Directed by William Castle
Produced by Sam Katzman
Story and Screen Play by Douglas Heyes
Director of Photography: Henry Freulich, ASC
Music Conducted by Mischa Bakaleinikoff
Film Editor: Henry Batista, ACE
CAST: George Montgomery (Bat Masterson), Nancy Gates (Amy Merrick), James Griffith (Doc Holliday), Jean Willes (Dallas Corey), William A. Henry (Charlie Fry), Bruce Cowling (Wyatt Earp), Donald Murphy (Virgil Earp), Sandy Sanders (Joe Tyler), Benny Rubin (coroner), David Bruce (Clay Bennett), Gregg Barton (Sutton), Greg Martell (Mitch Connors), Jay Silverheels (Yellow Hawk), John Maxwell (Amos Merrick), Frank Wilcox (prosecutor, uncredited).
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If heaven works the way I hope it does, as soon as I say hello to my mom and grandparents, I’m gonna ask for an introduction to William Castle. (Knowing my mom, she will have already set something up.) From there, I’ll spend large chunks of Eternity asking about stuff like how the kids with slingshots took out the Emergo skeletons.
You see, I love William Castle. Even though I’m a full generation too young to have seen his movies in all their hyped-up, gimmack-y, first-run, theatrical glory, they’re some of my all-time favorite films and real mile markers across my youth. My best friend James and I read about them endlessly in Famous Monsters, caught them on TV and eventually saw a passel of them at New York’s Film Forum. Taking my daughter to see a revival showing of 13 Ghosts (1960) was a father-daughter evening I’ll always remember.
Like a lot of people, both film fans and filmmakers, my love of the movies can be traced back to William Castle. He was a brilliant showman — and when he was focused on making a film, a good director. His Whistler films, for instance, show us just what he was capable of. They’re terrific.
Castle spent much of his career at Columbia. In the early Fifties, he directed a handful of films for Sam Katzman’s unit at the studio.
William Castle, Sam Katzman and serial director Spencer Gordon Bennett.
Castle: “Sam Katzman was a smallish man with a round cherubic face and twinkling eyes. Few people in the motion-picture industry took him seriously as a producer of quality films, but to me, Sam was a great showman.”
Cinematographer Richard Kline: “Sam had his own unit at Columbia Sunset on Lyman Place. It had been the Tiffany-Stahl studio. Columbia bought that place and made it Sam’s unit… It was a very small studio, it was not luxury. For instance, there was no commissary, and I don’t think they even had a hot dog stand! So you’d have to go off the lot and eat somewhere in the area.”
In Katzman, Castle had evidently found his mentor, and he soon realized there’s a lot more to the movie business than just making movies. Jungle Sam’s influence can be found all over Castle’s horror films of the late Fifties and early Sixties — or at least all over the way they were hyped and sold.
One of Castle’s pictures for Katzman (in my opinion, the best), Masterson Of Kansas (1954) is fast and tough. Its tight schedule and lean budget don’t hold it back. George Montgomery is Bat Masterson, sheriff of Dodge City. James Griffith is the notorious gambler and gunfighter Doc Holliday, in an excellent performance. They join forces with Wyatt Earp (Bruce Cowling) to save an innocent man from the gallows and keep the Indians off the warpath. (The real Masterson served as a deputy under Earp for a spell, and Earp and Holliday took on the Clantons at the O.K. Corral, so this gun-toting dream team isn’t as farfetched as it sounds.)
Nancy Gates as the daughter of the framed man and Jean Willes as a saloon girl do well with the underwritten parts they’re given. Jay Silverheels is his usual dignified self as Chief Yellow Hawk. George Montgomery never became the big cowboy star he should’ve been, leaving a solid list of very good, and very overlooked, medium-budgeted Westerns. He’s quite good here, and Columbia’s costume people gave him a beautiful hat.
But the film belongs to character actor James Griffith. Doc Holliday is a flashy part in any Western, and everyone from Victor Mature to Kirk Douglas to Val Kilmer has put their own spin on the character. Griffith’s approach is my favorite. He’s a doctor (he was really a dentist), he’s dying, he has nothing to lose, and Griffith makes sure you believe it. At times, you can see the death wish in his face. In some scenes, the compassion of a physician and chivalry of a gentleman return. And he wrestles with killing Masterson versus helping him out. Somehow, Griffith makes all the character’s contradictions come together, and even make sense. And remember, he does all this over the course of just 73 minutes.
