Dodge City

Dodge City and Stagecoach were released the same year and though featuring two very different plots, are both credited with breathing new life and legitimacy into the flagging western genre. Starring dashing Errol Flynn and beauteous Olivia de Havilland, Dodge City begins with a nailbiting race between a stagecoach and locomotive--representing the transition from the Old West to the new one. The story itself begins as an itinerant cattleman rides into the title town and ends up its appointed sheriff and assigned to rid the town of a troublesome villain and his outlaw gang. Along the way, he finds himself falling in love with a lovely saloon girl. The film's highlight is a barroom brawl that is so exciting and fast-paced that it set the standard for western movie bar fights in countless films to come.