This adventurous bag of silliness seems rushed together to cash in on the success of "Jesse James" the previous year and the rising success of "A" budget westerns like "Stagecoach", " Destry Rides Again" and "Union Pacific". What this ends up being is an obvious fictional account that uses elements of the plot of "Jesse James" including almost the same set up that presented the gang as victims, not villains.
Starting off as a lighthearted comedy, this begins with old family friend Randolph Scott showing up for Ma Dalton's birthday bash and stealing the girl (Kay Francis) of Dalton brother Broderick Crawford. Fights over land turn Crawford, brothers Brian Donlevy and Stuart Erwin, as well as their pal Andy Devine, into wanted men, culminating in a very noisy, violent scene with Francis helping them escape, and ma Mary Gordon pretty much being trampled by a hoard of vigilantes. The violence just increases with the alleged initially innocent Daltons turning to a life of violent crime simply out of their disgust with the law and lack of justice.
Nicely put together and certainly entertaining, but so obvious that this is a myth. Unnecessary comic relief with Devine has him turning to crime simply to avoid the two women fighting over him. No longer in glamorous gowns, Kay Francis starts off her role in this inventorying bulls while Scott keeps making her loose count asking her questions about filling out a telegraph slip. Francis was allegedly nervous hearing all those gunshots, but you can't tell that from within her performance.
Of the Dalton's, Broderick Crawford is the strongest, while it's obvious that Mary Gordon was cast because of her resemblance to Jesse James' big screen mother, Jane Darwell. This is an unsuccessful western followup for George Marshall whose previous western, "Destry Rides Again", is considered a classic. This is just so so where it is obvious that a bit of the truth might have made this more than just slightly truthful.
Starting off as a lighthearted comedy, this begins with old family friend Randolph Scott showing up for Ma Dalton's birthday bash and stealing the girl (Kay Francis) of Dalton brother Broderick Crawford. Fights over land turn Crawford, brothers Brian Donlevy and Stuart Erwin, as well as their pal Andy Devine, into wanted men, culminating in a very noisy, violent scene with Francis helping them escape, and ma Mary Gordon pretty much being trampled by a hoard of vigilantes. The violence just increases with the alleged initially innocent Daltons turning to a life of violent crime simply out of their disgust with the law and lack of justice.
Nicely put together and certainly entertaining, but so obvious that this is a myth. Unnecessary comic relief with Devine has him turning to crime simply to avoid the two women fighting over him. No longer in glamorous gowns, Kay Francis starts off her role in this inventorying bulls while Scott keeps making her loose count asking her questions about filling out a telegraph slip. Francis was allegedly nervous hearing all those gunshots, but you can't tell that from within her performance.
Of the Dalton's, Broderick Crawford is the strongest, while it's obvious that Mary Gordon was cast because of her resemblance to Jesse James' big screen mother, Jane Darwell. This is an unsuccessful western followup for George Marshall whose previous western, "Destry Rides Again", is considered a classic. This is just so so where it is obvious that a bit of the truth might have made this more than just slightly truthful.