GManfred "Dodge City" is a real good early 'A' western, at a time when they were usually second feature programmers. In the same year came "Stagecoach", but this one was in color, at a time when color features were just coming to prominence. The director was Michael Curtiz, who was four years away from "Casablanca". And he doesn't disappoint in this effort.A lot of reviewers have already weighed in but I just wanted to add that "Dodge City" recalls an earlier, more innocent era when you often went to the movies as a family and could watch movies suitable for the occasion. Now, of course, everything is R rated and you have to leave the little ones home.Errol Flynn was the good guy and Olivia DeHavilland was 'the girl'. The bad guys were Bruce Cabot (never trust Bruce Cabot) and Victor Jory. Sprinkled in were several identifiable character actors. Not a lot to think about here, just wait for the bad guys to get their comeuppance and applaud at the end. Hardly any applause anymore at the end of movies, but then most contemporary movies aren't worth the trouble.

John T. Ryan HAVING SUCCESS IN such costumers as CAPTAIN BLOOD and THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, the brass at Warner Brothers decided to give Mr. Errol Flynn a temporary new address. Instead of the High Seas or Sherwood Forest, we have the heroics performed in the Old West.BEING THAT THIS was a ground breaker for both Mr. Flynn, as well as the Studio, the trappings were superb; having spared no expenses. Technicolor was pressed into service; its first use at Warner Brothers having been applied in the previous years ROBIN HOOD (also a Flynn-Olivia De Haviland co-starring vehicle).IN THE "CHAIR" we have the very stylish, former documentary making Director, Michael Curtiz. Being the same guy who would ultimately deliver CASABLANCA (Warner Brothers, 1942), there were certain similarities in storytelling and photography in evidence. The use of crowds, the way in which one scene dissolves into the next and the method of spotlighting the main characters are testimony of what we are talking about.ONE PARTICULAR DRAMATIC device stands out in particular.IT IS THE Director's use of opposed and highly disparate groups being engaged in some bar room group singing is one ploy that Curtiz used more than once. Let us explain further.IT IS IN the mid-point of DODGE CITY that we see a stage show being performed with lead singer, Ruby Gilman (Anne Sheridan) is belting out "Marching Through Georgia"; which is joined in by about half of the saloon patrons, the Yankees. The other faction, the guys who are with Errol's cattle drive from Texas, is comprised of former Confederates. The Southerners counter with their rendition of "Dixie": which wins the vocal skirmish, and at least compensates, in a small measure, for the surrender at Appomatix Courthouse.NOW, ABOUT THREE years later, Mr. Curtiz inserts a similar scene into Rick's Cafe Americaine in CASABLANCA, where the Nazi Germans are singing "Watch on the Rhine" and Laszlo (Paul Henreid) organizes the French Patrons in "La Marsiellies".SO WE HAVE the same "Gag" with a different spin.WITH THE RELEASE and the resulting success of DODGE CITY, Jack Warner & Company had given the world a multi-faceted Errol Flynn; being Swashbuckler, Western Hero, War Herro and Dramatic Actor.CLEVER, THESE Americans-right, Schultz?

Jem Odewahn DODGE CITY was the first Errol Flynn Western, an attempt by Warner Bros to capitalise on renewed big studio interest in the genre (STAGECOACH was released in the same year)and to sell him in an action role where he wasn't swashbuckling the high seas. It's a decent film, and fans of Flynn and de Havilland should definitely check it out, yet it just feels flat.Perhaps Flynn, who really was a good actor (not just a "pretty boy")didn't yet feel comfortable in buckskin (he would do much better a couple of years later in THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON). Perhaps it is the Technicolour, which looks good, but seems to suck atmosphere out of this Western. Pastel pretty Technicolour tones did not seem to suit Westerns at this stage. I would also have liked to see de Havilland have more scenes. She is gorgeous and plays the plucky heroine very well, yet this great actress was getting stifled by these sorts of roles, even if she did share great chemistry with Flynn. Overall, it's not a bad film, just not a very interesting or different take on the Western.

Steffi_P He'd already been a pirate and an outlaw for director Michael Curtiz, but in 1939 Errol Flynn was cast in the rather unexpected role of sheriff Wade Hatton in Dodge City, part of the western boom of 1939.Dodge City is home to practically every western genre cliché in existence – cattle drives, covered wagons, lynch mobs, bar brawls and so on. It's been remarked that at the time these weren't clichés, they were fresh ideas. But that would be to forget pictures such as The Big Trail (1931), The Plainsman (1936), not to mention a host of silent westerns, in which all these typical goings on were well established. This isn't a criticism – after all genres are built on clichés, and there's no shame in that. Dodge City merely appears to have been intended as a kind of rough homage to the western rather than trying to take the genre anywhere new. These Flynn/De Havilland/Curtiz pictures were never meant to be anything more than simple fun. If you're casting Errol Flynn in his first western after audiences have accepted him as Robin Hood and Captain Blood, you're not going to make something like Stagecoach.Having said all that, in spite of its lack of depth, Dodge City truly is a quintessential western in that its underlying theme is the most common idea that unites virtually every western ever made – the friction between the old and the new, and the forging of the American civilization. This is set up in the very first scene, in which a stagecoach and a steam train try to race each other. As the picture progresses, the point is made that the price of progress is lawlessness, and that the taming of the wilderness must be coupled with justice, education and order.Dodge City also represents the high point (or should that be low point?) of Hays Code moralism in the western. At this time Hollywood was desperate to ensure the outlaws remained villains, and that no crime went without punishment, and this is one of the strongest statements of that. In his struggle to clean up the frontier town, Flynn is virtually a puritan, not to mention a strict authoritarian. The lines of good and evil are as stark as in any of his earlier adventures. The trouble is the western genre lacks the right feel that makes such fairytale ethics enjoyable. You can accept the hissable villain and dashing, perfect hero in an over-the-top swashbuckler movie, but in the old west setting they don't seem to work so well.Errol Flynn would later play some great roles in westerns (for example, They Died with Their Boots On), but here he is really just playing Robin Hood in a Stetson, and only the vaguest attempt at an American accent (although, like Captain Blood, he's supposed to be an Irishman here, making his plummy English tones even more bizarre). Dodge City also features one of the weaker Alan Hale sidekick roles. He's a bit too much of a bumbling oaf for the majority of the picture, then suddenly becomes incredibly competent and authoritative out of the blue for action scenes. There are no real standout performances, and even great character actors like Henry Travers and Victor Jory are underused here.Still, the Michael Curtiz mark of quality is definitely here. The big crowd shots are perfectly constructed as always. However the most breathtaking landscape shots appear to come from matt paintings, and Curtiz doesn't handle the wide open spaces of the west particularly well. For me the only real standout moment is a massive barroom brawl, with dozens of participants. Curtiz was great at handling these large scale action scenes, but none of the smaller stand-offs really get off the ground.Dodge City is a certainly watchable film, but there are far better westerns from this period, not to mention far better Errol Flynn films.