Historical inaccuracies aside, this is a fun Western bringing together some of the big names of the Old West for a classic knock down, drag out showdown at the finale. The only thing missing was the OK Corral.
The setting is Abilene, Kansas. Lawman Pat Garrett (George Montgomery) has retired his tin star back in Lincoln County, and has come to Kansas to claim Lorna Pardee (Karin Booth) for his wife and head for California. His presence in town might disrupt Butch Cassidy's plans to rob a half million dollar payload coming in on a local train ahead of the next cattle drive. Having already taken down and arrested Sundance Harry Langabaugh (Russell Johnson), Harvey Logan (Richard Devon) and Blackjack Ketchum (Fred Graham), Garrett sends for Wyatt Earp (Buster Crabbe) and Bat Masterson (Gregory Walcott) to collect the outlaws and move them to Dodge City for trial.
What follows is a classic treatment of an underlying subtext found in many Western films - the ideological battle between appeasement and standing up to fight for one's rights and property. Abilene's Mayor Coleman (Morris Ankrum) denounces the lawmen, and goes so far as to free the jailed outlaws and give away the plan to lure Cassidy's bunch into town. The bad guys never make it out of town, as the rest of the town leaders come to their senses and side with the visiting Marshals. That's when Wyatt Earp uttered the line in my summary above. All that was left at this point was the staging of the grand finale.
I had to shake my head though while tracking the battle when the Hole in the Wall bunch rode into town. Butch (Neville Brand) had about fifteen riders with him when he came into Abilene, and once the guns started firing, his men were being picked off fairly handily. Yet when they began to retreat and got stopped at the fiery blockade, there were still about the same number of riders. Amazing.
Oh yeah, there was one more historical figure on hand, with Malcolm Atterbury portraying Buffalo Bill Cody. During the shootout against the bad guys, Cody had the best line of the picture - "Sure wish they were buffalo, can't make a rug out of an outlaw"!
The setting is Abilene, Kansas. Lawman Pat Garrett (George Montgomery) has retired his tin star back in Lincoln County, and has come to Kansas to claim Lorna Pardee (Karin Booth) for his wife and head for California. His presence in town might disrupt Butch Cassidy's plans to rob a half million dollar payload coming in on a local train ahead of the next cattle drive. Having already taken down and arrested Sundance Harry Langabaugh (Russell Johnson), Harvey Logan (Richard Devon) and Blackjack Ketchum (Fred Graham), Garrett sends for Wyatt Earp (Buster Crabbe) and Bat Masterson (Gregory Walcott) to collect the outlaws and move them to Dodge City for trial.
What follows is a classic treatment of an underlying subtext found in many Western films - the ideological battle between appeasement and standing up to fight for one's rights and property. Abilene's Mayor Coleman (Morris Ankrum) denounces the lawmen, and goes so far as to free the jailed outlaws and give away the plan to lure Cassidy's bunch into town. The bad guys never make it out of town, as the rest of the town leaders come to their senses and side with the visiting Marshals. That's when Wyatt Earp uttered the line in my summary above. All that was left at this point was the staging of the grand finale.
I had to shake my head though while tracking the battle when the Hole in the Wall bunch rode into town. Butch (Neville Brand) had about fifteen riders with him when he came into Abilene, and once the guns started firing, his men were being picked off fairly handily. Yet when they began to retreat and got stopped at the fiery blockade, there were still about the same number of riders. Amazing.
Oh yeah, there was one more historical figure on hand, with Malcolm Atterbury portraying Buffalo Bill Cody. During the shootout against the bad guys, Cody had the best line of the picture - "Sure wish they were buffalo, can't make a rug out of an outlaw"!