Guet-apens chez les Sioux

Republic's Waning Years Brings Us this Colorful, Film Filled with Lamenting.

A Good Cast Sparked by Linda Darnell's Fiery-Red Dress and Equally Flammable Female Hubris, Full of Spunk and Preen.

Dale Robertson is the Laconic Anti-Hero with Help from Ward Bond, John Lund, Regis Toomey, Whit Bissell, and Skip Homier.

A Stagecoach Full of Talky Characters with Ward Bond Playing Against Type as a Pacifist Senator and a Host of Others who Readily Jabber.

The "Tru-Color '' Template Allows for a Surreal Look at Things that is Always Interesting and Skewed.

The Action is Moderate and Pedestrian with the Thirsty Bunch Pin-Downed in a Gully Without Water, and that Supplies Most of the Suspense.

It's Darnell's Show All the Way with the Passengers Bouncing Off Her Charming Attractions.

The Indians are Painted as War-Mongers (except by the Senator) Until a Twist Ending.

Slightly Above Average.

Worth a Watch.

As an American actor/ screenwriter who loves Westerns, I find "The Dakota Incident" a hidden classic, with it's deft dialogue and uniquely clever romance between the lovely, talented Linda Darnell and the surprisingly skillful Dale Robertson. The scene where they are trapped in the dry wash in the desert and playfully fence with each other, is priceless. When Darnell says, "You throw all the rules right out the window, don't you?" And Robertson replies, "That's just the way you like it, barroom style", is one of the best moments in Western films. A very, underrated Western.... Beau Dare.

Once again Republic films portrays the growing of the USA as we know it in the usual dreary palette of primitive colours. A dour film that starts off with a bit of forced glamour from Linda Darnell and a ( would be ) funny scene with Dale Robertson half naked in a bath, and Darnell giving him a cursory glance and Robertson defends his not showing his ' manhood ' by apologising to not stand up for a lady. Fortunately Darnell is in the film, as I like her acting ability very much. As for Dale Robertson he tries as usual to act, but fails. Which fits in with this drab drama about desolate small towns, tumbleweed and a need for a group of people to get out of this hell almost as existential in its despair as Sartre ( if he was able to write such trash, ) and then the stagecoach arrives. What happens on it is pathetically inevitable and of course the ' demon ' Native Americans are vilified as they usually are in such films and turn ' nasty. ' Darnell was second choice after the great Anne Baxter ( for ' All About Eve ' anyway ) and I am glad she was. It is for her I give her a 4, and I watched this hack directed piece after a serious illness. She helped me recover.

A cracking start to this 1956 western which unfortunately tends to slow up towards the end. I loved watching Dale Robertson as Jim Hardie in Well Fargo on TV with his quick draw left handed gun belt, when I was a kid. I notice one reviewer here says 'No Major Stars' which made me smile a bit, as I imagine the author is from a more recent generation of film and TV fans. Linda Darnell was certainly a major star in the 1940's in films like My Darling Clementine and both Dale Robertson and Ward Bond were major TV western stars in the 1950's/60's in Wells Fargo as mentioned and Wagon Train, in fact their stars grew after this film Dakota Incident was made in 1956. Sadly Linda Darnell died in a house fire in 1965 at the young age of 41. As I said earlier, the film opens with a terrific scene involving three outlaws who fall out which climaxes in a street gunfight, obviously with that famous left handed gun being the winner. All this in the first half hour, after which the story involves a coach being pulled into town with all the occupants dead due to an Indian attack. Several residents want a ride on the coach to Laramie and insist on going so our hero, Robertson takes on the task. There follows more Indian attacks and double crossing until just a handful of characters are left alive, and regrettably the picture ends with a rather predictable toned down ending which is rather disappointing for a film that started out so promising. If only the second half had lived up to the first I would have recommended it more highly.

"Dakota Incident" is a film made with TruColor film stock. Surprisingly, unlike the first generation of TruColor stock, it really does have true color, as it uses three colors to create the whole spectrum of colors. The original was a two-color process....one that made a kind of color palate...one that is much more orange-green than true color. Sadly, despite this, the print on YouTube is also very fuzzy....and you can't truly enjoy the film stock.

The story spends much of its time in a small town. John (Dale Robertson) arrives there, angry, because his two partners shot him and left him for dead....and now he wants revenge. But John isn't quite as bloodthirsty as you'd expect and after shooting only one of them in self-defense, he and a group of folks board the stage coach for Laramie.

On the way, their stage coach is attacked by some of the natives. This really challenges the beliefs of one of the members of the group, the Senator (Ward Bond), who is for trying to make peace with the Indians. And, the rest of the film consists of the small group slowly getting picked off as they're out of water and trapped in a ravine.

This is a very tense film...and well made. I was also surprised because it seemed to have a message that Indians are horrible murderers...though by the end, that is fortunately not the case. Well made, well acted and well worth seeing.