Some film scholars consider 1939 to be the high point of the golden age of Classic Cinema, producing award-winning, box office hits in many genres, including the Western. Warner Bros. produced Michael Curtiz's Technicolor adventure "Dodge City" (1939), Flynn and deHavilland's first Western film. Set during the American Civil War, the film is about a Texas trailblazer who witnesses the brutal lawlessness of Dodge City, Kansas, and becomes sheriff to clean up the town. DeHavilland played Abbie Irving, whose initial hostility towards Flynn's character Wade Hatton is transformed by events, and the two fall in loveby now a proven formula for their on-screen relationships. Curtiz's action sequences, Sol Polito's cinematography, Max Steiner's expansive film score, and perhaps the "definitive saloon brawl in movie history" all contributed to the film's success. "Variety" described the film as "a lusty western, packed with action". For deHavilland, playing yet one more supporting love interest in a limited role, "Dodge City" represented the emotional low point of her career to that point. She later said, "I was in such a depressed state that I could hardly remember my lines."