I don't recommend this movie to anyone who isn't a rabid Errol Flynn fan. From my point of view, he's too suave and urbane to qualify as a Western hero. I understand he ended up making eight Westerns. I can't say I'm looking forward to watching them, although I'm holding out a little hope for "They Died With Their Boots On". The movie has a good rep and George Custer sounds like a more suitable role for Flynn. We'll see.
It's hard to come up with a list of likes and dislikes for this film. It was so bland and cookie cutter, it didn't elicit much reaction either way. I gave it a three out of 10 in my IMDb and it only scored seven points in my ranking system, a bad score.
Here's what I liked:
On the negative side:
It's hard to come up with a list of likes and dislikes for this film. It was so bland and cookie cutter, it didn't elicit much reaction either way. I gave it a three out of 10 in my IMDb and it only scored seven points in my ranking system, a bad score.
Here's what I liked:
- There was a very large and well filmed barroom brawl. This is a stock Western cliché that doesn't really interest me much, but this was one of the better ones I can remember. I especially liked it because it took place between Union and Confederate Civil War veterans.
- I don't know much about the history of color movies, but this must have been an early one. Not very impressive 70 years later , but it must have been a big deal back in its own day.
- I'm at a loss really to say anything more positive about this film
On the negative side:
- Like I mentioned above, I just didn't buy Flynn as a gunfighter hero.
- I'm not sure why his character wasn't Wyatt Earp. I'm not an Earp historical expert, but it seemed to me this was the stock "Wyatt Earp cleans up Dodge" narrative, just with a different guy. Don't know why they did that.
- The written preludes to these 1930's movies crack me up. Was it that audiences were so accustomed to the silent era that they were afraid not to let them read a little bit?
- As is typical in movies from this time period, the romantic subplot is stiff and corny, the soundtrack is syrupy, the villains are purely melodramatic, there is a general lack of realism.