Frontier Marshal (1939)

7/10

My Darling Clementine Was a Remake of This Movie

mshields186 January 2004

This was the movie which John Ford remade as his classic My Darling Clementine. Here, Randolph Scott plays Wyatt Earp and Caesar Romero plays Doc Holiday, but there are no Clantons or Earp brothers. Instead, John Carradine plays a bad saloon owner heading a gang that is trying to take over Tombstone.

Of course, this movie can't directly compare to My Darling Clementine, but it's a pretty good western in its own right. Its one of Randolph Scott's better early roles.

Many of the classic scenes in My Darling Clementine were taken directly from this movie, and it's very interesting to compare the two. This version of Frontier Marshal was a remake of an earlier 1933 version, and, of course, this story has been told many times since.

The Maltin Guide gives it three stars. Check it out if you're a western fan, or just a fan of My Darling Clementine.

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6/10

The Luckiest Of Western Heroes

bkoganbing21 December 2007

That would describe Wyatt Earp. Lucky because I can't think of anyone else who's had more stalwart Hollywood heroes playing him in film. Off the top of my head Tom Mix, George O'Brien, Henry Fonda, Burt Lancaster, James Garner, James Stewart, Joel McCrea right down to Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner. We certainly can't forget Hugh O'Brian on television. And also Wyatt was lucky in that he lived long enough so that no one was around to refute him when he gave a series of interviews to Stuart Lake for an authorized biography shortly before he died in 1929.

As this film is based on Lake's book you won't get anything else but the Wyatt of legend. Certainly Randolph Scott fulfills the legend and that's what we print according to John Ford.

This film isn't too often seen because whole parts of it were taken and used by John Ford in My Darling Clementine. Frontier Marshal should be seen back to back to graphically illustrate the difference between a good routine action western and an almost poetical film expression.

Parts that were played by Victor Mature, Cathy Downs, and Linda Darnell in My Darling Clementine are taken here by Cesar Romero, Nancy Kelly, and Binnie Barnes. It might seem odd that British Binnie Barnes would show up in a western as a saloon girl, but that's no more strange than Marlene Dietrich doing the same that year and being very accepted.

Eddie Foy, Jr. is in the cast playing his celebrated father who was entertaining in Tombstone at the time the Earps were providing law and order.

The Clantons believe it or not are completely eliminated from the story. The chief villain is real life Clanton retainer Curly Bill Brocius played here by Joe Sawyer. Eliminated also are Wyatt's brothers and as you can imagine the final shootout at the OK Corral is staged differently than in any other telling of the tale.

Probably Randolph Scott's Wyatt Earp would be a lot better known had he the benefit of John Ford's direction.

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8/10

fast moving Wyatt Earp/Doc Holliday story

RanchoTuVu27 October 2011

For seventy-one minutes the film manages to fit in the deteriorating security situation in Tombstone as the camera flashes to the street for all the shootouts and horseplay. Compared to My Darling Clementine, this one is more easy going. Cesar Romero captures best acting over Vic Mature in the role of Doc Holliday, IMHO if only because Mature's part seemed overwrought, and the part of Holliday seems to fit Romero in a decisively more real way. Even still, the script in Frontier Marshal still caricatures Holliday as overly emotional, especially in the scenes in the saloon where he's purposely drinking himself to death because ex-flame Nancy Kelly comes in on the stage. Still, Romero was a great actor, and his scenes with Randolph Scott as Earp are a nice mix of two actors who had real naturalness. The B&W photography (Charles Clarke) stands out throughout and all the scenes in this movie are well assembled. It is over before you know it.

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Above Average Western

rmax30482313 February 2004

Randolph Scott, as Wyatt Earp, rides into Tombstone thinking about starting a stagecoach line. But Indian Charlie, drunk, starts shooting up the local saloon. The local marshal (Ward Bond) is afraid to go in and roust Charlie, so Earp dons a badge, goes in and drags him out by the feet. Earp becomes the full-time marshal. He meets Doc Halliday (Caesar Romero), a tubercular physician, gambler, and gunman, and after an initial wary brush, the two become more or less friends. Romero has a local trashy girlfriend (Binnie Barnes) whom Scott has to dump in a water trough. Doc gets liquored up, pulls his gun at the bar, and Earp knocks him out to save his life. An old flame of Doc's (Nancy Kelly) shows up in town, having pursued Doc all across the West, but Doc dumps her unceremoniously because he loathes what he's become. He redeems himself, however, by saving a badly wounded patient, only to be killed by Curly Bill and his gang as he walks out of the saloon door. There follows a shootout at the OK Corral in which Scott makes mincemeat of the bad guys. Binnie Barnes leaves town on the stage, and Kelly stays behind, probably not unaware of the moon eyes Scott has been casting her way.

