Frontier Marshal **** (1939, Randolph Scott, Nancy Kelly, Cesar Romero, Jon Hall, John Carradine, Binnie Barnes, Joe Sawyer, Lon Chaney Jr, Ward Bond) – Classic Movie Review 6947

‘I’M THE LAW IN TOMBSTONE.’ Director Allan Dwan 1939 Western is the second film of Stuart N Lake’s book Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal, following Lewis Seiler’s Frontier Marshal (1934). Lake’s biography, published two years after Earp’s death in 1929, was later found to be largely fictionalised. However, it is a good story.

The 1939 Frontier Marshal stars Randolph Scott as Wyatt Earp, the marshal who tames the town of Tombstone, Jon Hall as Virgil Earp, and Cesar Romero as Doc Halliday [Doc Holliday] in the tale of the fightin’ and feudin’ that leads them to the gunfight at the OK Corral.

Frontier Marshal got edged out by the rush of famous Westerns that year (Stagecoach, Destry Rides Again, Jesse James), but the film is most satisfying both as myth making and as entertainment, and Scott is great as Wyatt Earp. It was made on the tenth anniversary of Wyatt’s death.

Also in the cast are Nancy Kelly, John Carradine, Binnie Barnes, Joe Sawyer, Lon Chaney Jr, Ward Bond, Edward Norris, Eddie Foy Jr, Chris-Pin Martin, Del Henderson, Harry Hayden, Russell Simpson, Tom Tyler, Si Jenks, Pat O’Malley, Harry Woods, Gloria Roy, Dick Alexander, Heinie Conklin and Arthur Aylesworth.

Frontier Marshal is directed by Allan Dwan, runs 71 minutes, is released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Sam Hellman, based on Stuart N Lake’s book Wyatt Earp Frontier Marshal, is shot in black and white by Charles G Clarke, is produced by Sol M Wurtzel and is scored by Samuel Kaylin.

Lake’s book was to become John Ford’s My Darling Clementine, which includes entire scenes re-shot from the 1939 film, and finally Powder River in 1953. John Sturges’s Gunfight at OK Corral in 1957 is another version of the story.

Romero plays ‘Doc Halliday’ in a name change from the original ‘Doc Holliday’ from fear of litigation by Holliday’s family.

Bond plays the town marshal, was also in the 1934 version, and appears as Morgan Earp in Ford’s film.

Eddie Foy Jr plays his lookalike father, entertainer Eddie Foy, as he does in three other films.

Josephine Earp, the marshal’s common law wife, sued 20th Century Fox for $50,000 in 1939 to keep it from naming the remake Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal. Fox agreed to remove Wyatt’s name from the title and give Josephine $5,000.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6947

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