The Woman of the Town (1943)

Albert Dekker is Bat Masterson, who arrives in Dodge City looking for a newspaper job and winds up with a couple of surprises.

After prevailing in a bar room shootout in which the town marshal is killed, he finds himself named the marshal’s successor.

And that job looks more appealing when a trip to church leads to an encounter with lovely young Dora Hand (Claire Trevor).

But the surprises keep coming. The same angel who sang so well in church can belt out a pretty good tune at Dodge City’s most hoppin’ saloon.

Bat disapproves of Dora’s means of making a living, and since he’s a target for every gun-happy cowhand, he doesn’t consider himself husband material.

But Dora soon has another suitor, a brash young cattle baron named King Kennedy (Barry Sullivan), whose men collect marshal’s badges as a hobby and pin them to the side of their chuck wagon.

Naturally, King and Bat soon butt heads, and not only over Dora.

After all, Bat’s been hired to keep the peace in Dodge. And at the end of a long trail drive, King Kennedy’s men are anything but peaceful.

As for Dora, she’s been working behind the scenes to help Bat land his dream job, and to get him out of range of King Kennedy’s gunfire.

Review:

Claire Trevor, a Western star after “Stagecoach” (1939), is topped-billed here, and it’s her character who makes the film work.

She’s part scarlet angel, belting out “Poor Polly” on the saloon stage and drinking champagne with the town leaders.

She mostly angel, helping nurse a sick young girl named Annie and helping finance the brand new Dodge City hospital, with proceeds from Front Street, of course.

The best part among the supporting cast goes to Clem Bevans as Buffalo Burns, who has a unique way with words and a unique way of making sure everyone helps fill the hat he passes around for collections at church.

This marked just the second credited film role for Barry Sullivan, who would become something of a Western star himself. He played Pat Garrett in “The Tall Man,” a TV series that ran for 75 episodes from 1960-62.

Directed by:
George Archainbaud

Cast:
Claire Trevor … Dora Hand
Albert Dekker … Bat Masterson
Barry Sullivan … King Kennedy
Henry Hull … Inky Wilkinson
Marion Martin … Daisy Davenport
Porter Hall … Mayor Dog Killey
Clem Bevans … Buffalo Burns
Percy Kilbride … Rev. Samuel Small
Beryl Wallace … Louella O. Parsons
Arthur Holh … Robert Wright
Teddi Sherman … Fanny Garretson
George Cleveland … Judge Blackburn
Russell Hicks … Newspaper publisher
Herbert Rawlinson … Doc Sears
Marlene Mains … Annie Logan
Frances Morris … Mrs. Logan

Also with: Dorothy Granger, Dewey Robinson, Wade Crosby, Hal Taliaferro, Glenn Strange, Charley Foy, Claire Whitney, Russell Simpson, Eula Guy

Runtime: 90 min.

Memorable lines:

Editor: “I can’t believe a marshal with your record gave away his guns after hanging them up.”
Bat Masterson: “I didn’t give them away. And I didn’t hang them up.”
Editor: “Well, what did you do with them?”
Bat: “The one I had I buried.”
Editor: “Buried?”
Bat: “On Boot Hill.”

Buffalo Burns, as Bat is being introduced to the Rev. Small: “Preachin’ous parson ya ever heared. Can take the steal off a sinner quicker than a bullwhip can take the hide off a mule.”

Buffalo Burns, as Rev. Small expresses the women’s concerns about Indians attending the church services: “Sufferin’ snakes, parson. There weren’t no reason why them womenfolk should be nervous. If one of them Indians had left out as much as a ‘whoop,’ I’d have brained him with his own hatchet.”

King Kelly: “One minute you’re a saint, the next minute you’re a Front Street belle.”
Dora Hand: “Which do you want me to be?”
King Kelly: “Don’t fool with me, Dora.”
They kiss.
King Kelly: “You do like me, don’t you? Just a little?”
Dora: “Yes, a part of me does. But I’m afraid it’s the Front Street belle.”

Dora Hand, approaching a moaning young girl at the opening of the hospital she helped finance: “Annie, what on earth are you doing?”
Annie, whispering as though sharing a secret: “Mrs. Hancock said to look as sick as I could because it’s opening night and I’m the only patient.”

Mayor Dog Killy to Kelly: “My dog was worth four of you.”

Bat: “Buff, there was a moment when I had her all to myself.”
Buffalo Burns: “Pardner, there are some moments can stay with a man for the rest of his life.”

Bat Masterson, facing down a lynch mob: “There’s law here for a million dollar boss or a $30 buckaroo. Anyone who wants his piece can have it now.”

Dora: “You must go (to face two would-be assassins)? Why?”
Bat: “I don’t know. Maybe it’s the tin they put in these things (indicating his badge). Maybe it’s something the marshals before me put into them. I don’t know. In any case, I’m going.”

Percy Kilbirde as the Rev. Small, realizing his uptick in collections was partly due to the singing of saloon girl Dora (Claire Trevor) in The Woman of the Town (1943)

Claire Trevor as Dora Hand, the saloon girl who turns the head of Bat Masterson and King Kennedy in The Woman of the Town (1943)

Marion Martin (right) as Daisy Davenport, jealous of Dora’s effect on the guys in The Woman of the Town (1943)

Albert Dekker as Bat Masterson works around feathers to help Dora Hand (Claire Trevor) change in The Woman of the Town (1943)