Tonight's movie was called "When The Daltons Rode" (1940), starring Randolph Scott and Kay Francis. A quick note to The SB or anyone who might have seen my "Blazing Saddles/Randolph Scott" post on Facebook today : please ignore the idiotic comment from a friend who shall remain nameless. I always loved the bit in "Blazing Saddles" about Randolph Scott, and when I became a fan of older movies, Randolph Scott became one of my favorite Western stars. I couldn't care less about his sexual orientation, but some people never got out of junior high, it seems.
Back to the movie, but first - cue the "Blazing Saddles" choir : "RANN - daugh-allph SCOTTT"!
Okay, now we're all set. Well, I wanted my Western Fix and I finally got it, and in Black & White no less. Couldn't be better. Color westerns are okay, but ideally every one would be in black and white.
The story is about the infamous Dalton Gang, who may be known to even a person with marginal knowledge of the Old West. The Daltons were right up there with Jesse James and The Wild Bunch as far as Outlaws go, and in fact they were connected to both. They were cousins of James, and a couple of the Daltons joined The Wild Bunch after their own gang was gunned down and broken up.
Sounds like being in a rock band, because you have names for the gangs, lol, and they sometimes change members. :)
In the movie, which has great photography and amazing natural scenery (and authentic Western sets), the Dalton brothers are at first presented as law abiding citizens living in Kansas. Brother Bob is a local U.S. Marshall, and his siblings live on a farm with their Irish-born mother, just outside of town. They are minding their own business when a government land surveyor shows up and claims part of their land as Federal property. They claim they bought it ten years prior, fair and square. In the movie, the government surveying team are made out to be the bad guys. They are forcing farmers off their land, lying about the boundaries, and are doing all of this in collusion (love that word) with millionaire railroad barons. The movie portrays the law abiding Daltons as the first family to stand up to the crooked surveyors and their wealthy backers. But after a confrontation one of the Daltons is up on a murder charge, and is in court. During his trial, which seems fixed, his brothers break him out, and are now on the run. From here their life of wanton crime begins, and ends up including bank robberies, train robberies, and murder. The movie claims they were driven to all of this by crooked government and business officials.
I checked Wikipedia afterwards, and got a different story on the Dalton brothers, which only presented them as career criminals. Farming was not mentioned, nor was anything about a land dispute. The movie script was based on a book by Emmett Dalton, who lived until 1937. The other brothers were killed in a shootout following a bank robbery in the 1890s, and if you Google it you can find a famous photo of them all laying dead, posed in a row, as publicity for law enforcement. And you can believe Emmett Dalton's story or Wikipedia. I don't know myself, but I tend to believe the movie version just on instinct, and because I'm not a fan of land developers as you know.
Still, it doesn't absolve the Dalton Brothers of their crimes........but wait a minute!
I am not gonna go on another self-righteous lecture about morality because the movie was too darn good. You had Broderick Crawford before he was heavy set, in a lead role as Bob Dalton, the US Marshall. You had Randolph Scott as his best friend and lawyer, who sticks by the family and tries to get them out of their legal jams. You had the stylish and luminous Kay Francis as the Love Interest, initially bequeathed to Broderick Crawford, but who falls for the more considerate and attentive Scott.
My Screenwriting Tirade holds especially true with this film. There is so much story jam-packed into 80 minutes (not even 90, but 80!), that you feel you are living right there, inside the scenery as an onlooker. You are in The Old West, when life was lived in Black & White, and you are part of "When The Daltons Rode".
That is your experience when you watch this movie. Every Western should be so good, and this one has everything : Land disputes! Bank and Train Robberies! Courtroom Drama! Romantic Drama! Shootouts in Rocky Landscapes In Simi Valley! And Kay Francis, a new discovery. :)
That's all I know for tonight. I am still plowing through "Forbidden Archaeology" but am in the home stretch now, at page 640. Did I tell you to Google Reck's Skeleton? I think I did.....
Elizabeth, if you are reading I am still right here, but the FB thing is still stuck in place and I am not able to see any new "likes" for several weeks now. I hope all is well, and I hope the algorithm will revert once again to normal.
The mockingbird is here in Pearl's backyard as I write, and is speaking non stop, in an amazing language that sounds like words to me.
See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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