Despite The Billing, Broderick Crawford Stars
The Dalton brother -- Broderick Crawford, Brian Donlevy, Frank Albertson and the murdered Stu Erwin go from peaceful farmers to desperate outlaws.
There's much to admire in this movie, from the way in which the first 20 or so minutes are lighthearted and often funny, making the fix the brothers get into tinged with a certain sense of tragedy. Kay Francis seems like luxury casting, as does George Bancroft as the banker, but undoubtedly that was a canny move, trying to replicate the major studio minor stars who had made such a hit of Marshall's DESTRY RIDES AGAIN the year before. Thus the top billing for Randolph Scott, even though the movie, as shown, centers far more on Broderick Crawford, the hot-tempered lama of the brothers who starts off engaged to Miss Francis and winds up... well....
The big sequence about two thirds of the way through, where they escape from the law -- thanks to quick thinking by Andy Devine! -- and wind up robbing a train on the way out is very well done, with lots of good trick riding. Who knew there were such towering mountains in Oklahoma, or such rushing, swollen rivers. Who knew it was even called Oklahoma all the time in the 1890s, instead of The Indian Territories (an appellation I have seen in print as current into the 1930)?
In the end, it' a big, brawling A Western that owes a lot to other recent A westerns. If it wasn't as big a hit for Universal as DESTRY RIDES AGAIN, it's very entertaining on its own sentimental terms.
There's much to admire in this movie, from the way in which the first 20 or so minutes are lighthearted and often funny, making the fix the brothers get into tinged with a certain sense of tragedy. Kay Francis seems like luxury casting, as does George Bancroft as the banker, but undoubtedly that was a canny move, trying to replicate the major studio minor stars who had made such a hit of Marshall's DESTRY RIDES AGAIN the year before. Thus the top billing for Randolph Scott, even though the movie, as shown, centers far more on Broderick Crawford, the hot-tempered lama of the brothers who starts off engaged to Miss Francis and winds up... well....
The big sequence about two thirds of the way through, where they escape from the law -- thanks to quick thinking by Andy Devine! -- and wind up robbing a train on the way out is very well done, with lots of good trick riding. Who knew there were such towering mountains in Oklahoma, or such rushing, swollen rivers. Who knew it was even called Oklahoma all the time in the 1890s, instead of The Indian Territories (an appellation I have seen in print as current into the 1930)?
In the end, it' a big, brawling A Western that owes a lot to other recent A westerns. If it wasn't as big a hit for Universal as DESTRY RIDES AGAIN, it's very entertaining on its own sentimental terms.
- boblipton
- Nov 5, 2019