Good start, but then it gets ruined

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

First off the head star Joel McCrea does a great job in portraying a man of the west. He is tall, has a good build, great demeanor and comes across mellow until he has to come across another way. This one has it all: Bad and good guys, love interest, lots of horses, cattle, cowboys, shooting, drinking, saloon activities, painted ladies, piano playing with a touch of what it was like back then at the start of the cattle boom along with the railroad teaming up. Good supporting staff plus direction makes it come alive and make sense. We all have heard about the shoot-out at the OK corral in Tombstone but this takes place prior to that in Wichita where he had done some good work. They even mention in this movie that he was known for some other heroic deed prior to that. So we get to be in a part of his history courtesy of this movie. Pay special attention to his sidearm. Its a cannon and supports the premise of one shot one kill and don't make me pull-it which btw Earp utters a couple of times which helps to build tension and suspense. Very easy in this movie to root for the good guys and boo the bad guys. Nice closure at the end and I highly recommend singing along with the end credit song to just end it all on a whooping good note. Those old Western songs do the trick! I ate some home roasted pine nuts and had a tasty drink during this movie plus a meat dish with Quinoa all delicious. Plan your watching now and enjoy. Let's ride all you pards!

The award-winning Golden Globe western for Best Outdoor Drama in 1956, "Wichita" reunited "Cat People" director Jacques Tourneur and leading man Joel McCrea for the third and final time. Previously, they teamed up to make the exceptional "Stars in My Crown" (1950) and "Stranger on Horseback" (1955). Although Tourneur won more kudos for his quiet little horror movies with Val Lewton, the Parisian native was no stranger to horse operas. In addition to his Joel McCrea westerns, he helmed "Canyon Passage" with Dana Andrews and "Great Day in the Morning" with Robert Stack. "Wichita" is a standard-issue, town-taming oater with McCrea cast as Wyatt Earp before he acquired his reputation as a lawman. Incidentally, when McCrea made this western, his portrayal of Earp was the tenth time that this famous badge-totter had been depicted. Prolific scenarist Dan Ullman, who also penned the screenplay for another McCrea sagebrusher "The Gunfight at Dodge City," would later reunite with Tourneur on "Great Day in the Morning." Ullman covered all the tropes in this wild and woolly western about cowboys herding cattle into a new railroad town and then blowing off with pent-up aggression as well as their pay on liquor and women. This western marked another collaboration between producer Walter Mirisch who had produced "The Gunfight at Dodge City" as well as "Fort Massacre" with McCrea. Mirisch assembled a first-rate cast that included several seasoned western actors, among them Jack Elam, Robert J. Wilke, Edgar Buchanan, Walter Coy, I. Stanford Jolly, John Smith, and Peter Graves.Wyatt Earp (Joel McCrea of "The Virginian") rides into the wide-open cattle town on the inauguration of its first herd. In no time, he makes a reputation for himself when he foils a bank robbery and arouses the interest of the wealthiest townspeople. They marvel at his ability to handle a six-shooter without killing anybody and promptly offer him a badge that a lesser man is wearing. Politely but firmly, Wyatt turns them down until the drunken cowhands start shooting the town up and accidentally kill an innocent five-year old standing at an open window and watching their shenanigans. Town mayor Andrew Hope (Carl Benton Reid of "Escape from Fort Bravo") swears Earp in as marshal and our hero marches into the dark street armed with his six-gun and a long- barreled shotgun. He arrests the cowboys and herds them off to jail with the help of a local newspaper reporter, Bat Masterson (Keith Larson of "Last of the Badmen"), who later signs on to become his deputy before Earp's brothers Morgan (Peter Graves of "The Five-Man Army" and James (John Smith of TV's "Laramie") ride into town. Despite their repeated efforts to hire Wyatt and his general reluctance to accept the badge, the town wheels are pleased with his performance. Those halcyon days are short-lived after Wyatt issues a town proclamation that guns cannot be worn in town. Railroad entrepreneur Sam McCoy (Walter McCoy of "The Searchers") objects to this ordinance and others like fear like he does that Wyatt has doomed Wichita. When the cattlemen get wind of this law, the town big-wigs worry that they will divert their herds elsewhere and prosperity will be a thing of the past. For a while, Wyatt drives a wedge between them. The mayor refuses to fire him, while the others plot to drive him out."Wichita" is an above-average western with sturdy production values and good performances.

Up front I must tell you that I usually HATE westerns featuring folks like Jesse James, Billy the Kid and other real life folk. This is because very rarely do the filmmakers get it right--and completely fictionalize these lives to make minor characters seem far, far more important and interesting than they really were. So, when I saw that Joel McCrea stars as Wyatt Earp, I was NOT pleased. And, to make it worse, Bat Masterson apparently is in the film as well. The only reason I forced myself to watch it is because even a bad McCrea western is still usually worth seeing. Plus, it did help that folks like Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Edgar Buchanan, Wallace Ford, Vera Miles and Jack Elam also were in the film.To set the record straight, I used to teach US History and much of what's in this film is crap. While it is true that Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson did work together for a bit, it was in Texas, not Kansas. Also, Earp WAS a deputy in Wichita--never the marshall or sheriff. And, although Bat Masterson DID become a newspaper man, that was later--after he was a lawman. I sure wish they'd kept the script and just changed the names--it would have improved it immensely. That's because it really is a very, very good film apart from all the historical confabulations! In this story, Wyatt is a peace-loving and patient man. He's headed into Wichita to open a business and live a normal life. Unfortunately, the town is pretty lawless--especially when the cattlemen and their hands arrive in town. During one of these times, the guys shoot up the town--and kill a little kid. So, Wyatt is quickly sworn in as sheriff and he takes on these drunken rowdies with only the assistance of young Bat Masterson. You'd think the town would be thrilled, right? Well, this is NOT the case of the rich guys in town who own the saloons and stockyards! They want the sheriff to turn a blind eye to the outrages of the cattlemen because their fortunes depend on cattle. However, Wyatt will only do it his way--the RIGHT way! What's to happen next? See the film for yourself.Excellent acting, lots of action and a terrific take on the myth of the old west. Yes, I do mean myth as gunfights and much of what we think of as common stuff in the west rarely ever occurred--and more often than not, it was just some guy shooting another guy in the back!

The strong personality of Wyatt Earp has inspired many western so far. This one is quite old, 45 years old, but is quite decent and concrete.It focuses in the time when Wyatt Earp was a sheriff in Wichita, Kansas, before his trip to Dodge City.Starring Joel McCrea, who was a big star of western movies during the 1950s.