Face au châtiment

In one of the few times in Randolph Scott's career he played a real character, he's notorious outlaw Bill Doolin who was active in the Oklahoma Territory in the Gay Nineties until the law took its course.

Scott had previously played Wyatt Earp in Frontier Marshal and Bat Masterson in Trail Street and was Sam Starr in Belle Starr. But here he plays real life outlaw protagonist Bill Doolin in his own starring film and not in support of Gene Tierney in Belle Starr or a legendary good guy as in the first two. But after watching The Doolins of Oklahoma you'd think Bill Doolin was forced into a life of crime.

No doubt Bill Doolin (1858-1896) may have been forced economically to turn outlaw, but he certainly did take to the trade, much like his earlier peer Jesse James. The film does touch upon parts of the Doolin legend, such as him being in on the Dalton gang raid in Coffeyville because he was holding the horses. You can't reduce Randolph Scott to holding horses so in this film his horse pulled up lame.

His band certainly had some colorful names and in fact those were the names of his men. I liked John Ireland and Noah Beery, Jr. best of that bunch. George MacReady who showed up in many a Scott western, here is a U.S. Marshal for a change and ostensibly a good guy for once.

It's not history, but it's a good Randolph Scott western that forgets the facts and films the legend.

The big switch in THE DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA is that GEORGE MACREADY is on the side of the law as a U.S. Marshall, while RANDOLPH SCOTT strays far from the heroic cowboy image he played in so many previous westerns.

He's a hunted man, a fugitive wanted for murder during the era of the Dalton Brothers--and rightly concerned about his survival. As Bill Doolin, he forms his own gang of robbers. On the lam from some pursuers, he enters a church during service and meets a family of church-goers, falling in love with the deacon's daughter. Soon he has a farm, is married to the young lady (VIRGINIA HOUSTON) and wants to go straight and put the past behind him. That is, until his old friends from the Doolin gang show up in town and have other ideas.

When his wife learns his real identity, he rides off to rejoin the gang after a talk with her deacon father (GRIFF BARNETT). The western takes a darker turn, the action gets grittier, and the gang members--including NOAH BEERY, JR., JOHN IRELAND and JOCK MAHONEY--have a little more to do, including some energetic fight scenes well directed by Gordon Douglas.

With a good background score by George Duning, it's a better than average western with Scott in fine form as the ambiguous anti-hero.

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.

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 laconic black & white western, rather simple by Randolph Scott's standards, the action including lots of riding about and and an eye-watering punch-up.

An excellent supporting cast includes a feisty young Dona Drake and George MacReady refreshingly playing a goodie for once.