Copyright 28 July 1939 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 28 July 1939. U.S. release: 28 July 1939. Australian release: 28 September 1939. 6,429 feet. 71 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Wyatt Earp cleans up Tombstone, Arizona.NOTES: Wyatt Earp (1848-1929) was actually not a marshal at this stage of his career, but a deputy sheriff of Pima County, centered in Tombstone, Arizona. Other screen impersonations of him include Walter Huston in Law and Order 31, Richard Dix in Tombstone 42, Henry Fonda in My Darling Clementine 46, Joel McCrea in Wichita 55, Burt Lancaster in Gunfight at the OK Corral 57, James Stewart in Cheyenne Autumn 64, James Garner in Hour of the Gun 67, Harris Yulin in Doc 70. There was also a long-running TV series starring Hugh O'Brian.This movie is actually a re-make of the Lake novel originally filmed in 1934 with George O'Brien as Earp and Alan Edwards as Doc. It was re-made again in 1946 with Henry Fonda and Victor Mature under the title My Darling Clementine. And re-made yet again in 1953 under the title Powder River.Although permission had been obtained from Earp's estate (and a fee of $5,000 duly paid) to use his name, lawyers for the estate sued Fox anyway, claiming that Earp's screen romance with "Sarah Allen" was entirely fictitious.COMMENT: A lavishly-produced western, though most of the money seems to have been spent on the first half of the film. The climax at the O.K. Corral is somewhat skimped - especially in comparison with other versions - and the film as a whole is considerably inferior to Ford's greatly expanded re-make, My Darling Clementine. Still Frontier Marshal, despite the fact that it is largely studio-bound and that its action sequences are not handled as vigorously as in the other Earp films, has some good things going for it in the cast department. Eddie Foy is a stand-out here. His presence alone is worth the price of admission and his absence from the other versions is to be deplored. And this must be the last occasion that Binnie Barnes, who was to continue as a western heroine throughout the early forties, was photographed sufficiently attractively (skilful make-up and costumes also helped) to justify her casting. Randolph Scott does well by Wyatt Earp while Cesar Romero is in many respects a more convincing Doc Halliday than Victor Mature. Nancy Kelly makes an appealing heroine, while John Carradine, Lon Chaney Jr and Joe Sawyer make an admirable trio of villains (in fact we should have liked to see more of them, especially Chaney and Carradine). Dwan's direction has some imaginative touches (Scott's suddenly being accosted by the vigilante group; his odd entrance from above) and the musical numbers (including Miss Barnes' delightful rendition of "Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl") are handled with gusto. Charles Stevens plays the same role in this film as he does in Ford's re-make, but otherwise the cast is completely dissimilar. Charles Clarke's photography is consistently a thing of beauty, the art direction is pleasing and other production credits are top-drawer.

Early version of the Earp-Holliday, OK Corral legend.Thanks to big-budget TCF, this is a well-produced, mid-level Western. Those barroom scenes along with the crowded streets are high energy and appropriate to a boomtown, which Tombstone was. Dwan directs these scenes with flair. Can't say the same for the final shootout that is poorly staged and fleetingly done as if the production had to hurry up to meet schedule. Ford's 1946 remake My Darling Clementine greatly improves on that final showdown with the kind of close-ups and structured tension that're needed.Scott and Romero cut formidable figures as the legendary heroes. The screenplay suffers, however, by failing to spotlight an equally formidable villain to challenge them, spreading the villainy instead across several minor players. Too bad the impressive Carradine is largely wasted in an incidental role. On the other hand, Kelly is very pretty as the good girl, while Barnes shines as the good-time girl. I like the way their rivalry evolves over time.I can see why the estimable John Ford saw so much potential in the characters and story. There's a lot of color in the array of personalities and rivalries, including the show biz Eddie Foy Jr., an entertaining contrast to the frontier types. Of course, Ford's version is clearly superior. Still, this 1939 entry remains a respectable little Western with its own modest merits.

