The award-winning Golden Globe western for Best Outdoor Drama in 1956, "Wichita" reunited "Cat People" director Jacques Tourneur and leading man Joel McCrea for the third and final time. Previously, they teamed up to make the exceptional "Stars in My Crown" (1950) and "Stranger on Horseback" (1955). Although Tourneur won more kudos for his quiet little horror movies with Val Lewton, the Parisian native was no stranger to horse operas. In addition to his Joel McCrea westerns, he helmed "Canyon Passage" with Dana Andrews and "Great Day in the Morning" with Robert Stack. "Wichita" is a standard-issue, town-taming oater with McCrea cast as Wyatt Earp before he acquired his reputation as a lawman. Incidentally, when McCrea made this western, his portrayal of Earp was the tenth time that this famous badge-totter had been depicted. Prolific scenarist Dan Ullman, who also penned the screenplay for another McCrea sagebrusher "The Gunfight at Dodge City," would later reunite with Tourneur on "Great Day in the Morning." Ullman covered all the tropes in this wild and woolly western about cowboys herding cattle into a new railroad town and then blowing off with pent-up aggression as well as their pay on liquor and women. This western marked another collaboration between producer Walter Mirisch who had produced "The Gunfight at Dodge City" as well as "Fort Massacre" with McCrea. Mirisch assembled a first-rate cast that included several seasoned western actors, among them Jack Elam, Robert J. Wilke, Edgar Buchanan, Walter Coy, I. Stanford Jolly, John Smith, and Peter Graves.
Wyatt Earp (Joel McCrea of "The Virginian") rides into the wide-open cattle town on the inauguration of its first herd. In no time, he makes a reputation for himself when he foils a bank robbery and arouses the interest of the wealthiest townspeople. They marvel at his ability to handle a six-shooter without killing anybody and promptly offer him a badge that a lesser man is wearing. Politely but firmly, Wyatt turns them down until the drunken cowhands start shooting the town up and accidentally kill an innocent five-year old standing at an open window and watching their shenanigans. Town mayor Andrew Hope (Carl Benton Reid of "Escape from Fort Bravo") swears Earp in as marshal and our hero marches into the dark street armed with his six-gun and a long- barreled shotgun. He arrests the cowboys and herds them off to jail with the help of a local newspaper reporter, Bat Masterson (Keith Larson of "Last of the Badmen"), who later signs on to become his deputy before Earp's brothers Morgan (Peter Graves of "The Five-Man Army" and James (John Smith of TV's "Laramie") ride into town. Despite their repeated efforts to hire Wyatt and his general reluctance to accept the badge, the town wheels are pleased with his performance. Those halcyon days are short-lived after Wyatt issues a town proclamation that guns cannot be worn in town. Railroad entrepreneur Sam McCoy (Walter McCoy of "The Searchers") objects to this ordinance and others like fear like he does that Wyatt has doomed Wichita. When the cattlemen get wind of this law, the town big-wigs worry that they will divert their herds elsewhere and prosperity will be a thing of the past. For a while, Wyatt drives a wedge between them. The mayor refuses to fire him, while the others plot to drive him out.
"Wichita" is an above-average western with sturdy production values and good performances.
Wyatt Earp (Joel McCrea of "The Virginian") rides into the wide-open cattle town on the inauguration of its first herd. In no time, he makes a reputation for himself when he foils a bank robbery and arouses the interest of the wealthiest townspeople. They marvel at his ability to handle a six-shooter without killing anybody and promptly offer him a badge that a lesser man is wearing. Politely but firmly, Wyatt turns them down until the drunken cowhands start shooting the town up and accidentally kill an innocent five-year old standing at an open window and watching their shenanigans. Town mayor Andrew Hope (Carl Benton Reid of "Escape from Fort Bravo") swears Earp in as marshal and our hero marches into the dark street armed with his six-gun and a long- barreled shotgun. He arrests the cowboys and herds them off to jail with the help of a local newspaper reporter, Bat Masterson (Keith Larson of "Last of the Badmen"), who later signs on to become his deputy before Earp's brothers Morgan (Peter Graves of "The Five-Man Army" and James (John Smith of TV's "Laramie") ride into town. Despite their repeated efforts to hire Wyatt and his general reluctance to accept the badge, the town wheels are pleased with his performance. Those halcyon days are short-lived after Wyatt issues a town proclamation that guns cannot be worn in town. Railroad entrepreneur Sam McCoy (Walter McCoy of "The Searchers") objects to this ordinance and others like fear like he does that Wyatt has doomed Wichita. When the cattlemen get wind of this law, the town big-wigs worry that they will divert their herds elsewhere and prosperity will be a thing of the past. For a while, Wyatt drives a wedge between them. The mayor refuses to fire him, while the others plot to drive him out.
"Wichita" is an above-average western with sturdy production values and good performances.