Wichita (1955)

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Wichita (1955) – J. Tourneur

When Joel McCrea’s Wyatt Earp decides to ban all guns from Wichita after the accidental shooting of a 5-year old boy, the resonances with current events in the USA were impossible to ignore.  But, despite the ban, the gun-toting ruffians kept on coming, gunning for Earp because they couldn’t stand being controlled.  Moreover, the town’s self-appointed chamber of commerce also thinks guns are good for business and that a little violence is a necessary side effect of a healthy economy.  Another random shooting, a contract for murder, and some shootings in the street (often by Earp, prosecuting the law his own way) are necessary before the town begins to feel that law and order are the way to go.  How many more deaths will it take in the US before guns get banned?  True, we might not be able to trust some of those allowed to carry guns (such as Earp – although McCrea plays him as squeaky clean, if a little too ready to back up his words with bullets) but the alternative seems to be gunfights in schools, movie theatres, colleges, and every other damn public place.  In Cinemascope with excellent direction by Jacques Tourneur.