The Gunfight at Dodge City

• The Man with the Gun
• The Day of the Outlaw
• Fox Western Classics (Rawhide / The Gunfighter / Garden of Evil)
• Man of the West
• The Westerner
• Only the Valiant
• The Way West
• Warner Home Video Western Classics Collection (Escape from Fort Bravo / Many Rivers to Cross / Cimarron 1960 / The Law and Jake Wade / Saddle the Wind / The Stalking Moon)
• Errol Flynn Westerns Collection (Montana / Rocky Mountain / San Antonio / Virginia City)
• Stranger On Horseback

I am a western movie nut and do apreciate the quality of this DVD. Cayman Islands This movie is a real treat and the picture clarity is outstanding, this is a top quality production DVD and it made my viewing it comfortable. This movie, I honestly recommends to the other western nuts out there. Happy viewing. Wally.

Also, Masterson breaks the law by breaking the mental challenged brother of his friend Ben Thompson out of jail with very little regard for how that will affect his standing as a lawman. This film falls into the fair to middling category. The movie is not horrible, but it's just not very good. "The Gunfight at Dodge City" was one of many Western made by the great Joel McCrea, one of those actors who seemed born to play Western characters. He made several outstanding, many that were pretty good, and some that were at best, fair to middling. This fictionalized account of how gambler/gunfighter Bat Masterson became the marshal in Dodge City is uninvolving and takes too many shortcuts with logic and belivability. Masterson becomes marshal when his brother is killed, but when the killer is discovered and is shot down by Masterson, the revelation of the killer's identity is regarded as an afterthought. This device was used in other films like "The Law and Jake Wade," but to much better effect than in this film.

All of the standard Western cliches are present, and the film certainly breaks no new ground as later Westertns would, but it's still worth watching at least once, especially for the underrated Joel McCrea. At a brisk 81 minutes, THE GUNFIGHT AT DODGE CITY, is an easy way to pass the time. The plot is rather predictable and there are few surprises, but Joel McCrea is such a good actor that he elevates the rather mediocre script. The titular gunfight takes place in the final five minutes of the movie, and is anti-climatic. However, there are things to enjoy in the movie, such as good character development and some well-filmed action scenes.

The love element was not very persuasive, either. When Masterson became a law officer, he was about 22 years old. This is quite lethargic film. Joel McCrea made only a few good westerns. This is not a very good one. McCrea was 54 when this film was made. A film can be good, although it does not follow the facts, but this does not succeed as a fictive western. McCrea is symphatetic, of course, but that is not enough.