Wichita (1955)

Memorable, crazy movie

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Oh, where to beign? FIrstly: I'm born/raised in Wichita KS so I know the old girl pretty well. Even still visit "Old Cowtown" on the banks of the "Little Ar-Kansas River"... which is amazingly framed by a nonexistant mountain range! Note that phonetic pronunciation because it's just one of the many inaccuracies this old Technicolor chestnut promulgates. Typically, a character in the film calls it the "Ar-kan-saw" River. But those are the least of the offenses as this movie steadfastly portrays that thug-with-a-badge Wyatt Earp as a reticent, conquering hero. Truth is he was nothing of the kind, let alone Marshall of my hometown! Earp was just a patrolman in the seedy worehouse district of Delano, which was just on the other side of the river from "respectable" Wichita. Today Delano is filled with botiques, but in 1888 it was filthy and crawling with rats an stray dogs.. in fact, young Wyatt honed his pistol skills by shooting mongrels for the palty bounty the city offered... money he would later gamble away playing Faro at a local table. He was also himself once arrested for disorderly conduct. Earp was a piece of work, all right! In constrast, his buddy Bat Masterson was a decent lawman and one of the few who would live to tell about his wild days on the Kansas prairies - he retired writing a sports column for a NY newspaper. But Wyatt Earp still had an infamous career ahead, including the disgrace that was the OK Corral and his subsequent vigilantism as he and his merrry band roamed the countryside to murder those who were already exonerated in court of law. Earp finished his days as a respected advisor to Hollywood silent films where he perpetuated the myth of white-hatted good guys. Appropriartely -in real life- Wyatt Earp always wore a black one. But the mythical legacy he left behind was still a strong one as this turgid potboiler demonstrates.

Joel McCrea was 50 when he made this movie. The real Wyatt Earp, when he took the job in Wichita, Kansas, was 28. "He only shot to wound those fellas" is also claptrap. This movie is filled with this "made for kids" dialog and fight scenes. Wrongs are righted, the bad guys are caught, and all is right with the world. TV was a booming place for TV westerns in the mid 50's, and this was right out of that world. Sorry, but this film is just plain laughable.It has all the usual characters-- well dressed saloon bosses, the boozy newspaper man with a secret past, the town marshal who has a yellow streak a mile wide. Cattle barons and cow punchers who feel it's their duty to tear a town apart. All the "saloon girls: are wearing fancy duds without a hair out of place and perfect makeup-- but they don't show cleavage. Yeah, right.... Pass.

The people of Wichita want it to become a boom town, a place to sell cattle, served by the railroad, and where the cowboys come to spend their money in the saloons. So what is the last thing they should do? To make Wyatt Earp the Marshal. But that is exactly what they end up doing when the cowboys get too drunk, start shooting aimlessly and kill a boy (named Michael Jackson!!) Wyatt(Joel McCrea) arrests some of them and forbids the use of firearms. Bat Masterson is also there to help him. Jacques Tourneur knew how to give an extra touch to what could be an average western, which also has some remarkable actors like Lloyd Bridges, Edgar Buchanan and the eternal bad guy, Jack Elam. There is a great scene when Wyatt first shows up, almost a dot at the top of the hill. A western worth seeing.

It is for me a very good film, one of the best western of cinema's story. Jacques Tourneur proves here that he is a great director and if still many cinema critics are not convinced, I recommend them to read the book about Jacques Tourneur by Chris Fujiwara. I wait for the DVD coupled with for example the beautiful stranger on a horseback.