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14 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Great old cowboy movie deserves resurrection., 24 March 2004
10/10
Author: Mozjoukine (Mozjoukine@yahoo.com.au) from Australia

It is just shoddy handling that has made this splendid entertainment drop out of sight. It should have gone on accumulating admirers down the years.Director George Marshall missed out on attention too, though this film, DESTRY RIDES AGAIN and his succession of Glenn Ford films have a consistent, light handling that shows he was one of the best people in this field. Let's throw in the fact that Broderick Crawford has his biggest pre ALL THE KING'S MEN role. He gets as much screen time as top billed players Scott and Francis and acts them off the screen. He's terrific, in a straight role, as the chief Dalton Brother.

The film has the standard ingredients - shoot ups, chases, western timber town atmosphere, over-laid with the usual plot elements about the wrongly persecuted family. What isn't expected is the expert pacing, emphasis and the humor - the lynch mob bursting into the jail to find the whole gang waiting for them, guns drawn, is classic. The film also has one of the best filmings of the Yak Canutt routine of falling under the runaway coach horses. A class act.

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6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
THE Top Action Western, 13 July 2008
Author: munch from Sweden

Thank goodness for the comic relief of Andy Devine or I wouldn't have had a chance to breathe! I've watched over 200 westerns in the last month (including over 95 John Wayne films) from 1926 onwards and I have to say that NONE of them had the action or pace of this one. Not to mention a stellar cast. The action scenes with horses were of the very best. There was the classic Yakima Canutt jump from the stagecoach to the horses but not just one jump but several of the Dalton's, one after the other from the same coach. There were horses jumping from moving trains and diving off cliffs into water and the pace just didn't let up. Gun play? Don't get me started! Half the budget must have gone to black powder. I don't care how you get to see this film, beg borrow or download, just get it.

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7 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Have fun with the Daltons, 10 February 2005
8/10
Author: tmwest from S. Paulo, Brazil

Most films about outlaws made in the fifties and before had in common a certain sadness, because you knew from the beginning that the outlaw hero was doomed. You would suffer with him, knowing there was no hope, that he would die at the end. This film has a different approach, the hero here is Randolph Scott and he is not one of the Daltons, just a friend of them, he is even a rival of Bob Dalton (Broderick Crawford) in relation to Julie King (Kay Francis). So the whole fun of the film is on the great action scenes where the Daltons do one incredible thing after another. They just don't stop, they go from a bank robbery to a train robbery where the law is waiting for them inside the train. Mary Gordon as Ma Dalton is remarkable. The fact that you can follow the Daltons without getting emotionally involved, makes this an unusual, enjoyable western, more cheerful than most of its kind.

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7 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Early western about the bad guy myth - with good stunt work!, 25 June 2004
6/10
Author: westerner357 from U.S.

Another new DVD release from the vaults of Universal that's about as action-packed as JESSE JAMES (1939), which also came out around the same time. This too, carries the same western myth that Hollywood has about certain outlaws. If society had only treated them fairly, then they wouldn't have become outlaws in the first place.

The Daltons have been railroaded off of their farm and turned into outlaws by greedy land speculators who manipulate the law to suit their own ends. So begins the chase out of the courthouse, through the woods and onto a moving train in order to make good their escape. It even has some good Yakima Canutt stunt work involving a stagecoach robbery.

Randolph Scott and his love interest Kay Francis really are on the sidelines as those who are siding with the Daltons in spirit, even though they aren't out robbing bank and trains with them. They're really are only supporting players here even though they headline in the credits.

The real star is Broderick Crawford who despite his New York Bronx accent, really shines here as the lead Dalton, even scene-stealing away from Brian Donlevy who takes a back seat. This movie is Crawford's show, no question about it.

Director George Marshall has done better with oaters like DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939) and Texas (1941), but this film is no slouch, either. There's not a lot of deep plot characterizations but if you want 40s action that moves along pretty nicely, then you can't go wrong here.