Sound at all familiar? Seven years later it was remade as John Ford's "My Darling Clementine."

It isn't a bad movie, better than the majority of Westerns being made at the time. Yet one can't help wondering what makes Allan Dwan's "Frontier Marshal" an above-average Western and Ford's "My Darling Clementine" a classic.

Small things first. Dwan's movie is short on creativity in the wardrobe and makeup departments. Like most of the other principals, Scott dresses in an echt-1939 suit, only with a cowboy hat and gunbelt. The women's makeup dates badly, with dos out of the late 1930s and pencilled eyebrows and big lashes. It isn't that "Clementine" is extremely good in those respects -- it's just better.

The photography and location shooting don't reach the bar set by "Clementine" either. The photography isn't bad at all but it hardly fits into a Western frame. Almost the entire movie is shot at night, with no more than a handful of daylight scenes. The location isn't Monument Valley but it is, after all, Movie Flats which has been used expressively before. Here, it's not really present in any utilitarian sense because you can't SEE it at night.

Acting. Caesar Romero is probably as good as Victor Mature was in the later version. Binnie Barnes and Linda Darnell (in the same hooker role) are equally good, although they give us two quite different versions of what a hooker is like. Barnes is older, tougher looking, a bit treacherous. Darnell is younger, more Hispanic, tousle-haired, tempestuous, and childish. Scott is a competent actor, but Fonda is on the other hand outstanding. Throughout "Clementine" Fonda wears an expression that has something of puzzlement in it. When he whacks a guy over the head with the barrel of his pistol, he looks up from the unconscious body as if he's slightly surprised at what has happened and hasn't got a very clear idea of what's going to take place next.

Above all, there is the difference in direction. Dwan was a forthright story teller, a pioneer in the movies, and he does a good job. But Ford goes beyond the story, almost into visual poetry. "Clementine" has not only the family, but two opposing families, which gives the characters added depth and more intense motives. "Clementine" also has the familiar Ford opposition between the wilderness and the garden, which in Dwan's film is given very short shrift indeed. There is nothing in "Frontier Marshal" like the scene in which Fonda escorts Cathy Downs to the half-built church and awkwardly dances with her. What a celebration of community. Dwan's story deals with individuals who have conflicting ideas of how to get ahead. A couple of people know one another but there is little sense of a "town" in Dwan's movie. I won't go on about Ford's touches of roughhouse humor except to mention that they add another element lacking in "Frontier Marshal." There's an intentionality behind these brief incidents. Instance Fonda's dance with his feet against the porch post, or Darnell throwing a pitcher of milk in Ward Bond's face after he whinnies at her.

Still -- allright, so it's not a classic. But "Frontier Marshal" is better than most. And it's worth seeing for its historical value, a kind of lesson about how to make a good movie into a very good movie indeed.

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6/10

Randolph Scott and John Carradine

kevinolzak1 April 2014

1939's "Frontier Marshal" was the clear inspiration for John Ford's 1946 "My Darling Clementine," but was actually the second screen version of Wyatt Earp's posthumous tome, a highly fictionalized account of his Wild West days. In the wake of Fox's successful "Jesse James," it's no surprise that they would perform similar heroism toward other notorious figures, with handsome Randolph Scott enjoying one of his earliest lead roles as Wyatt Earp, and heartthrob Cesar Romero in the highly romanticized part of Doc Halliday. The villains are certainly an interesting lot, with John Carradine, Lon Chaney, and Joseph Sawyer among them, they're just totally ineffective against Earp, for whom everything falls into place too easily. Carradine's Ben Carter runs a saloon across the street from the one that does more business (where the broads hang out), so he and his gang resort to occasional holdups to keep things interesting. Carradine actually gets the least amount of screen time, while Lon Chaney's Pringle at least gets to 'dance' before the trigger happy Halliday. By the time we get to the OK Corral, only Sawyer's Curly Bill remains standing to take the fall, Chaney and Carradine casually dismissed in ignominious fashion. The two actors, already teamed as James gang members in "Jesse James," both went on to greater glory by year's end, Carradine in "The Grapes of Wrath," Chaney in "Of Mice and Men." Chaney would reappear opposite Randolph Scott in 1944's "Follow the Boys" and 1947's "Albuquerque," while Carradine appeared with Scott in 1941's "Western Union" and 1945's "Captain Kidd." In addition, Carradine would oppose Wyatt Earp twice more, opposite Hugh O'Brian in the 1959 TV episode "The Fugitive," and opposite James Stewart in 1964's "Cheyenne Autumn." The only character that really resonates is Romero's Halliday, here a surgeon rather than dentist, while Ward Bond (playing the cowardly former Tombstone marshal) not only appears from the 1934 version, but graduated to Morgan Earp in the John Ford remake. It's a solid and enjoyable Western, but below the standard set that year by "Stagecoach" or "Destry Rides Again."

