Frontier Marshal

Early version of the Earp-Holliday, OK Corral legend.

Thanks to big-budget TCF, this is a well-produced, mid-level Western. Those barroom scenes along with the crowded streets are high energy and appropriate to a boomtown, which Tombstone was. Dwan directs these scenes with flair. Can't say the same for the final shootout that is poorly staged and fleetingly done as if the production had to hurry up to meet schedule. Ford's 1946 remake My Darling Clementine greatly improves on that final showdown with the kind of close-ups and structured tension that're needed.

Scott and Romero cut formidable figures as the legendary heroes. The screenplay suffers, however, by failing to spotlight an equally formidable villain to challenge them, spreading the villainy instead across several minor players. Too bad the impressive Carradine is largely wasted in an incidental role. On the other hand, Kelly is very pretty as the good girl, while Barnes shines as the good-time girl. I like the way their rivalry evolves over time.

I can see why the estimable John Ford saw so much potential in the characters and story. There's a lot of color in the array of personalities and rivalries, including the show biz Eddie Foy Jr., an entertaining contrast to the frontier types. Of course, Ford's version is clearly superior. Still, this 1939 entry remains a respectable little Western with its own modest merits.

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.

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.

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

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 well…the 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.