The Dude Goes West (1948)

Eastern gunsmith Daniel Bone goes out west to ply his trade, encounters a girl searching for the murderer of her father.

Director:

Kurt Neumann

Writers:

Mary Loos (original screenplay), Richard Sale (original screenplay)

Stars:

Eddie Albert, Gale Storm, James Gleason

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Eddie Albert	...	Daniel Bone
Gale Storm	...	Liza Crockett
James Gleason	...	Sam Briggs
Gilbert Roland	...	Pecos Kid
Binnie Barnes	...	Kiki Kelly
Barton MacLane	...	Texas Jack Barton
Douglas Fowley	...	Beetle
Tom Tyler	...	Spiggoty
Harry Hayden	...	Horace Hotchkiss
Chief Yowlachie	...	Running Wolf
Sarah Padden	...	Mrs. Hallahan
Catherine Doucet	...	Grandma Crockett
Edward Gargan	...	Train Conductor
Olin Howland	...	Finnegan (as Olin Howlin)
Francis Pierlot	...	Mr. Brittle

Storyline

Daniel Bone (Eddie Albert) leaves his Bowery gunsmith shop in New York City to seek his fortune in the American West, and, on the train, meets Liza Crockett (Gale Storm'), also heading west, where her father had been murdered after discovering a gold mine. The Pecos Kid ('Gilbert Roland (I)') tries to steal Liz's map to the mine, but is accidentally foiled by Dan'l. Liz and Dan'l part, after a quarrel, but meet again in Arsenic City where the mine is located.

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Plot Keywords:

slapstick comedy | train | new york city | map | gold mine | 

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Taglines:

HE WAS A GOOD MAN...AMONG THE BAD! (original print media ad - all caps)

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Genres:

Comedy | Western

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Did You Know?

Trivia

Sam Briggs' horse is named Minnie Pearl.

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Goofs

In Kansas City the conductor announces a change of trains and recommends that passengers going further west change for the Central Pacific at the depot. However on the train going further west the next conductor identifies the train as being a Southern Pacific train.

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Quotes

Texas Jack Barton: Man alive! Where did a DUDE learn to shoot like that?
Daniel Bone: I told you. I'm a gunsmith. How would I know if I fixed a gun right if I couldn't shoot?

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Soundtracks

Rock of Ages
(uncredited)
Music by Augustus Montague Toplady
Lyrics by Thomas Hastings

User Reviews

Aw, shucks, ma'am; it's a charming little Western comedy

The year is 1880-something, and gunsmith Daniel Bone (just one "o") decides to abandon tame New York for a part of the country where a person in his line of work can expect to be kept a little busier. The thoroughly decent Daniel might be a tenderfoot, but between his professional skill with firearms and his great reader's head full of knowledge, he turns out to be more than a match for the desperados he meets en route to-- and in-- lawless Arsenic City, Nevada. Our boy doesn't do badly with the local Native tribe, either. Now if he could just get past the defenses of Miss Liza, an over-cautious innocent who's come West to find her late father's lost gold mine...

Eddie Albert is quite charming as the titular dude in this slight but enjoyable, gently comic Western. In fact, there's charm to spare here: James Gleason endears as the grizzled prospector-sidekick, Barton McLean (later Gereral Peterson in "I Dream of Jeannie") wins one over as the most sympathetic of a host of black-hatted bandits, and Gale Storm is refreshingly non-cloying as your standard-issue spunky, naive heroine. Things never descend to the cartoonish, allowing Albert to get through a couple of on-the-trail ballads (which he croons in a pleasant tenor while strumming a guitar), a dramatic display of "Indian sign language," and even an idealistic law-and-order speech to an angry mob with his dignity fully intact. Indeed, one's inspired to wonder why the future small-screen star never quite scored as a cinematic leading man-- he certainly seems to have had the potential.

Available on DVD-- think I'll watch it again.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 May 1948 (USA)

Also Known As:

Abenteuer im wilden Westen

Filming Locations:

Iverson Ranch - 1 Iverson Lane, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

King Brothers Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1