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6/10

Hollywood Version of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp - Frontier Marshal

arthur_tafero13 September 2019

This film is fun to watch and well made. The acting is first-rate; both from Scott and Romero. Even Binnie Barnes does a good job of imitating Mae West. Make no mistake; this film, as entertaining as it is, has absolutely nothing to do with the real life Holliday and Earp. In this film, Earp's brothers are missing. They are also missing at the gunfight at the OK Coral. This film also has Doc Holliday not in the Gunfight at OK Coral; just Wyatt Earp. This is pure Hollywood Fantasy. The film has Holliday dead at 32 when he lived to 38. It has Holiday meeting Earp in Tombstone, when in reality, they met much earlier in Texas. Holliday is glorified as a surgeon in the film, when in reality, he was a dentist. Despite the pure fantasy of the plot and dialogue, it is a rouser film to watch. Enjoy.

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6/10

Yet another Earp-related movie

adrianovasconcelos30 January 2021

I don't know that anyone has been portrayed more often in the movies than Wyatt Earp - he has become a legend at every level and I think it has become impossible for any flick to tell what serious historians have uncovered: that he was a cattle rustler before he became lawman to serve his own interests. Anyway, at least this version is different from any other I have watched in that Doc Holliday dies and the Clanton clan is not even heard about.

This entry by Director Allan Dwann starts well and boasts excellent performances by the two leading ladies - Brit Binne Barnes is particularly memorable as a hooker not to be trifled with - Eddie Foy Jr. and Cesar Romero.

Scott is OK. Competent b&w cinematography. Acceptable script enhanced by sharp dialogue. notably when Barnes gets in the thick of the action.

Worth watching for a different angle on the most told story of the Old West.

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6/10

Gunfight at OK Corral

AAdaSC6 October 2023

Randolph Scott (Wyatt Earp) agrees to become sheriff of Tombstone after he confronts a dangerous Indian on the rampage with a gun. Cesar Romero (Doc Halliday) rides into town to get away from one woman - Nancy Kelly (Sarah) - and hook up with saloon girl Binnie Barnes (Jerry). There are 2 rival saloon bars, one of which is run by bad guy John Carradine (Ben) who has a friendship with dangerous killer Joe Sawyer (Curley). We end up at the OK Corral for a shoot-out.

This version of events is different from others in terms of the story, ie, who was involved in the gunfight and that is slightly disappointing. Why not stick to the true story? The film is more centred around Romero and his love life with the 2 girls who claim him as their own. Because we follow the love theme, we get some sickly sentimental stuff which is boring and a stupid scene where he is called to save a boy and carry out an operation. Oh, how nice of him! Puke!

The cast are good although Scott is bland as the hero. This is definitely Romero's film and Barnes comes off well as the bad ass b*tch who doesn't like her rival. She gets to trot out some good dialogue that will have you laughing. The film, even though it is a fictionalized account still ends in a satisfying manner.

