28. Dodge City
Yes, it's another Errol Flynn-Olivia de Havilland movie. I've actually seen four of their seven movies together -- Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Santa Fe Trail, and Dodge City. All quality films!
Dodge City is in beautiful Technicolor and is a post-Civil War movie about the building of the West. It starts in Kansas, 1866 with a race between the stagecoach and the train. The horse can't keep up, and it foreshadows the technological advances to come.
Wade (Flynn) is from England, but he fought in the Civil War and is here to help organize Dodge City and drive cattle. He helps bring in some families along with the cattle, and Abby (de Havilland) and her brother are in their own covered wagon. But Abby's brother has been drinking, and he begins to shoot and startle the cattle. Wade can't have the cattle stampeding, so he tries to convince the brother to stop, but ends up shooting him to save the cattle. Things have started out between him and Abby on the wrong foot...
Eventually, there is a big saloon brawl -- probably the precursor to all barroom brawls to come -- and Wade ends up becoming the sheriff to clean up Dodge City. He, of course, does a fantastic job -- although the jails overflow with prisoners. Wade manages to regulate gambling and drinking, much to the dismay of many residents. There is also a side plot about someone being owed money, but shot before they could collect it. Of course, Abby is one of the people who knows the whole story and Wade has to protect her. Eventually, there is a big shootout on the train and Dodge City is a happy place again!
Later, Wade is offered a job cleaning up another town in Nevada, but he turns it down, citing his impending nuptials and not wanting to become a pioneer again with his delicate wife. Abby is a great wife and says that they should go to Virginia City. So they drive off into the sunset.
Honestly, this movie was better than my notes seem to indicate. It's kind of a complicated plot, but very entertaining. Alan Hale shows up as a sidekick and partial instigator of the big barroom fight. It's a really beautiful movie, and the technicolor sky seems so blue that it seems a bit surreal. Perhaps that's how it was back in the 1870s. Also, Errol Flynn really reminds me of Cary Elwes. Not that Elwes has done a lot of swashbuckling movies -- just The Princess Bride and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. But they both have a great accent and kind of handsome and athletic look about them. Too bad swashbuckling movies aren't in vogue any more.
FILE UNDER: Classic Film ; 31 Films in 31 Days
Dodge City is in beautiful Technicolor and is a post-Civil War movie about the building of the West. It starts in Kansas, 1866 with a race between the stagecoach and the train. The horse can't keep up, and it foreshadows the technological advances to come.
Wade (Flynn) is from England, but he fought in the Civil War and is here to help organize Dodge City and drive cattle. He helps bring in some families along with the cattle, and Abby (de Havilland) and her brother are in their own covered wagon. But Abby's brother has been drinking, and he begins to shoot and startle the cattle. Wade can't have the cattle stampeding, so he tries to convince the brother to stop, but ends up shooting him to save the cattle. Things have started out between him and Abby on the wrong foot...
Eventually, there is a big saloon brawl -- probably the precursor to all barroom brawls to come -- and Wade ends up becoming the sheriff to clean up Dodge City. He, of course, does a fantastic job -- although the jails overflow with prisoners. Wade manages to regulate gambling and drinking, much to the dismay of many residents. There is also a side plot about someone being owed money, but shot before they could collect it. Of course, Abby is one of the people who knows the whole story and Wade has to protect her. Eventually, there is a big shootout on the train and Dodge City is a happy place again!
Later, Wade is offered a job cleaning up another town in Nevada, but he turns it down, citing his impending nuptials and not wanting to become a pioneer again with his delicate wife. Abby is a great wife and says that they should go to Virginia City. So they drive off into the sunset.
Honestly, this movie was better than my notes seem to indicate. It's kind of a complicated plot, but very entertaining. Alan Hale shows up as a sidekick and partial instigator of the big barroom fight. It's a really beautiful movie, and the technicolor sky seems so blue that it seems a bit surreal. Perhaps that's how it was back in the 1870s. Also, Errol Flynn really reminds me of Cary Elwes. Not that Elwes has done a lot of swashbuckling movies -- just The Princess Bride and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. But they both have a great accent and kind of handsome and athletic look about them. Too bad swashbuckling movies aren't in vogue any more.
FILE UNDER: Classic Film ; 31 Films in 31 Days
posted by Rebecca at 3:34 PM
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