Errol Flynn was now riding high and the studio decided to put him in a western - not just any western but possibly the biggest budget western to date. Everything about Dodge City is BIG. The biggest stampede, the biggest saloon brawl, the biggest lynch mob, the biggest train battle, etc. etc. (Scenes were shot for this film that were used in dozens of films and TV episodes for decades to come.) The cast is enormous and full of recognizable actors, (including five members of the same year's 'Gone With the Wind'). All the bigness obscures what is essentially a B movie plot in an epic frame.
The beginning of the film is a history lesson about the coming of the railroad and the death of the great buffalo herds. At the end, Flynn's hero, Wade Hatton is invited to come to Virginia City, (the title of a later Flynn western with an unrelated plot), to clean that other legendary town up. But in between it's the old one about the drifter who sides with the oppressed against the guy who owns the town. To me it seems a bit lesser than many of Flynn's other westerns because of the cliches. But it's usually cited as one of the big films of Hollywood's biggest year. It is certainly energetic and entertaining enough.
Basically, it's about standing up to the bad guys after several outrages as a series of characters fall victim to the heavies before the hero, a drifter who doesn't want to get involved feels obligated to act. Flynn becomes the sheriff of Dodge and institutes, of all things, gun control! He gets the goods on the town boss with Olivia De Havilland as the key witness and the final confrontation comes when Flynn tries to get her and a captured henchman out of town on a train that catches fire as the two sides battle it out.
One who wasn't' impressed was Olivia De Havilland, who was so upset to be playing Flynn's love interest in still another film that she cried between scenes. She's supposed to have made the absurd suggestion that she switch roles with Ann Sheridan as a raucous saloon girl. Starring in a big budget Hollywood film would not seems like something to cry about but actors are like that. There were three more Flynn films to come, one in a minor role in 'Elizabeth and Essex' and two very good roles in better westerns, 'Santa Fe Trail' and 'They Died With Their Boots On'. There was also GWTW, two Oscars and a famous lawsuit.
Flynn is supposed to have reservations of his own: What is he, an Australian, doing in the American West? The film tries to explain this with a lengthy description by Hale of all the adventures Wade Hatton has had all over the world. There was really no need. Nearly everyone in the West who wasn't an Indian or Mexican came from elsewhere. The stereotypical westerner didn't exist yet. A guy like Flynn, had he been born in the previous century, might have come here for the gold and silver rushes. Much of the money than went into the West came from the British Isles and the overseers of the big ranches were often from there. Then there were remittance men, members of wealthy families who were paid to go there after an estrangement. There would be seven more Flynn westerns to come and no attempt to explain how he got there was offered in any of them.
Among the featured players are Alan Hale and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams in their first pairing as Flynn's comic sidekicks, Bruce Cabot as the bad guy, Victor Jory and Ward Bond as two of his henchmen, Frank McHugh as a too-courageous newspaper editor, John Litel as a too determined cattleman, Bobs Watson as his too-cute son, Russell Simpson of 'The Grapes of Wrath' and many other recognizable faces. One is William Lundigan, a native of my town, (Syracuse NY), who like Ronald Reagan, was a good-looking radio announcer who decided to try his hand at Hollywood and wound up in several Flynn films in the 'second lead' role, although here he plays Olivia's foolish and drunken brother. He was also a pollical conservative who tried to follow Reagan's lead to a political career with less success and died early of a heart attack.
The suggestion that the saloon brawl be preceded by a musical duel of groups singing "Marching Through Georgia" and "Dixie" inspired the musical duel in 'Casablanca' is interesting. I confess that watching the comely Miss Sheridan in a sexy costume wandering through the brawl while a temperance meeting next door is compromised made me think of a certain scene in the 1970 film 'There Was A Crooked Man'. Perhaps that, too was inspired by 'Dodge City'.
The beginning of the film is a history lesson about the coming of the railroad and the death of the great buffalo herds. At the end, Flynn's hero, Wade Hatton is invited to come to Virginia City, (the title of a later Flynn western with an unrelated plot), to clean that other legendary town up. But in between it's the old one about the drifter who sides with the oppressed against the guy who owns the town. To me it seems a bit lesser than many of Flynn's other westerns because of the cliches. But it's usually cited as one of the big films of Hollywood's biggest year. It is certainly energetic and entertaining enough.
Basically, it's about standing up to the bad guys after several outrages as a series of characters fall victim to the heavies before the hero, a drifter who doesn't want to get involved feels obligated to act. Flynn becomes the sheriff of Dodge and institutes, of all things, gun control! He gets the goods on the town boss with Olivia De Havilland as the key witness and the final confrontation comes when Flynn tries to get her and a captured henchman out of town on a train that catches fire as the two sides battle it out.
One who wasn't' impressed was Olivia De Havilland, who was so upset to be playing Flynn's love interest in still another film that she cried between scenes. She's supposed to have made the absurd suggestion that she switch roles with Ann Sheridan as a raucous saloon girl. Starring in a big budget Hollywood film would not seems like something to cry about but actors are like that. There were three more Flynn films to come, one in a minor role in 'Elizabeth and Essex' and two very good roles in better westerns, 'Santa Fe Trail' and 'They Died With Their Boots On'. There was also GWTW, two Oscars and a famous lawsuit.
Flynn is supposed to have reservations of his own: What is he, an Australian, doing in the American West? The film tries to explain this with a lengthy description by Hale of all the adventures Wade Hatton has had all over the world. There was really no need. Nearly everyone in the West who wasn't an Indian or Mexican came from elsewhere. The stereotypical westerner didn't exist yet. A guy like Flynn, had he been born in the previous century, might have come here for the gold and silver rushes. Much of the money than went into the West came from the British Isles and the overseers of the big ranches were often from there. Then there were remittance men, members of wealthy families who were paid to go there after an estrangement. There would be seven more Flynn westerns to come and no attempt to explain how he got there was offered in any of them.
Among the featured players are Alan Hale and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams in their first pairing as Flynn's comic sidekicks, Bruce Cabot as the bad guy, Victor Jory and Ward Bond as two of his henchmen, Frank McHugh as a too-courageous newspaper editor, John Litel as a too determined cattleman, Bobs Watson as his too-cute son, Russell Simpson of 'The Grapes of Wrath' and many other recognizable faces. One is William Lundigan, a native of my town, (Syracuse NY), who like Ronald Reagan, was a good-looking radio announcer who decided to try his hand at Hollywood and wound up in several Flynn films in the 'second lead' role, although here he plays Olivia's foolish and drunken brother. He was also a pollical conservative who tried to follow Reagan's lead to a political career with less success and died early of a heart attack.
The suggestion that the saloon brawl be preceded by a musical duel of groups singing "Marching Through Georgia" and "Dixie" inspired the musical duel in 'Casablanca' is interesting. I confess that watching the comely Miss Sheridan in a sexy costume wandering through the brawl while a temperance meeting next door is compromised made me think of a certain scene in the 1970 film 'There Was A Crooked Man'. Perhaps that, too was inspired by 'Dodge City'.