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8/10

the inspiration for John Ford's classic My Darling Clementine

disdressed1229 March 2008

i liked this western quite a bit.it is made in 1939,and some may find the pace a bit sedate,but that didn't bother me.i liked the story and the cast of characters.the main character is Wyatt Earp(Randolph Scott)newly deputized as marshal to try to bring some law into the town of Tombstone.The character Of Doc Halliday(Ceasar Romero)also plays a prominent role.there were a few scenes which were meant to be funny,and they probably were back in 1939,but they fell a bit flat for me.it's the movie that inspired the John Ford classic My Darling Clementine(1946).the 1957 movie Gunfight at the OK Corral is also apparently inspired by this movie.one thing i should mention is that the sound and the picture were crystal clear,so kudos for Fox for the technical work that went into the DVD.anyway,when all is said and done,i thought this was a pretty good movie.easily an 8/10

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6/10

Scottie and Cesar make a great team

HotToastyRag30 April 2021

There have been many, many Wyatt Earp movies. Frontier Marshal isn't the best one by far, but it does have a couple of perks: Randolph Scott, the king of westerns, got to play the famous marshal! Scottie has a few closeups to show how handsome he is, but it's not really his movie. Wyatt Earp pretty much stands there and looks concerned. This is Cesar Romero's movie. He plays Doc Holliday, and he's the one with the love triangle, the persistent cough, and the change of character from villain to hero.

Binnie Barnes, who takes up one end of the triangle, is extremely irritating and makes the movie seem cheap. Her odd Cockney accent and terrible overacting makes it look like a melodrama, which is a shame because Cesar tries hard in one of his rare dramas. Nancy Kelly is the nice girl, in comparison to Binnie's prostitute, but Cesar is reluctant to saddle her with his burden. It's up to Scottie to convince him to embrace love - and to help keep the peace in the unruly western town. You'll also get to see Ward Bond, Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine, and Eddie Foy Jr. Portraying his father in the supporting case.

However, this movie isn't as high quality as the same year's Dodge City, starring Errol Flynn. That's also a Wyatt Earp movie, but without Doc Holliday. It has higher production values, a better story, and everyone seems to be having more fun.

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5/10

Wow... a highly inaccurate film about the famed 'Gunfight at the OK Corral"--I sure didn't see THAT coming!!!

planktonrules25 March 2011

Hollywood made a bunch of bad historical films about the old west which just goes to prove that the public seemed to want to see this ridiculously romanticized version of cowboys and frontier justice. In particular, the studios made a ton of films about Jesse James and other bigger than life characters and villains from the west and almost none of these films were in any way accurate. The biggest problem is that the films took very minor characters and events and made them seem much more important than they really were. And, to spice things up, they used a lot of license with facts to make the films interesting. For example, Billy the Kid and Calamity Jane, to be quite blunt, were exceptionally ugly people--nothing like the pretty folks who portrayed then in films. But, ugly folks don't sell tickets--nor would a typical gunfight from this era--most of which involved one idiot shooting another in the back--not the heroic 'shootout in the town square' usually portrayed!

Here in "Frontier Marshall", the film is about Wyatt Earp and the OK Corral--probably THE most bastardized event on the frontier--and an event that was portrayed at least 173418 times in movies! There are the famous versions like "My Darling Clementine" and "Gunfight at the OK Corral" and lesser-known ones like "Frontier Marshall"--and quite a few in between. While my 173418 is a total exaggeration, IMDb lists at least 50 times he was portrayed--about 49 times too many if you ask me. If you care, "Frontier Marshall" was apparently the first to portray him--so it can be blamed for this proliferation!! And to think...all this for a shootout that only lasted about 30 seconds (seriously)! And, the truth be told, Earp and Doc Holliday was NOT seen as heroes at that time but as villains. Although the jury acquitted them, the judge commented that Earp used poor judgment and excessive force during the altercation in which two of the three killed by him and his deputies were unarmed!!! Now THAT'S the sort of film I want to see!

In this film, Earp is played by handsome Randolph Scott and Holliday (billed as 'Halliday' in this movie) is played by equally handsome Cesar Romero. As for Scott, he seemed to play Randolph Scott (which he was very adept at doing)--not Earp. In the film, Holliday is at least playing a doctor--a surgeon (he was actually a dentist but they needed him to be a surgeon in order to save the cute kid!) and drank because of a woman he lost (he actually most likely drank to cope with the symptoms of tuberculosis). But no matter--despite being about 80% wrong, the characters are quite entertaining and I am pretty sure the real life Earp AND Holliday would have loved this sort of heroic characterization.