Nancy Gates in IB Technicolor.
Masterson Of Kansas has been brought to Columbia’s MOD program in a transfer than does everyone proud. Henry Freulich’s camerawork is splendid, with compositions that really take advantage of the then-new 1.85 aspect ratio. The Technicolor adds plenty of production value, and it’s rare to see the Iverson Ranch or Corriganville look this good. And the sound makes sure we take note of Mischa Bakaleinikoff’s score, along with the ching-ching-ching of Montgomery’s spurs. Columbia’s A-level treatment of their B Movies is certainly appreciated (even if it can be argued that some of the films don’t deserve it). There are no features on this disc, not even a menu. You put it in, it starts. I like that.
This is a film, and now a DVD, I highly recommend — something special seems to have been going on here. I hope this one inspires you to seek out more Castle and Montgomery films. You won’t be disappointed.
SOURCES: A Sci-fi Swarm And Horror Horde: Interviews With 62 Filmmakers by Tom Weaver; Step Right Up! by William Castle.
50 Westerns From The 50s. 
Definitely picking this one up ASAP. Thank you for writing this review.
Sounds like a dandy!
Indeed it is.
The Home Theatre Forum has now published the full list of releases
for November in Sonys excellent MOD series. For Katzman/Castle fans
there is THE HOUSTON STORY reputedly the best of their non Westerns.
Film stars Gene Barry and Barbara Hale.
There are stand-alone releases of THE TALL T (for folks who do not
want the Boetticher box set) and Wesley Ruggles ARIZONA.
I mentioned elsewhere that they are releasing the 1930 Buck Jones
film MEN WITHOUT LAW. A contributor to HFT mentions this is possibly
the most vintage film released in the series so far and adds that their
previous Jones release had outstanding picture quality.
For fans of Hammer films there is their ultra-rare service comedy from
1959 DONT PANIC CHAPS reputed to be the second most rare Hammer title.
The rarest Hammer film is the horror comedy THE UGLY DUCKLING (1959)
which is said to be “lost” but I would not be suprised if Sony found it
lurking in their vaults. This film is the “Holy Grail” among Hammer
collectors.(yep! such critters DO exist!)
This is the Western I most owe Toby for seeing again, and now greatly appreciate–thanks to enthusiastic things he had said about it, I watched it on the Western Channel last year and even though I kind of wished I waited for the letterboxing to 1.85 (and know I’ll enjoy getting back to it that way), it still played well. Somehow, I hadn’t warmed to it when I saw it long ago, who but knows why?–maybe just a surfeit of movies that day or my mood or whatever. Anyway, it’s excellent, among the very best Castles and of a fair number I’ve seen, definitely the most satisfying of his Westerns.
I’m not the Castle fan that Toby and others are and most appreciated some of his 40s films like WHEN STRANGERS MARRY or his fine WHISTLER entries or a later noir like JOHNNY STOOL PIGEON. But this found him on the upgrade for me and also watched THE LAW VS. BILLY THE KID, which I hadn’t seen and was very good too on that so familiar narrative. In that one, James Griffith plays Pat Garrett (to Scott Brady’s Billy) and is again outstanding, though I wonder if he ever had a better role for his persona than his Doc Holliday here.
I’m sure we all agree that it’s always a good role and has been done effectively by a lot of actors, I actually disagree with Toby because I like Victor Mature the most as Doc–of them all, he to me had a poetic soul and is such a haunting figure as played by Mature; but it must also be acknowledged that John Ford’s interpretation of the material, one of the movies on which he seemed to be as his most intensely creative, is inevitably at another level..
That said, Griffith is outstanding in all the ways Toby says and I don’t think anyone could have articulated better what is there in his Doc than Toby has. As Toby is fond of reminding us–and he’s right–this was a very underrated actor. I’d hate to imagine my own moviegoing experience without him.
Toby, a personal thanks from me for getting me back to this one earlier.
I was afraid I’d oversell this film, so it’s good to find others sharing my enthusiasm for it. And I’m really glad to be the one to send you back to it.
Victor Mature’s Doc Holliday is a great performance and a great part. And what a movie! It’s not just another level, as you said, but a completely different approach to the story.
Cheers, Toby! 🙂
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