Dodge City: Go West, Errol Flynn (2005 Video) User Reviews

Enjoyable and informative intro to "Dodge City" and the '39 publicity junket...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 26 July 2007]

I've really enjoyed these DVD introductions, especially the wise comments by Bob Thomas, Robert Osborne, Rudy Behlmer and historian Lincoln D. Hurst which really give credit where it's due and make the viewer understand the reputation of films like DODGE CITY in the context of when it was made,in 1939.

At the time, there was no television and studios sent their biggest stars out on publicity junkets. For DODGE CITY, the whole town turned out to welcome the Warner stock company celebrities that included Flynn, Bruce Cabot, John Garfield, Humphrey Bogart, Priscilla Lane, Rosemary Lane, Frank McHugh, Ann Sheridan and many others.

But the commentary by Thomas, Osborne and Hurst is what comprises most of this special nine minute feature. They talk about Flynn's acceptance as a western star and his reluctance at first to attempt the role; about the contribution made by Technicolor and Olivia de Havilland as Flynn's popular leading lady; about Ann Sheridan's small but colorful role as a saloon singer; and discuss "heavies" Bruce Cabot and Victor Jory who were the hissable villains of the piece.

It serves as an enjoyable intro to the film, which turned out to be a huge success for Warner Bros. at a time when very few major films were photographed in three-strip Technicolor.

Though Groucho Marx famously claimed, "I shot a Western in my pajamas . . . "

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 8 July 2015]

. . . the four usual suspects rounded up to Pontificate on the Warner Bros. feature DODGE CITY in GO WEST, ERROL FLYNN do little to differentiate between an authentic, western Western, such as John Ford's Oscar-nominated 1939 epic STAGECOACH, and back-lot, sound-stage Westerns, as DODGE CITY mostly is. Nor do they point out that while plucky Southerners including Scarlett O'Hara herself were exercising their Second Amendment Rights at every turn during rival studio MGM's 1939 wall-to-wall Technicolor blockbuster GONE WITH THE WIND, Warner Bros. portrays its own Sons of Dixie as a mean-spirited bunch of firearms confiscators, quick to murder anyone having fun with a gun. GWTW got more votes for the "Best Picture" of 1939 than DODGE CITY because, as Charlton Heston proclaimed, "Hollywood will have to pry this Oscar from my cold, dead hands before I'll do another Warner Bros. flick."

Flynn, 'Dodge City' Made Westerns Fashionable

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 3 December 2007]

All of a sudden, in 1939, westerns were upgraded from "B" films to "A." Even swashbuckler Errol Flynn, although he had to be talked into it, became a western star, too, thanks to this film. That's just one of many things we learn watching this short bonus feature "documentary" on the "Dodge City" DVD.

Film historian Robert Osborne said "Stagecoach, in 1939, kind of elevated the whole western genre" and "Dodge City" followed right after, and now westerns were suddenly 'in."

Rudy Behlmer, film historian, said "most of things we look upon as clichés today were not back in 1939, and Dodge City had all of the elements of a classic western: great chase scenes, cattle stampede, barroom ladies, can-can dancers, good guys, bad guys, good women, bad women.....you name it; it was all in "Dodge City."

The above-mentioned guys, and a few more on this bonus feature, all agree Director Michael Curtiz loved big vistas, big crowds, big amounts of violence and action and, with Technicolor thrown in the mix, it was all the better, so Curtiz, too, became a fan of westerns after working on this one.

The "experts" in here, too, laud the film's supporting cast. This isn't just another Flynn and Olivia de Havilland film. They cite Clara Lou Sheridan, who was given a new first name - Ann - and a new persona and mention how Warner Brothers supported their new big-time female star, beginning with this movie. Bruce Cabot, a great friend of Flynn, is shown, along with clips with Victor Jory, better-known on Broadway but a great villainous face for films, and, of course, Alan Hale, who always was with Flynn and usually the comic element in his movies.

Since there was no television to help promote movies, a huge premier was held in Dodge City, featuring all kinds of activities including a parade, other WB stars like Humphrey Bogart all kinds of things happening. There has never been a premier like it, before or since!

All of the above, and more, made this an interesting little bonus feature.