FRONTIER MARSHAL, the first authorized film version of Wyatt Earp, and the legendary gunfight at the O.K. Corral, stars Randolph Scott as Wyatt Earp and Cesar Romero as Doc Holliday.
The 1939 western movie is based on Stuart N. Lake’s book, WYATT EARP, FRONTIER MARSHAL, published in 1931. Lake had spent time interviewing Earp, and his book created the legend that we know today. Not only was Lake's biography the basis for FRONTIER MARSHAL (1939) starring Randolph Scott, but the book has also been used for subsequent films about the peacemaker, including John Ford’s remake, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE (1946), and later GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL (1957), TOMBSTONE (1993), WYATT EARP (1994) and the Hugh O’Brian TV series, THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF WYATT EARP, done in 1955, which had the still living Stuart Lake as a consultant.
Randolph Scott makes a pretty good Wyatt, and there are those who think that Cesar Romero’s Doc (“Halliday” in this film, and a surgeon, not a dentist?) was even better than Victor Mature in MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. I always find it interesting to compare remakes, and the Ford/Dwan comparison is a doozy. At 71 minutes, FRONTIER MARSHAL moves right along as director Allan Dwan was not given the running time, or budget, that Ford was able to spend on atmosphere, locations, and deeper characterizations.
Actor Ward Bond is in both versions. In FRONTIER MARSHAL and, seven years later, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. Bond is the ineffective town Marshal in this one and Morgan Earp in the later version, which delves more deeply into family bonds and the rivalry between the Earps and Clantons. Actor Charlie Stevens, falsely publicized for years as the grandson of Geronimo, has the role of “Indian Charley” in both versions and in RKO’s “Tombstone: The Town Too Tough to Die.” I can’t deny that Ford was very influenced by this film. It has many of the same inaccuracies.
The rest of the cast lifts this version to A-movie status, even without the magnificent Monument Valley landscape. Binnie Barnes is Doc’s prostitute girlfriend and much less childish than Linda Darnell was in the Ford version. Alan Mowbray’s Shakespearean actor is missing, but instead, we have Eddie Foy Jr. portraying his real-life father as a traveling entertainer and Nancy Kelly as Sarah Allen.
The trio of bad guys in FRONTIER MARSHALL are a special gang of villains. There's John Carradine who runs things as a saloon owner, Lon Chaney, Jr. who has a run-in with Doc, and Joe Sawyer as Curly Bill. You’ll spot a familiar array of western veterans like Chris-Pin Martin (who had been Cisco Kid’s sidekick to Cesar Romero’s Cisco), Richard Alexander, Edward Norris, Hank Bell, Si Jenks, and former B western leading man Tom Tyler.
While most of the film takes place in the town of Tombstone, at night, there are several sequences shot at…you guessed it, the Alabama Hills of Lone Pine, CA.
In 1931 a film based on a fictional novel about Earp’s exploits by W.R. Burnett, with a script by a young John Huston, was made starring Walter Huston and Harry Carey Sr called LAW AND ORDER. However, that film did not use the Earp or Holiday name, which makes FRONTIER MARSHAL the first to showcase their fame. There is action and quite a few laughs in store for you. There have been many variations on film of Wyatt Earp and let’s hope there will be more quality movies depicting his exploits in years to come. Enjoy FRONTIER MARSHAL. Thanks for watching.
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