The film is competently made but occasionally a bit heavy-handed such as poor little Pablo being shot...and then saved by the Doc as well as the lady on main street shooting it out! Yep, you didn't know that the famed gunfight involved a gun-slinging woman--at least in this film. And, Holliday dies in the fight--at least in this film. And, there really is not gunfight at any corral in this movie either! If you can completely ignore the fact that it's all poo, it's watchable and not much more. The bad and anticlimactic ending sure didn't help with either.

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8/10

Fictionalized Fun

Rainey-Dawn12 March 2016

I'm not a huge fan of the Western genre but there are a few Westerns that really enjoy - this film goes into the my liked Western films. It is highly fictionalized version of the events that lead up to the famous gun fight but really fun to watch.

I have to say I enjoyed the entire cast which is one of the reasons why I like this film - it's not just the story and action on screen but the actors themselves that makes this particular film worth watching to me.

Binnie Barnes as Jerry - she really tickled me, constantly trying to keep up her tough exterior but in the end we saw the softer side of Jerry. A character I really liked watching.

Scott and Romero were good together. While Carradine, Chaney and Sawyer was made a great trio of "villains". You can't but to laugh as some of the things that happens - in particular when Doc Halliday (Romeo) gets Pringle (Chaney) to dance... lol.

Anyway, this one worth checking out if you haven't seen it already. Fictionalized Fun.

8.5/10

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7/10

Entertaining, if minimally accurate, tale of Earp and Holliday in Tombstone.

weezeralfalfa16 April 2014

Warning: Spoilers

One of umpteen Hollywood films that exploited the well recognized names of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday to attract an audience to a show that had little to do with their historic realities. We had to wait until the 1990s("Wyatt Earp", "Tombstone") to get a reasonably authentic telling of Wyatt and his association with Doc. Wyatt's widow reportedly bullied Fox into deleting Wyatt's name from the title. The planned title was the same as the fanciful biography it was based upon.

This film was released in that magical year for Hollywood films: 1939. It's the year Fox released their big budget Technicolor western 'Jesse James", in addition to this low budget B&W, which nonetheless included a number of reasonably high profile actors. Young Nancy Kelly was the leading lady in both films. John Carradine played the chief villain in both. Randolph Scott played a major character in both films: the lead in this one. Cesar Romero was employed as a handsome Latino version of the historically blondish-headed Holliday, whose name was altered to Halliday, perhaps to diffuse any objections to the fictionalization of his period in Tombstone. Romero's speech gave no hint of Holliday's Georgia upbringing. However, he did occasionally exhibit his semi-namesake's frequent coughing fits from his TB. Holliday had guessed correctly that moving to an arid climate might extend his life, after his doctor predicted he would die within a year. Unlike portrayed in this film and the subsequent "My Darling Clementine", Holliday was trained as a dentist, not medical doctor. This fictionalization provided an opportunity for more dramatic heroics for the character: in this case, saving the life of a Mexican boy accidentally shot in an assassination attempt on Wyatt.

Cast as the good-time saloon girlfriend of Doc's, Binnie Barnes(Jerry) livens up this otherwise rather somber tale, with her streetwise flamboyant personality. Her character has a historic basis in 'Big Nose' Kate: Holliday's longtime girlfriend in the West, and frequent prostitute and madam. Although she didn't look it, Binnie was twice the age of her 18 y.o 'good girl' competition: Nancy Kelly, who seems remarkably mature for her age. Nancy had long been a child actress in films and was now experiencing her peak in adult roles. She plays Doc's former girlfriend in the East: a nurse, who's been hunting all over the West for Doc, after he decided it was best for both if he left for unknown parts without saying goodbye. Doc wants her to leave, saying he's a completely different person(gambler and gunslinger) than the man she knew. But, Wyatt convinces her that Doc will change his mind and find her the only reason to keep on living. Well, Wyatt doesn't change Doc's mind. Instead, Doc unexpectedly gets on the stage for Tucson, which happens to include Wyatt, as shotgun, and is scheduled for a holdup by Ben Carter's gang(Ben owns the saloon where Binnie works). Doc is wounded, but Carter is killed in the ensuing gun battle. Back in town, Binnie and Nancy vie with each other to attend to Doc's wound(reminds me of the competition between 2 women to restore Jimmy Stewart, after shot up, in "Far Country".)

