over, and western connoisseurs will most likely be bored.

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