When The Daltons Rode (1940)
Grade: 51
A stranger (Randolph Scott) arrives in a sleepy western town, and waits for a stage coach to take him to the next town. To pass the time, Scott strolls the streets, and sees a family having their portrait taken. There is a mishap in the studio, and Scott laughs. This makes one of the clan angry (Brian Donlevy, fresh from playing the villian in "Destry Rides Again"). Scott next witnesses an altercation between Ozark Jones (Andy Devine, fresh from playing comic relief in "Stagecoach", and the only man on earth who can talk off-key) and his latest girlfriend.
She has a gun and, to protect himself, Ozark hides behind Randolph Scott. It is Donlevy's turn to laugh, and Scott and Donlevy get into a scuffle with Donlevy ending up in the horse trough. The tension is broken when Scott realizes that they are old childhood friends: Scott was a neighbor to this Dalton family. Scott is invited to stay at the Dalton ranch.
Unfortunately, these opening scenes are the best part of the film.
Scott hits on a woman at the ranch. She turns out to be a Bob Dalton's fiancee. This love triangle is wooden and empty, getting in the way of the film's pace. Scott, who is a lawyer by trade, agrees to stay in town to fight banking interests who want to take the Dalton's land.
Soon, overseers arrive to take inspect the homestead. Donlevy accidentally kills an overseer and is put on trial for murder. Of course, Scott defends him, but Donlevy's easily roused temper again flares in the courtroom. There is violence, the Daltons flee the courtroom, and become bank-robbing outlaws.
The Donlevy trial is the turning point of the film. A good western drama suddenly becomes an average western shoot-em-up. The pace is too quick: now the Dalton gang is wanted dead or alive, and their daring adventures include robbin a train loaded with both gold and deputees. There are some good stunts in these scenes.
The Dalton gang returns to their hometown with the intention of going straight. But they can't resist pulling one last job. The bank holdup misfires, the Dalton gang is killed in a shootout, with only Scott surviving. He gets the girl and first billing, but not the glory, which must have been annoying to him when he first read the script.
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