NR | 1 h 44 min | Drama, Western | 1939
Director Michael Curtiz’s film is set in 1866 Kansas, after the Civil War has ended. Armies have disbanded and the long, slow, difficult work of building the West begins. “Dodge City” is meant to be a crowd-pleaser and please it does, but not without ample hints about why the West’s values must be preserved and not left to crumble under the weight of lawlessness.
Col. Grenville M. Dodge (Henry O’Neill) establishes his new city with a speech that spells out the noble traditions he’d like his town to stand for. Threatening his vision is ruthless cattle baron Jeff Surrett (Bruce Cabot) who draws men like flies away from their families and into a web of vice and violence that he wants to eventually spread across all of Dodge….