| The Gunfight at Dodge City | |
| Director: | Joseph M. Newman |
| Producer: | Walter Mirisch |
| Story: | Daniel B. Ullman |
| Screenplay: | Martin Goldsmith Daniel B. Ullman |
| Starring: | Joel McCrea Julie Adams John McIntire |
| Music: | Hans Salter |
| Cinematography: | Carl E. Guthrie |
| Editing: | Victor Heerman |
| Studio: | The Mirisch Company |
| Distributor: | United Artists |
| Runtime: | 81 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
The Gunfight at Dodge City is a 1959 American DeLuxe Color Western CinemaScope film. It was produced by the Mirisch Company, directed by Joseph M. Newman, co-written by Martin Goldsmith and Daniel B. Ullman and starred Joel McCrea as Bat Masterson.[1]
Bat Masterson sells his saloon to his friend Ben Townsend in order to make money hunting buffalo with Ben's young, disabled brother Billy. A psychotic gunman named Dave Rudabaugh warns Bat that he shouldn't sell his pelts in Hays City. Bat ignores him to come to town where he outdraws a cavalry sergeant making him travel to Dodge City where his brother Ed is the City Marshal.
The upright Ed complains that the County Sheriff Jim Regan is corrupt and destroys his efforts to clean up the town. Ed is in love with Pauline Howard, the daughter of a church minister, but has delayed his marriage for unknown reasons. In the meantime, Bat enters a partnership with Lily, the proprietress of the Lady Gay saloon who faces ruin as the Sheriff and his deputies are attempting to force them out of business by first murdering her original partner, then frightening off her croupiers. Bat battles the Sheriff and his deputies, but after they murder his brother he becomes the City Marshal and has to choose between Pauline and Lily.
Following the success of the Mirisch Productions Joel McCrea Western Wichita (1955), Walter Mirisch decided to make another Western with McCrea. Originally entitled The Bat Masterson Story, Mirisch retitled the film The Gunfight at Dodge City to emulate the success of Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957).[2]