User Reviews

This film is more a stage show full of gypsies than a western full of cowboys, though the latter do get a chance to live up to their titles. Somehow, while breaking down the barriers of the frontier, the passengers aboard the first iron horse this far west, manage to bring all the jolly luxuries of civilisation with them. And though they're on a mission to secure a rail subsidy for a route thought so dangerous the first passenger would have to be hoodwinked, they aren't even remotely dampened. Along the way you'll be able to enjoy: a colourful music hall show, complete with dancing girls and a mechanised theatrical organ; a Chinese laundry service that always over starches your boldly coloured shirts; and the same tired card tricks you thought you left behind in the last town. The real focus however, is the romance between the tom-boy Sheriff's deputy, Kit, and the world-wise adventurer, Johnny Behind-the-Deuces, who's always playing his trick cards in futile attempts to impress. With her limited knowledge of the fairer sex, her heart flitters over these innocent advances and sticks to the conniving spanner-in-the-works instead.

Trundling off the edge of the rails, it's customary that adventurers should have to swat away a few pests. Even with the frequent appearances of loud-mouthed schemers, we know that with little effort: Natives will be placated, saboteurs routed and bureaucrats negotiated into lifting their contractual trade barriers.

(minor gimmicky spoiler)

The ending is quite odd, and is summed up with a great line: maybe you wouldn't be so loose footed if I gave you a permanent limp. To drive this point home, Kit surprises Johnny by pulling five tricks out of her sleeve -- all daughters to boot -- and gets him a job on the rails to trick his insatiable wanderlust. The ending's a compromise on both fronts; probably just as many women are infuriated by her choice, to give up being a gun slinging deputy and take her rightful (said with a sneer) place at home, raising the kids. It leaves you with an unsettled feeling, that a year down the line, things won't be quite so pleasant in Tomahawk.

The main thrust of the story is that they use mules to drag a locomotive and a tender full of water across the desert. This would be impossible. The loco would weigh in at over 10 tons and the loaded tender at about 8 tons. The wheels would sink into the sand up to the axles and could not be towed. On top of that the front, pilot, wheels of the loco were not steerable nor was the wheels on the tender so they would not be able to pull the things straight, both would tend to veer off even if they could be moved. Still, the overall movie is fun and well worth watching. The musical numbers, and especially Dan Dailey, are very good.

A feel good, moderately entertaining western farce, along the lines of 'Calamity Jane' and 'Anne Get your Gun', but mostly lacking the musical aspects of these better known films of the same early '50s era. Actually, Anne Baxter(Kit) had played a rather similar tomboy with an itchy trigger finger a couple of years earlier , in the conventional western "Yellow Sky". It does feature the versatile and likable Dan Daily, who did star in quite a few lesser known musical comedy romances, perhaps most notably, several with Betty Grable. Dan plays a small time traveling salesman and con artist who journeys to a small town(Epitah) in western Colorado by train, on its maiden trip, with Walter Brennan as the engineer. Anne stars as the cute seemingly naive Calamity Jane-like granddaughter(Kit Dodge) of the town sheriff, who takes an immediate dislike toward Dan's character. Marilyn Monroe, in one of her early bit parts, is one of the show girls in a traveling troop, that happens to land in Epitah about the same time as Dan.

One of those rare westerns actually shot, mostly, in the region it is scripted to be in(in the mountainous region near Durango, making use of the Denver and Rio Grande railway).

The main plot involves the mostly botched attempts of the local stage line owner to sabotage the coming train line. The other significant aspect of the plot is the initial blatant hostility of Kit toward Dan's character, which gradually changes to an unlikely infatuation. True, Dan seems rootless and superficial, but he has seen much of the world, in contrast to Kit's lack of experience in the world beyond her little corner of Colorado.

Included is a very strange parade-like train trip from Epitah to Tomahawk(both bogus town names for CO) with no rails for the first portion of the trip, the train being pulled by a team of horses, and the showgirls following in a stagecoach! Later, a war party of Arapahoes attack, stirred to action by the stage line owner. The Chinese train passenger plays a surprise role in finally scaring off the war party. Also, it's discovered that the chief used to be in a Wild West show with Dan! Thus, the remaining Arapahoes switch sides and help fight the would-be train saboteurs. There follows a stolen train and fight to reclaim the train. Dan is involved in the heroics, but the fleeing stage line owner appropriately is done in by a tomahawk. Dan and Kit have to decide whether they want to make their whirlwind association permanent. Be prepared for a 'surprise' flip flop. Evidently, Kit made good on her threat to give Dan a permanent limp to discourage his resumption of a wanderlust lifestyle!