Poor Binnie: all her plans to get rid of Wyatt, because he dumped her in that horse trough for being obnoxious, and because her boss wants him gone, have gone awry. First, she convinced her old flame, Doc, to come to Tombstone to do in Wyatt. Instead, they became buddies. Then, she talked up the stage holdup, with Wyatt aboard, hoping Wyatt would get shot. Instead, Doc got shot. The last insult is that Doc is shot dead in the street by 'Curley' Bill and the remainder of Carter's gang. She gets a small measure of revenge in shooting 'Curley' Bill during the subsequent gunplay between Wyatt and Carter's gang, before deciding Tombstone is getting too tame for her, hence warranting a relocation. Nancy unexpectedly decides to stay in Tombstone, with the very slim suggestion that Wyatt may be Doc's replacement in her life(grossly overplayed on the DVD jacket!)

Eddie Foy Jr. is present in parts of the middle portion, recreating the type of stage entertainment his father was famous for, back in the days of the actual Wyatt and Doc. He gets shoved around in the competition between 2 saloons for his entertainment services, and decides Tombstone is too dangerous for him.

When playing the hero, Scott didn't quite always follow the formula of ending up with the 'good' girl. For example, in "Abilene Town", clearly his tempestuous relationship with the flamboyant saloon entertainer(Anne Dvorak) was more important to him than his flirtation with the 'good' girl(Rhonda Fleming}.

Among the most glaring departures from history are: the absence of Wyatt's 2 brothers or the Claytons, the nonexistent Ben Carter as the chief villain, the death of Doc from assassination, and the ridiculous version of the shootout near the OK Corral. 'Curley' Bill was a historic person, whom Wyatt eventually killed, blaming him for his brother's assassination.

All in all, not a bad horse opera, centered more around Doc and his problems than Wyatt. In one scene, Doc is drunk in the saloon, sees himself in the big mirror, says "I hate you", and shoots at his image, shattering the mirror.

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5/10

A very good movie BUT...

mippin15 November 2018

It was a very good movie but loses a lot of points with me for using historical names with complete fiction. If you can get past the use of the names then you will enjoy the movie.

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Genesis of My Darling Clementine

rsyung25 March 2004

What's most interesting about Frontier Marshal is the fact that it is clearly the genesis of My Darling Clementine, directed by John Ford seven years later. It is hard to view this movie without automatically thinking of the parallel scenes in MDC, and Ford's film draws heavily on the inter-relationships of Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, Sarah(Clementine in Ford's film) and the saloon girl, Jerry(Chihuahua). Other scenes are reworked into Ford's film as wellthe disarming of the drunken Indian, dunking of the saloon girl into the trough, Doc Holliday attempting to redeem himself by performing surgery on a gunshot victim(in this case, the son of the Mexican bartender(in Ford's film, it was Chihuahua, Doc's `girl'), and a wandering theatric (a comic here, a Shakespearian thespian in MDC). This film is much slighter, with fewer themes and subtexts than Ford's and concentrates mostly on the relationship between Earp and Holliday and Holliday's redemption at the end. It plays out like a programmer, running a mere 71 minutes, so granted there isn't much time to devote to anything else. The themes of chaos versus order, civilization versus wilderness are only hinted at, and Randolph Scott is adequate as Wyatt Earp but without the underlying vulnerability(and humor) of Fonda's performance. The same might be said of Cesar Romero as Doc Holliday (for some reason changed to Halliday). He doesn't have the depth of Victor Mature's tortured Doc, in what was perhaps his best performance in any film, but the same self-destructive streak is evident as he attempts to drink himself to death, only to be stopped by Earp. Clearly, MDC was the more thought provoking of the two, but it cannot be denied that without Frontier Marshal, there would have been no MDC, or at least the one I consider a true western classic. What a quirk of fate that Ward Bond is in both films--the ineffective town marshal here, and later promoted to the role of Morgan Earp in Ford's version.

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10/10

Forgotten diamond of a movie to put on your list

jb-1678025 January 2022

Early work of. Randolph Scott and Cesar Romero in their prime. The give and take and interaction of the two leads is a joy to behold. The movie is on a shaky premise, but entertaining from begining to end. Now on my list of a gem that was passed over.

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5/10

Time Change at the OK Corral

st-shot26 September 2023

The street lanterns are on by the time Wyatt Earp (Randolph Scott) saunters sans Doc Holiday and his brothers, solo down to the OK Corrall to confront Curly Joe Brosius and his gang in this semi action packed overtly sentimental western directed by Allan Dwan.

