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As has been generally observed, John Ford was making adult westerns long before the release of the high profile 'adult western' High Noon, and he was doing it under the radar of 99% of the critics of his day.

While no Ford, Gordon Douglas directed lots of highly watchable films that likewise never got their due in their time. Doolins is one of these. As a well-known director for hire, Douglas once credited the existence of his entire oeuvre to having a family to feed.

--Fair enough, and a pretty bravely self-deprecating and self-aware attitude in a town of pretentious auteur-wannabes. I'd offer the opinion that Douglas was the average intelligent man making films for his peers. Because of that, his films remain worth a sit-through. (His Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye rivals Walsh's White Heat in energy and noir viciousness as a late Cagney vehicle.)

This is the best Randolph Scott western after the Boetticher films. Place it alongside other fine non-Ford westerns of the era, including Angel and the badman, Winchester 73 and Yellow Sky. It's definitely worth a watch.

A year after hunting down Bill Doolin in Return of the Badmen, Randolph Scott makes a rare appearance on the wrong side of the law as the same notorious outlaw in The Doolins of Oklahoma. The writers pay only passing attantion to the facts in this solid programmer efficiently directed by Gordon Douglas, and Scott makes a hugely sympathetic hero, who is tricked back into a life of crime by his old gang after going straight with preacher's daughter Virginia Huston.

Good Scott western, with lots of action, interesting characters, and a solid script. Doolin (Scott) may be a bankrobber but he's also capable of noble deeds. In short, he's a good-bad guy of the sort the iron-jawed Scott could play to perfection. Here he leads a gang of outlaws whose members are known to us by name. Funny thing about the movies. Even bad guys can be humanized enough so that we care about them. That happens more or less with these gang members.

And get a load of the familiar Alabama Hills that Scott and Buddy Boetticher explored in their great Ranown series of oaters. Director Douglas does some effective staging with the Neolithic slabs, worthy of Boetticher. There're some other good touches by Douglas. I especially like the little boy who stares Scott down in church. I don't think I've seen anything quite like it. Surprisingly, veteran screen baddie George Macready plays a federal marshal, which took some getting used to. And what a sweetheart Virginia Huston is. Who wouldn't give up a life of crime for her. It's that element, I think, that lends the ending such poignancy.

All in all, it's a well done 90-minutes by Columbia, somewhere between an A-production and a B. I'm just sorry Scott never got the recognition as a western star that he deserved.

The Doolins of Oklahoma (AKA: The Great Manhunt) is directed by Gordon Douglas and written by Kenneth Garnet. It stars Randolph Scott, George Macready, Louise Albritton, John Ireland, Noah Beery Junior, Charles Kemper and Viginia Huston. Music is by George Duning and Paul Sawtell and cinematography by Charles Lawton Jr.

After the fall of the Dalton Gang, Bill Doolin (Scott) becomes head of his own gang of outlaws. But with the law in hot pursuit and his yearning to start a new life, Doolin knows he is greatly up against it.

Since it irritates many, it needs pointing out that if you are searching for a history lesson - a film full of real life fact - then look elsewhere. This is at best an interpretation of Bill Doolin the outlaw, where the makers get some things right and others not so. So just settle in for a Western movie, out to entertain with that bastion of Western, Randy Scott, up front and central.

Standard rules of 1940s/50s Westerns apply, meaning there is nothing new across the dusty plains here, outlaw wants to escape his past but circumstances refuse to let him do so. Cue moral and emotional conflict, chases, fisticuffs, shootings, robberies and macho posturing. The Doolin gang are here portrayed as lovable rogues, with main man Bill particularly exuding that fact, and it's here where the Production Code tempers the promise of something more biting in narrative thrust. The lady characters are unfortunately short changed in the writing, leaving the guys to carry the pic to safety conclusion.

At production level there is much to admire. Lawton's black and white photography is crisp and detailed, the interiors atmospherically photographed, the exteriors gorgeously showcasing the Calif locations to full effect. Stunt work (with legendary Yakima Canutt on point detail) is high grade, exciting and authenticity rolled into one. While the crowning glory comes with the stampede at pic's finale, exhilarating is not overstating it. Cast can't be faulted, the ever watchable Scott surrounding by genre pros who don't know how to soil a Western, and with Douglas in the director's chair you got a man who knows his way around an honest Oater.

No pulling up of trees here, and some familiarity does do it down for those in tight with the genre, but lots to like here. From the gunny opening salvo to the mighty stampede, and encompassing rueful closings, it's a treat regardless of historical lessons. 7/10

Riding on the Wrong Side of the Law, Randolph Scott Plays a Gang Member, Bank Robber On the Run.

The Violence is Cutting Edge with Plenty of Gun-Battles and some Brutal Fisticuffs.

In Act II Scott Tries to Get Married and Settle Down.

But HIs Past and Marshal George Macready with His Relentless Posse will Have None of it.

Action-Packed with High-Contrast Cinematography Filled with Guns Blazing and Hoses at a Gallop.

It's an Energetic Entry in the Genre and the Tone Foreshadows the New Decades Dedication to Make the Western More Adult.

Not Quite Up-There with the Films Scott did with Budd Boetticher but it is an Above Average Movie.

With Help from a Good Supporting Cast....

Macready (who also surprisingly does voice-over) John Ireland, Noah Beery Jr., Jock Mahoney, and Virginia Huston.

A Big Production that Climaxes with a Massive Horse Herd Stampede.

If it has a Weakness its the Comedy Relief of Charles Kemper and Dona Drake.

The Film Pulls Few Punches and One Gets the Sense that the Approach here was to Ratchet Things Up a Notch and it Shows.

You Will Find Some Stuff You Won't See in Any Other Randolph Scott Westerns.

A Must-See for Western Fans and for All Others....

Worth a Watch.