I wanted to but couldn't!

How sad is this?

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The way you can tell a "B" Western -- and this IS a B Western -- is not always the actors. This movie has a pretty good cast. Joel McCrea (who should have never gone into Westerns in my view) is a really good actor...and he is good here. The supporting cast is pretty decent, too -- Vera Miles, Lloyd Bridges (in his bad-guy era), Wallace Ford, Edgar Buchanan, and Peter Graves. And they do their jobs well.And, it's not always the story the makes a movie a B movie...although the story here is -- as a couple of other reviewers pointed out -- a little too simplistic.Sometimes it's just the lack of care that is taken in the production. For example the first day the new railroad comes into town it's on tracks rather overgrown with weeds. Or the high mountains outside Wichita...high mountains in Kansas??? In other words, throw a Western together. It's the 1950s and Westerns are hot. It'll get good box office...and it did. Today this little Western would go nowhere at the box office. I doubt it would even make into theatres. But, that's not to say it's unwatchable. It's slightly better than the average mid-1950s Western.

Superior McCrea western thanks to an intelligent script that also plays up the actor's penchant for steely resolve. How much law and order is too much. That's the question the town council of Wichita must decide. Too much will drive away the fun-starved cowboys coming to town after a long trail drive. Too little and the town gets shot up. Newly installed Sheriff Earp (McCrea) is on the side of strict law and order, forbidding the cowboys from bringing their guns to town. This upsets powerful businessmen and saloon owners. So Earp must contend not only with rowdy cowboys but with town politics as well.McCrea is perfect for the quietly resolute sheriff. As expected there's no swagger or bravado in his grim determination to keep other townspeople from being accidentally killed by busting-loose cowhands. When he stands alone, you believe it. It's also a well-stocked production from lowly Allied Artists, with enough extras to make the crowded town scenes credible. Of course, there's a romantic angle with a lovely but heavily made-up Vera Miles (soon to come under the wing of Hitchcock in such thrillers as The Wrong Man {1956} and Psycho {1960}). But the romance is pretty well integrated into the plot, without dangling like a distractive add-on.All in all, it's a good western drama woven around the quietly powerful Joel McCrea.

The now-familiar and evergreen story of Wyatt Earp's maverick attempts (& succeeding) at ridding all guns from the Western frontier town of Wichita, is again shown here, directed with some style by Jacques Tourneur, from 1955.Joel Mc Crea - not quite a superstar of Westerns, is suitably refrained but still somehow imposing as the law enforcement officer Earp. There's good action at the start, as bands of outlaws ride in, guns blazing, fights in Saloon bars and general terrorising of the residents.Mc Crea is good, Vera Miles lovely and a turn from Lloyd Bridges is always welcome. The colour and clarity are also good, though the Technicolor less vibrant and saturated than is often the case, making the film look more natural.Though I'm no expert on the Western, I do enjoy a good one and whilst this was entertaining enough, it didn't strike me as one to particularly remember. It didn't drag, wasn't boring and is probably better than average, but not quite enough for 7/10.

The same year that Wichita came out, 1955, the TV series about Wyatt Earp debuted with that famous theme song, "Wyatt Earp, Wyatt Earp, brave courageous and bold." And certainly Hugh O'Brian was all these things in that series.But the western hero that fit all those virtues was certainly Joel McCrea. After portraying Buffalo Bill Cody in the way Cody would have liked to have been remembered it was only natural that Wyatt Earp be done the same way.Wichita was the first town that Earp had a job in law enforcement and he was there one year, 1875-1876. Wichita is purportedly the story of that year and how he cleaned up the town and made law and order function in Wichita. It's certainly all been done before, but the story is in the hands of a capable cast.Particularly to watch is the double dealing role that Edgar Buchanan has and how a bad case of mistaken identity costs him dearly.Tex Ritter sings a nice title song over the credits and while it didn't exactly have the impact that his same efforts had in High Noon, it certainly sets the tone for this film as well. After all back in the day Tex made a western or three.