This might have made it under the wire as a passable comedy in 1950 but seen today (yesterday, in fact, on British TV) it is just this side of dire. Husband and wife team Richard Sale and Mary Loos (neice of Anita) came up with one of those 'train in trouble' plots that enjoyed a mini vogue in the fifties (see: It Happened To Jane) that runs out of steam (pun intended) long before halfway. There's no real chemistry between Dan Dailey and Ann Baxter and Rory Calhoun who usually played the good guy phoned it in as the heavy attempting to prevent the inaugural run of a train in Colarado. In 1950, of course, no one noticed Marilyn Monroe (or Jack Elam, for that matter) but now they're using her name to promote this piece of cheese. As one of Connie Gilchrist's 'ladies' she just about registers. Will Wright (coincidentally featured on the same channel two days earlier in the same slot as the killer in The Blue Dahlia) is lumbered with a cross between a tough sheriff and a would-be comedian and fails to make a decent fist of either. Ironically Richard Sale went on to write a half-decent novel, The Oscar, an expose of the manipulations surrounding the annual Academy Award but this entry wouldn't have got within sniffing distance of a gong.

This one starts with a fairly serious if not standard premise; if the new railroad train can make it to the town of Tomahawk, Colorado by the prescribed time, they'll win a subsidy that gives the rail line an advantage over the local stagecoach outfit. Unfortunately, the film devolves into virtual farce by the last half hour, as a reluctant engineer (Walter Brennan) is faced with the necessity of taking his train apart! in order to make it to the finish line. Which wound up being even more ludicrous than the team of horses it took to pull the engine and three additional railroad cars over forty miles of wilderness devoid of train tracks. If any of this was even remotely believable it would have made for an interesting story, but as it is, the picture is best viewed strictly for light entertainment.

The surprising thing for me winds up being how this 1950 color picture previewed a couple of classic black and white TV Westerns down the road. In not too much of a stretch, Anne Baxter's character is turned into Annie Oakley for the 1954 series, the sharp shooting cowgirl who gained fame in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show of the late 1800's. And with Richard Sale writing and directing, there's no question that the Chief Yowlachie character was the basis for Yancy Derringer's sidekick and bodyguard Pahoo KaTeWah. The Chief used hand gestures to speak and portrayed the same stance and attitude as Pahoo, while using a tomahawk instead of a dagger. Need any more convincing? - his name was Pawnee, the same tribe that Pahoo came from.

This was my first look at Dan Dailey in any kind of role, and he coyly plays off of the female Kit Dodge (Baxter) in an amusing manner, particularly in that 'bussing' routine. Lending support to the unconvincing dynamics of the story was his unique ability to participate in a perfectly choreographed song and dance routine with Madame Adelaide's girls, complete with his own props! You know, one of the Madame's dancing girls looked just like a young Marilyn Monroe!

But geez, couldn't they get someone more authentic to play the role of Crooked Knife? So I check the credits, and that's none other than the original screen Tonto, Chief Thundercloud, not even attempting some phony Indian dialect. What a let down, and not even upset that the railroad hands wiped out half of his war party!

At least the story had a neat twist finale when the Mayor of Tomahawk expanded the city limits to allow the train to achieve it's goal and 'win' against all the obstacles thrown it's way. But good grief, what was that farewell between Kit Dodge and Johnny Behind the Deuces all about when her five 'kids' joined to wave goodbye. Somewhere along the way Grandpa Dodge's birds and bees talk wound up being a mere afterthought.

It's ironic that one of the characters in this declared "There's no business like show business!" when fireworks go off, revealing on american flag indicating that it's the Fourth of July. The Anne Baxter character of Kit Dodge (Jr.) is obviously a knock-off of Annie Oakley and Calamity Jane, both leading characters in musicals, and played numerous times in other incarnations on the big screen. The big movie adaption of "Annie Get Your Gun" was released by MGM this year so acknowledging it is a bit of a surprise considering that this was made by Twentieth Century Fox.

Traveling salesman Dan Dailey is a brash young man but certainly not the manly man of Annie or Jane's men, and at first, she can't stand him. Helping her deal with a possible native invasion builds confidence, and the initial ride on the new train adds to their growing affections as well. But you can't get a man with a gun (or a knife), and there's no holding a roamer like Dailey down on the farm.

There's also some lovely ladies as part of Connie Gilchrist's traveling show, one of whom is Marilyn Monroe. The same year, she appeared with Baxter in "All About Eve". Fast moving, energetic, frequently funny and beautifully shot in color, this isn't a western classic, but it is truly a lot of fun. It was Baxter and Dailey's second film together, and while they're not like Dailey's pairings with Grable, they're very pleasant together. Walter Brennan and Arthur Hunnicutt add laughs, Rory Calhoun quite handsome, and Gilcrist an acerbic delight.