Wyatt Earp comes to Tombstone and after a threatening introduction befriends Doc Holiday (Caesar Romero). Hard as nails dance hall girl Jerry (Binnie Barnes) is possessive of Doc and after making enemies with Earp when he humilates her and takes sides with her love foe (Nancy Kelly) plots to off him during a silver shipment.

A Saturday kid's matinee western, Dwan's direction at times harkens back to his silent two reeler days with its mawkish moments and haphazard gunplay as Scott stands tall among the chaos interspersed with Eddie Foy (played by son Jr.), who once crossed paths with Earp and Holiday, doing comic pratfalls to the delight of stock barroom characters.

Scott is noble but aged better as a cowpoke while Romero makes a dashing but unconvincing Doc. Kelly is dull, Barnes shrill. An archaic western, even in its day.

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8/10

Ridiculously false history would have been great with other character names

morrisonhimself25 January 2019

One of my favorite directors -- and even a friend in his last years -- and one of my favorite actors make a good team. But they were hampered from the start with a script based so loosely on history -- based, in fact, loosely even on the fairy tale that Stuart Lake wrote after listening to the fairy tale told him by Wyatt Earp himself.

Some of Hollywood's finest actors make up this extraordinary cast, but I think the adorable Binnie Barnes stole the acting honors. What a talent! From this brassy Yankee city girl to so many other and softer roles, she could do everything.

Eddie Foy, Jr., playing his dad, strikes me as one of Hollywood's greatest casting coups. Cesar Romero made an excellent caricature of Doc Holliday -- a dentist, by the way, not a physician, and from Georgia, not Illinois.

Ward Bond was in two versions of the Wyatt Earp myth, and I wonder if anybody else was. But Bond was always an astonishing talent, even from his earliest days. One of the greatest.

(((Added 12 August 2020: Turns out Charles Stevens was in at least three versions of the Wyatt Earp story. And he too was a fine actor, with a longer career than most people realize.)))

OK, forget this is very silly and highly fictionalized fake history and it's one great Western. Randolph Scott more than makes up for the script, and Allan Dwan gave one of his best efforts -- among many very great efforts -- directing a superlative cast.

There is a damaged version of "Frontier Marshal" at YouTube and, if you bear in mind this is total fiction -- except there really was a Tombstone, and still is -- this is an enjoyable movie.

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1/10

Poor Stuart Lake

gsfsu18 June 2022

He wrote an excellent book about Tombstone and the Earp Brothers and Hollywood translated into this piece of junk (and lots of others).

Complete fiction and poorly acted with stereotypes galore.

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A Good Movie On Its Own

GManfred18 February 2011

Yes, yes, I know. My Darling Clementine(MDC) is a famous remake of this picture. That one got the John Ford treatment and went into greater depth as far as character development goes. But there's nothing wrong with "Frontier Marshal" and it can stand on its own. First off, since it is an action western it had a better lead actor in stalwart Randolph Scott - Henry Fonda was a more cerebral actor and not really a two-fisted type. Second, I think Caesar Romero played Doc Holliday with more heart than Victor Mature, who was a limited actor.

In MDC, the OK Corral confrontation was better and had more tension but the barroom bimbo was Binnie Barnes, who did a better job than Linda Darnell. Ward Bond was in both pictures and got a promotion in MDC to Earp's brother. And you get a chance to see Eddie Foy Jr. in the earlier movie.

"Frontier Marshal" is only 71" long and therefore not as comprehensive as MDC. In sum, I guess the worst thing that could be said about "Frontier Marshal" is that MDC was made, which in sheer production value diminishes the whole enterprise. If you like westerns, see this one. You will appreciate it better if you haven't seen MDC - which I also feel suffers from one of the lamest titles in Hollywood annals and detracts from the final product. "Frontier Marshal" was on FMC the other morning and I rated it a seven.