6½ out of 10

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Good Stunts and Comedy Make A Tragic Saga Palatable., 10 December 2007
6/10
Author: Van Roberts (zardoz@bellsouth.net) from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Nobody but George Marshall with his characteristic knack for comedy could have helmed the 1940 western horse opera "When the Daltons Rode." This entertaining but uneven blend of humor and hell-raising in what constitutes a biography of the Dalton gang boasts top-flight stunt work but a lightweight approach to an inherently tragic sub-genre within westerns—the outlaw opus. When Universal Studios released this movie, the Hays Office dictated that criminals must not profit from their perfidy, and these felons had to be punished for their anti-social misdeeds. Marshall and scenarist Harold Shumate present the Daltons initially as victims of a crooked land grabbing scheme before they embark on a life of lawlessness made all the more ironic since Bob was a lawman. Indeed, by fade-out, the Daltons have traveled the entire trajectory from maligned innocents to hardened outlaws. Nevertheless, Marshall and Shumate do everything in their power to make this outlaw opus palatable rather than oppressive. Unfortunately, neither director nor writer delves too deeply into the land grabber scheme and the revelation of the individual—the Judas if you will—behind their woes is dealt with in formulaic fashion. The Daltons never learn his identity, but Bob deals him a death blow. Long before "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" treated its infamous outlaw pair with levity, Marshall did so with the Daltons in this trim 81 minute release. For the record, Marshall had made more than his share of westerns during the silent film era, so he was no stranger to westerns. Furthermore, Marshall became the first major western director to ridicule the conventions of the western. "Destry Rides Again," which he produced before "When the Daltons Rode" at Universal, stands western conventions on their heads. Sadly, "When the Daltons Rode" is neither as good as either "Destry Rides Again" or "Texas," Marshall's next western afterward with Glenn Ford and William Holden. The other major weakness of "When the Daltons Rode" is casting leading man Randolph Scott as a tin-horn attorney who never straps on a six-gun and spends too much time off screen while supporting players Broderick Crawford, Brian Donlevy, and Andy Devine get the lion's share of screen time.

The movie opens and closes cleverly enough with a garrulous old blacksmith (Edgar Buchanan of "Texas") talking to Tod Jackson (Randolph Scott). At the outset, Tod wants to know the whereabouts of the Dalton ranch. Accidentally, he runs into his old boyhood chums as they are posing for a photograph with their mother. Mary Gordon plays Ma Dalton; she starred in the Universal Studios' "Sherlock Holmes" movies as Mrs. Hudson. Tod laughs at the Daltons when the shoot turns disastrous, and they engage in rough horseplay in the street afterward before the Daltons realize Tod's identity. Tod decides to stick around for Ma Dalton's birthday party, so he has the local telegrapher, Julie King (Kay Francis) send a telegram to his pal in Guthrie, Oklahoma. From the moment that Tod meets Julie, the two are attracted to each other. At Ma Dalton's birthday party, a farmer interrupts the hilarity to warn his neighbors that the Kansas Land and Development Company has just evicted him from land that he was farmed for ten years.

Later, surveyors for the mysterious Kansas Land and Development Company show up at Ben Dalton's ranch. When the Daltons try to run the surveyors off of their property, a clash ensues and Ben knocks down a surveyor who was drawing a gun to shoot one of Ben's brothers. In the fall, the surveyor strikes his head on a rock and accidentally dies. Tod serves as Ben's counsel when the case comes to trial. Things turn ugly during the proceedings and the judge wants Grat (Brian Donlevy) arrest for contempt of court. An irate Bob resigns his U.S. Government badge, .slugs the sheriff and frees Ben. When the Daltons turn to leave, a surveyor produces a shotgun. Bob guns him down and the Daltons flee. As they are saddling up outside, Ben tells Bob, "This ain't right, Bob." Replies Bob: "Nothing's right anymore." For the remainder of the movie, the Daltons are leaping from one frying pan to another until their demise.

When Marshall and Shumate aren't depicting the rise and fall of the Daltons, they alternate their biography with a disposable love triangle between Bob Dalton, Tod Jackson, and Julie King. Julie is engaged to marry Bob, but Tod somehow manages to sweep her off her feet. She falls hopelessly in love with him and presses him to clear the air about them with Bob. Tod is reluctant because Bob is an old childhood friend and Tod refuses to ruin that friendship, much to Julie's chagrin. The latent feminism in this affair and Tod's reluctance to confide in his friend represent another way that Marshall skewers the masculinity of his western hero. This subplot pervades "When the Daltons Rode" and Julie has to take matters into her own hands to clear the air. Meanwhile, Marshall counterpoints this serious dramatic lover story with a farcical romance. Ozark Jones (obese funny man Andy Devine) is fought over by gorgeous gals whose attraction for someone has rotund as he is represents another example of Marshall's mockery of western traditions.