Randolph Scott, as Wyatt Earp, rides into Tombstone thinking about starting a stagecoach line. But Indian Charlie, drunk, starts shooting up the local saloon. The local marshal (Ward Bond) is afraid to go in and roust Charlie, so Earp dons a badge, goes in and drags him out by the feet. Earp becomes the full-time marshal. He meets Doc Halliday (Caesar Romero), a tubercular physician, gambler, and gunman, and after an initial wary brush, the two become more or less friends. Romero has a local trashy girlfriend (Binnie Barnes) whom Scott has to dump in a water trough. Doc gets liquored up, pulls his gun at the bar, and Earp knocks him out to save his life. An old flame of Doc's (Nancy Kelly) shows up in town, having pursued Doc all across the West, but Doc dumps her unceremoniously because he loathes what he's become. He redeems himself, however, by saving a badly wounded patient, only to be killed by Curly Bill and his gang as he walks out of the saloon door. There follows a shootout at the OK Corral in which Scott makes mincemeat of the bad guys. Binnie Barnes leaves town on the stage, and Kelly stays behind, probably not unaware of the moon eyes Scott has been casting her way.Sound at all familiar? Seven years later it was remade as John Ford's "My Darling Clementine." It isn't a bad movie, better than the majority of Westerns being made at the time. Yet one can't help wondering what makes Allan Dwan's "Frontier Marshal" an above-average Western and Ford's "My Darling Clementine" a classic.Small things first. Dwan's movie is short on creativity in the wardrobe and makeup departments. Like most of the other principals, Scott dresses in an echt-1939 suit, only with a cowboy hat and gunbelt. The women's makeup dates badly, with dos out of the late 1930s and pencilled eyebrows and big lashes. It isn't that "Clementine" is extremely good in those respects -- it's just better. The photography and location shooting don't reach the bar set by "Clementine" either. The photography isn't bad at all but it hardly fits into a Western frame. Almost the entire movie is shot at night, with no more than a handful of daylight scenes. The location isn't Monument Valley but it is, after all, Movie Flats which has been used expressively before. Here, it's not really present in any utilitarian sense because you can't SEE it at night.Acting. Caesar Romero is probably as good as Victor Mature was in the later version. Binnie Barnes and Linda Darnell (in the same hooker role) are equally good, although they give us two quite different versions of what a hooker is like. Barnes is older, tougher looking, a bit treacherous. Darnell is younger, more Hispanic, tousle-haired, tempestuous, and childish. Scott is a competent actor, but Fonda is on the other hand outstanding. Throughout "Clementine" Fonda wears an expression that has something of puzzlement in it. When he whacks a guy over the head with the barrel of his pistol, he looks up from the unconscious body as if he's slightly surprised at what has happened and hasn't got a very clear idea of what's going to take place next. Above all, there is the difference in direction. Dwan was a forthright story teller, a pioneer in the movies, and he does a good job. But Ford goes beyond the story, almost into visual poetry. "Clementine" has not only the family, but two opposing families, which gives the characters added depth and more intense motives. "Clementine" also has the familiar Ford opposition between the wilderness and the garden, which in Dwan's film is given very short shrift indeed. There is nothing in "Frontier Marshal" like the scene in which Fonda escorts Cathy Downs to the half-built church and awkwardly dances with her. What a celebration of community. Dwan's story deals with individuals who have conflicting ideas of how to get ahead. A couple of people know one another but there is little sense of a "town" in Dwan's movie. I won't go on about Ford's touches of roughhouse humor except to mention that they add another element lacking in "Frontier Marshal." There's an intentionality behind these brief incidents. Instance Fonda's dance with his feet against the porch post, or Darnell throwing a pitcher of milk in Ward Bond's face after he whinnies at her. Still -- allright, so it's not a classic. But "Frontier Marshal" is better than most. And it's worth seeing for its historical value, a kind of lesson about how to make a good movie into a very good movie indeed.

This was the movie which John Ford remade as his classic My Darling Clementine. Here, Randolph Scott plays Wyatt Earp and Caesar Romero plays Doc Holiday, but there are no Clantons or Earp brothers. Instead, John Carradine plays a bad saloon owner heading a gang that is trying to take over Tombstone.Of course, this movie can't directly compare to My Darling Clementine, but it's a pretty good western in its own right. Its one of Randolph Scott's better early roles.Many of the classic scenes in My Darling Clementine were taken directly from this movie, and it's very interesting to compare the two. This version of Frontier Marshal was a remake of an earlier 1933 version, and, of course, this story has been told many times since.The Maltin Guide gives it three stars. Check it out if you're a western fan, or just a fan of My Darling Clementine.