AllMovie

An early screen version of the oft-filmed tale of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Law and Order was adapted by young screenwriter John Huston from W. R. Burnett's novel, which alters the names of the principals but few of the facts. The film opens with a montage of the settling of the West, concluding with the observation that lawless behavior soon followed in many settlements. Walter Huston plays Frame Johnson, a steely-eyed gambler whose three companions, Brant, Luther (Frame's brother), and Deadwood, form a team of sorts, wandering from town to town in search of a good poker game. Johnson's reputation as "the man that cleaned up Kansas, the killingest peace officer that ever lived" precedes him when he arrives in Tombstone, a town controlled by the Northrup brothers and their crooked sheriff, Fin Elder. A committee of lawful citizens, led by a judge, try to hire Johnson to clean up the town, but he's reluctant to pin on the badge again. Inevitably, he does, and there's a showdown that leaves a corral full of corpses.