Marshall stages several great action scenes riddled with comedy. The Daltons make a daring, daylight escape from one town when Ozark hijacks a stagecoach and provides cover for their departure from a besieged dinner is funny. Stunt pioneer Yakima Canutt performs his landmark "Stagecoach" stunt. The next great action scene occurs on a train filled with lawmen. Our antagonists steal their horses and ride away. "When the Daltons Rode" has enough action and comedy to help compensate for its tragic ending. The last scene with Tod enduring another lecture from Edgar Buchanan's grizzled old blacksmith is a hoot.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Energetic cast in fictional account of Daltons, 1 December 2010
Author: Brian Camp from Bronx, NY

When I saw the lineup of actors playing the Daltons and their chief sidekick in WHEN THE DALTONS RODE (1940), I was a little skeptical. If it was a Universal picture in 1940 featuring Broderick Crawford, Stuart Erwin, Frank Albertson, and Andy Devine, then it had to be a comedy, right? Well, I was pleasantly surprised. Crawford, Erwin, and Albertson play Bob, Ben, and Emmett Dalton, respectively, while Brian Donlevy plays Grat Dalton, with Devine along as their womanizing(!) comic relief sidekick, Ozark Jones. Sure, there's humor along the way, but once these guys hit the outlaw trail, after a violent encounter with land grabbers on their farm, they mean business and they play it with a vigor I haven't often seen associated with these actors. Donlevy usually played snarling authoritarian villains (see BEAU GESTE and JESSE JAMES), but he's quite engaging here as a quick-tempered farmer out to avenge the injustice done to his family (kind of like his nemesis of the previous year, Jesse James, come to think of it). I'm attributing it all to George Marshall's assured direction. And it helps that there are some beautifully staged second unit action scenes involving chases on horseback, speeding trains, shootouts, and lots of stuntmen, all filmed on location.

The big problem with the film lies with the odd casting of the two stars, Randolph Scott and Kay Francis. Francis plays the town's telegraph operator, who happens to be Bob Dalton's girl yet finds herself increasingly drawn to the Daltons' lawyer, Scott, once the Daltons go on the run. Their scenes together bring the movie to a grinding halt and I wish they'd been cut down or excised completely. Scott is good, but I would have preferred greater emphasis on the Daltons themselves and a supporting actor rather than a top-billed star in the role of the sympathetic lawyer. Miss Francis had been a major star at Warner Bros. in the 1930s but her melodramatic acting style had gone out of fashion by this point, eclipsed by the likes of Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwyck, and she was reduced to supporting roles and B-movies in the 1940s. An ingenue could have played this part just as well and required fewer scenes than second-billed Francis.

Indicative of the kind of schizophrenia characteristic of Hollywood treatment of outlaws during the reign of the restrictive Production Code, the opening text insists that "In the history of the reckless violence that seized Kansas and Oklahoma, no name carried more terror than DALTON. There were more famous outlaws; but none more daring, none more desperate." Following which we get a consistently sympathetic and terror-free account of the Daltons.

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Action scenes stand out in this fun Western myth, 28 March 2011
8/10
Author: SimonJack from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

"When the Daltons Rode" is a must film for a Western movie library for two reasons: the sizable cast of well-known actors (some of whom are not known for their roles in Westerns), and for action. It is an entertaining film with its good mix of humor, mostly in the fun-loving nature of exchanges among the Daltons, and in the very action-packed last half. The latter includes scenes of great daring that involved considerable stuntman work. Four and five men jumping from a stage coach onto its horse team; men jumping onto the roof of a moving train from a low cliff above; men jumping off a moving train saddled on horses. Reviewers note the early work of the great stuntman and later action scenes director, Yakima Canutt, in scenes that are also performed in other Westerns. The sheer number of these daring scenes in this film put it ahead of so many others for outstanding action.

