Wyatt Earp Shoots First (2019)

Paul Clayton is Wyatt Earp, a deputy in Wichita, Kansas, who’s romancing a saloon girl in her room when killer Nash Gett comes to town.

Wyatt decides to confront Gett (Jerry Chesser). But he’s been told by his father and by the marshal not to shoot first, so he hesitates when Gett spins around.

Shots ring out. Saloon owner Serena (Jezibell Anat) is mortally wounded. Gett gets away.

Wyatt’s frustrated by the turn of events, so Marshal Millikin suggests he head west to work as a railroad guard.

He lands in Colorado, but working for the railroad becomes monotonous, so he tries his hand at guarding dynamite shipments, only to decide that’s too dangerous.

All along the way, he’s haunted by the ghost of saloon owner Serena, begging him to set her free.

Eventually, Wyatt’s travels lead him back to Dodge, Kansas, where he joins the deputies trying to maintain order in a boom town.

Get who else shows up?

Gett, of course. And he hasn’t exactly reformed since his last meeting with Wyatt Earp.

Paul Clayton as Wyatt Earp, reviewing what went wrong when a woman was gunned down in Wyatt Earp Shoots First (2019)

Jerry Chesser as Nash Gett, a killer trying to track down another victim in Wyatt Earp Shoots First (2019)

Review:

Pretty much a pointless bore, unless the goal was to provide film school students an 80-minute lesson on how not to make a Western.

The concept had potential: Famed lawman Wyatt Earp goes through a period of self-doubt after his hesitancy to use his gun results in the death of a beloved lady saloon owner.

But instead of using the scant running time to give viewers a reason to give a damn about Wyatt — or to understand why Gett has become a ruthless killer — director Forbes takes us on all sorts of nonsensical tangents.

So we have railroad owner Furlong launching into a long speech of why his passenger line will be successful. We have the explosion of an outhouse that you can see coming the moment the scene begins.

And we have an overweight customer going from one saloon girl to another, looking for a female willing to go on a bareback ride for two atop a horse. It’s supposed to be comic relief, I suppose.

It all leads up to a final showdown in a cave that’s about as suspenseful and exciting as watching water drip from a faucet.

Jezibell Anat as saloon owner Serena, warning of Nash Gett’s arrival in Wyatt Earp Shoots First (2019)

William Wylie as Furlong, owner of the railroad that hires Wyatt in Wyatt Earp Shoots First (2019)

Directed by:
Christopher Forbes

Cast:
Paul Clayton … Wyatt Earp
Jerry Chesser … Nash Gett
Jezibell Anat … Serena
Scotty Sparks … Marshal Cass
Catherine Jerald … Elizabeth Hart
Will Adams … Mason
William Wylie … Furlong
Kelly Forbes … Sissy
Melvin Stewart … The Rev. King
Eric Poe … McGillicutty
Barry Jerald Jr. … Marshal Hart
W. Clay Lee … Sheriff Milliken
Joseph Zuchowski … Jedidiah

Runtime: 80 min.

Melvin Stewart as The Rev. King, talking about his plans for a sanctuary for the needy in Wyatt Earp Shoots First (2019)

Kelly Forbes as Sissy, showing Nash Gett the folly of trying to rob her in Wyatt Earp Shoots First (2019)

Memorable lines:

Saloon girl: “Can I get you something?”
Nash Gett: “Water.”
Saloon girl: “Just water?”
Gett: “For now, yeah.”
Saloon girl: “Do you want me to brew you a fresh pot of coffee?”
Gett: “I don’t care. Just get it!”

Wyatt Earp: “One day, I’m gonna whisk you away from all this.”
Saloon girl Gina: “Well, you’ve been seeing me for quite some time. And I’m not gonna hold my breath for such a thing.”
Serena interrupts the love talk with news that troublemaker Nash Gett is around.
Gina: “No whiskin’ away for me today.”

Serena to Wyatt as she lays dying: “Why didn’t you shoot first?”

Sheriff: “Wyatt, have you ever been to Colorado?”
Wyatt Earp: “Colorado?”
Sheriff: “Yeah, big mountains and all those kind of things.”

Serena’s ghost to Wyatt: “Stop dancing around the devil.”

Nash Gett: “Lower your guns, marshals, and I won’t shoot this pretty lady in the face. At least not today.”

W. Clay Lee as Sheriff Milliken, suggesting Wyatt try working for the railroad in Wyatt Earp Shoots First (2019)

Joseph Zuchowski as railroad worker Jedidiah and Paul Clayton as Wyatt Earp after their man in Wyatt Earp Shoots First (2019)