The man who bought Bat's saloon is Ben Townsend.
After changing the marquee, it says Ben Thompson.
If this had been a black and white film, I probably would have rated it where I go with almost all of them, a solid 'six' and not much more. But you don't see many 'B' Westerns in color, hence the bump up a notch.
The Gunfight at Dodge City is directed by Joseph M.Newman (This Island Earth/Fort Massacre) and jointly written by Martin Goldsmith and Daniel B.
Released in 1959, Gunfight falls squarely into the "modern" Western genre, rather than the '50 studio-system mellow-drama westerns. Joel McRae's plays his character with complex motivations, emotions, and loyalties.
Average inexpensive Western.Joel McCrae is Bat Masterson, saloon owner and now sheriff, newly elected to put an end to the cowboys who come to town on weekends to hoorah the place and frighten the dickens out of the good folk, like Doc John McIntire and Julie Adams, the purty preacher's daughter.
John McIntire and James Westerfield both played Judge Paker in the John Wayne movies True Grit and Rooster Cogburn.
It deals with the gun-down that cracked the West wide open , as Bat Masterson (Joel McCrea) doesn't look for problems , but he doesn't walk away from it . When an army sergeant in Hays City attempts to shot Bat and dies for this attack , Bat heads for Dodge City where Ed , his brother , is city marshal and a candidate for county sheriff running against the nasty Regan (Don Haggerty) .
Joel McCrea plays a very fictional version of western legend Bat Masterson.
My vote has always been that of all the great stars identified as western heroes, none was more upright than Joel McCrea. In fact whenever he tried to vary that character, the results usually weren't that good.
Just what the audience could expect from director Newman: a routine action-packed western with veteran Joel McCrea as the legendary Bat Masterson. It is not so much the story that makes this film worth watching, but the appearance of Timothy Carey (uncredited-unbelievable!
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