Movie Monday Review: Dodge City

Olivia de Havilland and Errol Flynn

Dodge City (1939)

Starring: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Ann Sheridan, Bruce Cabot, Alan Hale Sr., Guinn Terrell Williams Jr.

Summary

Now that the railroad has been completed, new cities are being built and settled. Dodge City is one of those new communities but soon becomes a raucous and drunken town run by thieves and villains. Former buffalo hunter for the railroad, Wade Hatton (Errol Flynn), returns to Dodge City after many years finding it in disarray. He, along with his friends, are now cattle herdsmen coming up from Texas. Finding Dodge City in a terrible situation, run by brute Jeff Surrett (Bruce Cabot), he finally agrees to help bring law and order back to Dodge City.

As sheriff, Hatton is able to make Dodge City a safe and pleasant city to live in, taking down the high and mighty Surrett. Along the way, he finds love as the fiery Abbie Irving helps him bring down Surrett with her work in the newspaper.

Surrett (Bruce Cabot) and Hatton (Errol Flynn) face off

Review

A well-done western, Dodge City does a good job of balancing the bad guy versus the good guy. Errol Flynn plays a very charismatic character, a take-charge personality. Annoying to Oliva de Havilland at first, who is just as dogmatic and full of personality, the two of them eventually show a surprising tenderness for each other. This is in classic form for the two of them, similar to their other films – showing a disdain for each other which soon turns to happy love.

Humor is woven throughout the story as the bumbling friends, Alan Hale and Guinn Terrell Williams Jr., get themselves into scrapes back and forth (including getting hooked by the Ladies Temperance league). But it also shows the situations that post-Civil War attitudes brought along with them.

The tenderness of Flynn is remarkable for a movie of this genre. Feelings of sorrow for having to kill someone close to de Havilland is real and he genuinely apologizes (it was all in self-defense). This makes their romance all the more sweet, as he feels sadness and she learns forgiveness!

All-in-all, this is a great western, full of the action and characters wanted in this sort of film! You can’t beat the Flynn and de Havilland combo!

Hatton with his pals

#MovieMonday #Reviews