A lovely B-western.
In modern films we don’t get a chance to learn about the characters as we immediately find ourselves watching some fast-paced action and therefore indifferent to the participants, who are unknown to us.
Normally, I prefer the story to unfold slowly.
But here we get a building of a stand-off shootout between Bat Masterson and Doc Holliday right in the beginning of the film. And it is a nice way to nail the audience to the seat and present the characters at the same time.
The first stand-ff makes it to the poster
It is indeed a B-Western, so don’t expect too much of it. And certainly don’t expect historical accuracy – all that is historically correct here are the names and the fact that Bat Masterson didn’t like Doc Holliday, but was a friend of Wyatt Earp.
Still I’d say it’s a pretty cool idea to have Bat and Doc going through the film hating each other with Wyatt busy trying to keep both of his friends from killing each other.
While the script is rather enjoyable, acting and casting are the weakest points of this one. Bat and Wyatt are too similiar in manners and characters, and Doc Holliday was definitely miscast.
Still Doc gets the best lines of dialog, as usual:
Stranger: You don’t know me Doc, but I am your friend.
Doc: I choose my friends, and I still don’t know you.
Here Doc has a superstition of not killing people when is having a winning streak (same concept was later used in Maverick’s TV series interpretation of Doc Holliday’s character by Gerard Mohr in episode “The Quick and The Dead”).
(The confrontation and promise to have a shootout between Doc and Bat still stays)
Bat: Hope you win, Doc.
Doc: Pray I win.
Classic Western Movie Genre 