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It looks back at The Iron Horse and ahead to My Darling Clementine, all the while providing plenty of groundwork for Blazing Saddles. Locomotive and stagecoach neck to neck in Kansas after the Civil War, "a symbol of America's future," surely. The titular burg goes from "flower of the prairie" to Hell Street, "no ethics but cash and killing" as the cutthroat (Bruce Cabot) transitions with ease from guerrilla to cattleman. The roving cowhand (Errol Flynn) is a veteran of revolutions, his courtship of the comely pioneer (Olivia de Havilland) gets off to an awkward start when he guns down her roisterous brother. The sheriff is literally run out of town in a hearse, the hero resists taking over justice duties until a weepy tyke gets dragged by horses during a shootout, dissolve from tiny mangled body to grimly determined tin star. "They sure make a fella feel at home here." "Yes, they'll even dig you a home if you're nice to them." The thick Technicolor gloss leaves no genre stone unturned, from wagon trail to lynching mob to saloon roughly the size of Grand Central Station. Dueling renditions of "Marching Through Georgia" and "Dixie" trigger a colossal brawl and give Michael Curtiz an idea for Casablanca, a performance of "Little Brown Jug" occasions the glad sight of Ann Sheridan in her can-can getup kicking a disorderly member of the audience. The sidekicks have mixed feelings about cleaning up sagebrush Babylon, Alan Hale enjoys the bubble baths but Guinn "Big Boy" Williams misses the edge of vice: "If I hung around here much longer, I'd be riding a side saddle." Comparison with Dwan's concurrent Frontier Marshal is instructive. With Frank McHugh, John Litel, Henry Travers, Henry O'Neill, Victor Jory, William Lundigan, Douglas Fowley, Gloria Holden, and Ward Bond.
--- Fernando F. Croce |