The movie is set in 1929 at a time when the talkies were just beginning to replace the silent movies and mixes a little fact with plenty of fiction. The story centres on Tom Mix who was a huge star of Westerns at that time and an ageing Wyatt Earp, note American lawman famous for the OK Corral shootout. We are meant to believe that that Earp joins forces with Mix as a technical adviser to make a movie about Earp?s life and then gets tangled up in a murder mystery. I note from the history books that Earp died early in 1929 at the tender age of 80 so some of his alleged exploits in this film were surely beyond a man of that age.

Tom Mix is badgered into the film by Alfie Alperin, a movie mogul who made it big on the back of his act as the Happy Hobo. It?s not quite Charlie Chaplin and the Little Tramp but it is close enough, even if Chaplin does get a mention as one of Alfie?s rival movie moguls at one stage. The piece de resistance is when Wyatt Earp himself is brought on board as a technical adviser to help maintain the realism of the film being made about his life. Eventually Earp is called to see Alperin?s wife, someone he knew many moons ago in Denver, and some to whom he made a pledge to help if she ever needed it.

Well her son is a bad drinker and prone to violence when drunk and he has been accused of bashing a prostitute. Mrs Alperin wants Earp to find out the truth. He sets off with Mix?s help to sort things out, but in the James Garner way of James Garner playing James Garner playing Wyatt Earp. This could have been a period costume Rockford Files TV show episode for all the effort Garner puts into getting into Earp?s character. Willis isn?t much better as Tom Mix, playing him as almost a cartoon representation as a man who could ride, shoot, drink and win over all the women.

The two manage to unravel enough evidence to point to sinister goings on in Alfie?s past, where the death of his first wife was really murder and not the boating accident he had claimed. The drunken son gets found at the scene of the murder of the woman who had seen the first wife get pushed overboard. As a means of buying her silence, Alfie had help set the witness up in an upmarket bordello that had attracted many famous people with sexual quirks. The corrupt cops were in on the deal, being bought off by bags of cash.

The upshot is that Alfie?s daughter had ended up killing the witness, in part to protect Dad who she loved in more than a daughter/father way. Earp and Mix managed to find this out and all hell breaks loose at the first Academy Awards ceremony when all is revealed. A few dead bodies later and the show ends.

This really has to rate as one of these ?What were they thinking?? type movies. The plot is so highly implausible and the script so poor that I spent more time being embarrassed for the actors than anything else. Garner only plays one character ever and sticks to what he knows best in this. He has some good lines that try to make the film into a comedy but it fails overall. It also meant to be a thriller but the stereotyped Chicago mobster and the weird murder plots make the film very difficult to believe. I note the film was made by Hudson Hawk studios so Willis? production company has much to answer for too. It is a pretty poor attempt at something that probably should never have seen the light of day.

The movie finishes with a quote ?And that?s the way it happened, give or take a lie or two?. I reckon there were a few too many lies and stretches of the truth along the way. I wouldn?t be rushing out to see this one.

THE EXTRAS

There are trailers for two other films ?Silverado? and ?Buck and The Preacher? and scene selection. The trailers were added I presume so that if you like this sort of quirky movie you had another couple to choose from. Neither film looked that good. One thing they should have mentioned was that the real Tom Mix was a pallbearer at the real Wyatt Earp?s funeral ? now why wouldn?t they add something like that to give some credibility to the movie?

CONCLUSION

Can the legendary lawman Wyatt Earp solve a murder mystery with the help of famous filmstar Tom Mix? Will the boys be able to find the real killer of the bordello owning Madam and clear the name of the drunken son of the movie mogul?