The movie credits open with acknowledgment that the story is based on myths and tales of the Daltons, some of which were in a book by Emmett Dalton. That the Daltons had been on both sides of the law – as sworn peace officers, and as outlaws, is not fiction. The details around their being driven from their law-abiding ways to outlaws, over sinister land-grabbing plots, are skimmed over; but such schemes are recorded for that period in the expanding West – particularly in the Kansas and Oklahoma territories. The romanticized escapades of the Daltons amid the injustice might be condoned by audiences with the film's humor relief; but the inglorious end for the gang brings the "fun" of their sprees to an abrupt end as well. So, justice is meted out for their bad ways that killed innocent people.

It is a fun movie to watch with a huge cast of known actors for the time. Randolph Scott, Andy Devine and Kay Francis mostly provided some good comedy scenes. The romance in the movie is rather lackluster and not of much substance for the plot. But, some others turned in excellent acting roles — Broderick Crawford, Brian Donlevy and Mary Gordon.

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Randy Never Fires Any Weapon, 25 August 2010
6/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

In a strange role for Randolph Scott in a western, he never wears or fires a gun in When The Daltons Rode. In fact he's not even a Dalton brother just a family friend who falls for Kay Francis and she for him. But Kay's the girlfriend of Broderick Crawford one of the Dalton Brothers.

And it's especially strange that for a western that gets a lot of action into its 81 minute running time that Randolph Scott is no part of it.

The Daltons are played by Crawford, Brian Donlevy, Stu Erwin, and Frank Albertson. Though the plot is taken purportedly from the book authored by Emmet Dalton, it seems to have been more lifted from the 20th Century Fox film Jesse James. The Daltons together with their mother own a farm near Coffeyville, Kansas. A land holding company fronted by Harvey Stephens but really controlled by George Bancroft is after the Dalton farm to sell it to the railroad for a right of way. When a surveyor is killed accidentally Erwin, Donlevy, and Albertson are arrested. When it looks like the case is not going their way, despite Randolph Scott's defense of them, they break loose and turn outlaw. The rest of the film is almost a non-stop action view of their outlaw exploits until the legendary showdown in Coffeyville.

George Marshall keeps the action at one lively pace and the comic relief is supplied by, would you believe an amorous Andy Devine playing a Dalton friend and fellow outlaw.

But Randolph Scott in a suit, who'd have believed it.

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0 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
More nonsense about bandits of the old west., 10 April 2011
3/10
Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I have a natural prejudice against films that glorify relatively insignificant criminals from the old west. The likes of Jesse James, Billy the Kid and the Dalton Gang were raised to hero status in the 1930s and 40s--mostly because their lives were almost completely fictionalized by Hollywood. Much of this prejudice is because I am a retired history teacher and I hate to see the truth twisted way beyond the breaking point.

I was actually pretty surprised just how historically inaccurate this movie was considering it was supposedly based on a book by Emmett Dalton--the one surviving member of this notorious band of outlaws. That's because after serving about 15 years in prison, Emmett was pardoned because he'd found God and had become a model prisoner. And, his book "When the Daltons Rode" was NOT a homage to the gang but a book intended to de-glorify the criminal life. Surely this film was only VERY broadly based on the book--especially since in the film, Emmett appears to be killed at the end of the movie!! Even if you totally disregard the truth, "When the Daltons Rode" is a pretty bad film--mostly because the writing is pretty bad. For example, although Randolph Scott gets top billing, the audience has no idea why he's in the film. He's not one of the outlaws nor does he really play any sort of significant role in the movie. He and Kay Francis are there...but really add nothing to the picture and their romance is pretty difficult to believe. Also tough to believe is the finale. Although 4092390238409 shots are fired by the townspeople at the Daltons, very, very few manage to hit them! Can anyone be THAT bad with a gun?! And, when one of the Daltons somehow manages to survive long enough to make a 1 in a million shot at the evil lawman, you can't help but laugh! During this same finale, it's also hilariously bad when Andy Divine is killed--you just have to see it to believe it. Plus, who would have thought of having the likes of Divine and Stu Erwin as tough as nails criminals?!?! Sure, Broderick Crawfords and Brian Donlevy were fine--they had already been in many films as heavies--but Divine and Erwin?! Sheesh! The bottom line is that despite some nice polish from Universal Pictures, this is a bad, historically inaccurate and trite film. Plus, it manages to take a very good cast and completely waste it.

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