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8/10

Good Earp Movie

januszlvii17 May 2020

If you know anything about Westerns, you know who Wyatt Earp was and you know that that many great actors played him. ( Including Oscar Winners James Stewart, Burt Lancaster, Kevin Costner, Walter Huston and ( best of all) Henry Fonda).,This time it is Randolph Scott, and again if you know Westerns; just like you might expect, Scott does a good job with the character. Is it the best Earp? No that is My Darling Clementine ( Directed by John Ford and starring Fonda). Nor is it the worst ( I Married Wyatt Earp), but certainly worth watching. The problems with the movie were. 1: Doc Holliday ( or Halliday as he was called here) getting killed prior to the OK Corral shootout ( he died in a Sanitarium). 2: The OK Corral scene ( it was Wyatt against a gang here without his brothers and Holliday against the Clantons). 3: Halliday was a doctor from Illinois n the movie but a dentist from Georgia in real life. The best acting jobs came from Cesar Romero ( best know as the Joker from Batman) as Doc and Binnie Barnes as his dance hall girlfriend. I was happy to find this movie on YouTube, because it was one of my most wanted to see Westerns ( number 3 behind The Spoilers ( Gary Cooper version and Wolf Song also with Cooper).). I give it 8/10 stars. I deduct 3 stars for the major historical mistakes and add 1 back because it was a rarity that I finally got to see.

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3/10

Wyatt is still laughing

cartshooter18 June 2022

Laughing from the grave at all the tall tale inaccuracies amplified through time. In 2022 he must be 10 feet tall and won thousands of gun fights. Randolph Scott is always entertaining but the screen writers back then weren't talented enough to keep it somewhat accurate, historically speaking.

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8/10

An enjoyable Scott western

coltras3511 December 2020

Seen this many times. Randolph Scott is Wyatt Earp who is going to put law and order back in Tombstone, and gets help from Doc Holliday, excellently played by Cesar Romero. Actually it's the characters that make this western. The Ok corral gunfight is romanticised, but hey I don't watch films for historical accuracy.

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Engaging take on an oft-told tale

Poseidon-326 December 2007

Warning: Spoilers

A popular subject for westerns throughout the years, this is an account of Wyatt Earp and the legendary Gunfight at O.K. Corral, though the showdown here is pretty far afield from what most of the other movies depicted. Scott plays the newly appointed marshal, taking the job after proving that he could handle it and then some, and after being told that there was no more room in Tombstone for his original plan of a instituting a stage coach line. His primary antagonist in this rendition of the story is underhanded saloon owner Carradine. He also has to contend with headstrong dancehall girl Barnes. Aiding him is his TB-stricken pal Romero, who is equally handy with a gun and who lashes out at everyone whenever he's feeling poorly (which is often!) Kelly, a long lost love of Romero's, comes into town to persuade him to give up his gunslinging ways and return to her. Scott and Romero work hard to rid the town of corruption, though they hardly get off scott-free. Scott is stalwart in his role and easily convinces the viewer that he means business. Romero is brooding, yet strangely charming, and makes a nice counterpart to Scott. Barnes has an out of place accent, but manages to convey the pushy, common aspects of her character. Kelly is lovely, demonstrating an understated, appealing quality that was almost completely absent from her later, Oscar-nominated role in "The Bad Seed." Foy, jr. (playing his own father who was allegedly and entertainer in town the day of the gunfight) performs a mostly unintelligible song and overstays his welcome. Carradine is appropriately slimy, but isn't given a chance to really make a strong impression as the villain. Bond appears briefly as an intimidated sheriff. It's a short movie, which makes it pretty easy to get through, though some viewers may be bored by the musical numbers. Nothing about it makes it stand out as a classic, but it's also not a throwaway. Romero's work is interesting and there are certain amounts of tension generated. Just four years prior to this film, another version was released with character names even further removed from actuality (the marshal's last name was Wyatt!) and several years after, the story was told again as "My Darling Clementine", a film that uses several of this picture's plot points. Of course, it would be told again and again in films such as "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral", "Wyatt Earp" and "Tombstone".

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9/10

I still prefer LAW AND ORDER

searchanddestroy-15 October 2022

I wont compare this version of OK CORRAL GUNFIGHT with all the well known films from John Ford, John Sturges, George Pan Cosmatos or Larry Kasdan. No, I prefer comparing it with Edawrd L Cahn movie, less known, unfairly unknown, and far better than this one, more gritty, brutal, tense and interesting, thanks to Walter Huston. So back to this one, it is fast paced, entertaining, without being an absolute must see. It is an Allan dawnn film, the most prolific film maker of the industry history. It provides no surprises. Less flamboyant than the Sturges version, the storytelling is some where more satisfying for my taste, I can't explain, maybe because of Cesar Romero's character, more convincing than Kirk Douglas in GUNFIGHT IN OK CORRAL.

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