Esclavas del crimen

I have issues with watching old movies, particularly black and white films. The editing, the dialogue, the acting, the plot...etc. I have been trained by modern society too well, it sucks. And I feel bad about it, not enjoying old movies the way I should. Which brings me to the dalton girls. Loved it. It was ahead of its time in so many ways. The plot, the characters, even some of the dialogue. And the lead male was HOT, which is often not true in older movies and yes I am looking at you Humphrey Bogart and Fred Astaire. It was so fast paced compared to other movies at the time and fun and real. I only got annoyed once! So I am tired of hearing this "B-movie" attack on this movie. I am impressed. I wasn't even planning on watching this film. I just came home form drinking one night and found it on...and it takes a lot to grab my attention after i have been drinking. Cheers dalton ladies!

Bel Air Productions of THE DALTON GIRLS consists of four resilient and completely bad-ass sage-riding sisters of The Dalton Gang, all freshly dead... the men that is... and their gorgeous siblings are as follows...

Merry Anders as the mother figure, and darn good with a gun; Lisa Davis is the wildcard killer, and even better with a gun; Sue George is the quiet, baby-faced youngest; and Penny Edwards is... in a Western with four pretty sisters... the pretty one, as in, the most girly and classy and who the handsome leading man is after...

In-between the title gang robbing a stagecoach, a saloon and then a high-stakes hotel room poker game, square-jawed gambler John Russell desperately yearns to protect Penny Edwards' Columbine Dalton, who, along with the youngest (both recent graduates of a fancy finishing school) isn't all that crazy about life on the run, like the older two.

Edwards, no stranger to the dusty genre, makes a wonderful kind of pawn, vulnerable to the suspenseful action-packed violence with b-starlet Merry Anders providing a solid baseline...

But it's Lisa Davis as Alpha Female Rose that steals the picture, proving she's tough as any man... maybe even tougher. Ultimately, it's her fight to lose.

This western belongs to the short list of westerns involving female gunslingers and duels between them. It is a lousy picture but excellent for me, very unusual for this kind of productions. There would have been more of them. The best example of what Grade B pictures could provide from time to time.

I caught The Dalton Girls late last night on The Westerns Channel. It was a unique concept of female outlaws in the old west and I stayed with it all the way to the end because I wanted to find out the fate of each of the four girls. The story was easy to follow and the action scenes and stunt work were all well handled. The four Dalton Girls, sisters of the now deceased Dalton Brothers, are driven to a life of crime when Holly, the oldest, kills their brothers' undertaker for trying to rape her. She smashes him in the head with a shovel. With her three sisters, they set about robbing banks and stagecoaches. These girls are as good with guns and horses as any man. Holly (Merry Anders) tries to protect the youngest, Marigold (Sue George), who seems to not fit in with a life on the run. Rose (Lisa Davis), is a cold blooded killer doing just what she wants. Columbine (Penny Edwards) is an efficient criminal, but hopes to find a way out some day. It's even part musical. Rose sings "Can't Trust a Man" accompanied by Columbine on the harmonica. As I watched, I noticed a slight British accent creeping into some of Lisa Davis' lines, and I checked her out on IMDb. Sure enough, she was born in England. Penny Edwards was hand picked by Dale Evans to replace her as Roy Rogers gal pal in some RR movies when Dale was expecting a baby. John Russell is really good as the gambler who loves Columbine and keeps turning up wherever the girls go. This is a good western, overall, and is kind of a forerunner of the 1994 movie, "Bad Girls." Western fans will enjoy watching "The Dalton Girls."

Actually this is not a half-bad Western if you're not expecting much, and certainly the title doesn't promise much in the way of artistry. What this B-flick has going for it are some well- staged scenes on the prairie and a couple of tough-minded chick scenes, especially the robbery episodes. The acting is uneven, to say the least. Merry Anders is fine as Holly, the leader, as is Lisa Davis as Rose, the second toughie. However, poor Sue George as Marigold should have auditioned for Leave It to Beaver. Maybe you won't have as much trouble as I did telling these "flowers" apart, but they do look alike and it can get confusing. Judging from the title, you'd probably expect more titillation than there is-- after all, this is the 1950's. Nonetheless, there is a legitimate feminist undercurrent even if much is compromised in the end. All in all, this minor production from a couple of old pro's (director Le Borg and producer Schenck) remains a rather interesting artifact as well as a fairly viable piece of period entertainment.