WHEN THE DALTONS RODE (Universal, 1940)

DIRECTOR: George Marshall; WRITERS: screenplay by Harold Shumate based on book, When the Daltons Rode by Emmett Dalton; CINEMATOGRAPHER: Hal Mohr

STUNTS: Yakima Canutt (archival footage), Cliff Lyons (archival footage), Eddie Parker, Bob Reeves, Duke York

CAST: Randolph Scott, Kay Francis, Brian Donlevy, George Bancroft, Broderick Crawford, Stuart Erwin, Andy Devine, Frank Albertson, Mary Gordon, Harvey Stephens, Edgar Dearing, Sally Payne, Edgar Buchanan, Al Bridge, Bob Kortman, Ethan Laidlaw, Tom London, Eddie Parker

The Dalton Clan: (back row L-R: Bob (Broderick Crawford; Emmett (Frank Albertson); Ben (Stuart Erwin); Grat (Brian Donlevy).  Seated in the front is Ma Dalton (Mary Gordon)

HISTORY?

The above is part of the prologue that appears on the screen right after the credits.  It serves as a warning: You are not going to learn the truth about the Dalton brothers by viewing this film.  You are not going to because "to a large extent" the story is based on"the tales that the old settlers still tell of them -- woven together with strands of fiction."  The implication is that the tales told by the old settlers are fact, but in reality those tales are just as likely to be as fictitious as those "strands of fiction" that were woven together with them.  And were the Daltons really "so incredible ... that no man can say where fact ends and fancy begins"?

Well, of course, movies are under no obligation to render exact history and no one should go to a movie for a history lesson, and that goes double for WHEN THE DALTONS RODE.  But it was, and is, possible to "say where fact ends and fancy begins."  Fact ended right after the credits rolled and fancy began with the prologue and did not end until about here:

But there's more.  In the climatic shootout, all three Daltons -- Bob, Grat, and Emmett -- die in a blizzard of bullets fired by the local citizenry. 

Then how to explain this?

If Emmett perished in the failed holdup, how did he write the book that the film is based on?  Well, he didn't die.  He could have, because his body was riddled with bullets, but he did survive, and he did write the book.  That doesn't mean that we can totally trust his version of the events, but they would seem to be more reliable than screenwriter Shumate's version.

THE CAST.
There are a number of things about the casting that don't add up.  To begin with, I don't know why Randolph Scott is even in this film, but he is.  He doesn't have much to do and despite the fact that his name is at the top of the credits he is not the star.

In the previous year in JESSE JAMES, he is a lawman who befriends Jesse and his brother Frank, portrayed by Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda, respectively.  In that film, however, Scott is listed fourth in the credits, as he should be.  In the Daltons film, he is an old family friend and a lawyer who defends the brothers and falls in love with the leading lady, but pretty much stays out of the way.

Even though he is miscast, the real star of the film is Broderick Crawford.  I could never completely accept him in a Western, but in his role as Bob Dalton, the leader of the gang, he does have the most important part in the film.  So, where does his name appear in the credits?  How about fifth. 



Bob Dalton (Broderick Crawford) slugs the town marshal.  Lawyer Tod Jackson (Randolph Scott) is a bystander, as he is for much of the film. 

Listed fourth in the opening cast credits is George Bancroft.  He was a well-known name who had given a memorable performance the previous year in John Ford's classic Western, STAGECOACH, in which he portrayed Curley Wilcox, a lawman whose tough exterior hides a tender heart.

In the Daltons film, he is on the other side of the law.  He is a banker who is in cahoots with a land corporation that is stealing the land of the Daltons and other settlers in order to sell it to the railroad for its rightaway.  However, despite being the boss villain and being billed fourth, he is hardly onscreen at all. 

Listed third in the credits is Brian Donlevy, who portrays brother Grat.  Donlevy is another of those actors who were often cast in Westerns, but shouldn't have been.  Like Crawford, he was never quite believable as a westerner.  But he was better known than Crawford and therefore was billed ahead of him.

He was in two 1939 classic Westerns.  In JESSE JAMES, he portrays a railroad tough who is responsible for the death of the James brothers' mother (not really; she outlived Jesse by three decades and died only four years before Frank).  As a result, Jesse dispatches Donlevy early in the film.

His other Western role that year was in DESTRY RIDES AGAIN, directed by George Marshall.  In that one, he is a saloon owner and, therefore it goes without saying, is the chief villain.

Then there is Edgar Buchanan. Supposedly, Andy Devine, who portrays a fictitious character named Ozark, a friend of the Daltons who becomes a member of their gang, supplied the comedy in this film.    

It never mattered if Andy was in an important film like STAGECOACH, which he was, or if he was portraying Roy Rogers' sidekick, Cookie Bullfincher, or Wild Bill's deputy, Jingles P. Jones, he always played the same character.  Thus, it is that character that we see in WHEN THE DALTONS RODE.  I'm afraid that I find his character to be more irritating than humorous.

 

It has been written that Andy Devine's role as the stage driver in STAGECOACH was partly due to his ability to handle a 6-horse hitch.  Maybe that explain why he was cast in the role of Ozark.

Now back to Edgar Buchanan.  Even though he was only in his late thirties at the time, he portrays an old-timer who adds a light touch to the film.  And even though his scenes bookend the film in a pleasant fashion, he isn't even listed in the credits.  Surely, that was an oversight.  A year later, however, Buchanan was given his first major role.  The film was TEXAS (1941), also directed by George Marshall.  In fact, he would become one of Marshall's favorite actors and, as we shall later see, he was cast in several of the director's Westerns. 

Kay Francis was a native of Oklahoma, which is the setting for part of the film.  She appeared in her first film in 1929.  By the mid-30's, while under contract to Warner Brothers, she became the highest paid actress in the business.  But before the decade ended, and after being divorced from her fifth husband, the studio did not extend her contract.  And that is how she ended up in this film, her only Western.

WHEN THE DALTONS RODE did nothing to advance her career and by the mid-40's, she found herself working on Poverty Row at Monogram.  She made three films there, in which she was both star and producer.  The last was released in 1946 and it was her last film. 

ACTION.
Now we get to the good stuff. It is probably hard to tell up to this point, but I like this film. To enjoy it, one just needs to forget about history and think of the Daltons as being fictitious characters and set back and enjoy the action. The real stars are the stuntmen who make this little production one of those films that put motion in motion pictures.

The list of stuntmen is a who's who of stunting: Yakima Canutt, Cliff Lyons, Eddie Parker, Bob Reeves, and Duke York.  According to the IMDb website, Canutt and Lyons are in the film by way of archival footage, but they are in it, and that's good enough.

Most of the stunts are performed by Broderick Crawford's doubles, which reinforces the fact that he was the real star of the film -- along with the stuntmen.

We see the famous Yakima Canutt stagecoach stunt (could be stock footage from another feature), which is supposed to be Bob Dalton (Crawford). 


 




























Bob leaps from rocks onto a stage: 

All five gang members attempt to use a stagecoach to outrun a posse.  Since the coach is too slow, four jump onto the coach horses, cutting them loose and using them as mounts.  Bob then rides back and picks up Ozark (Devine) who is driving the coach.

Even after they are cut loose from the stage, the horses are incapable of outrunning the well-mounted posse.  Luckily, the outlaws hear an approaching train.  All five jump from overhanging rocks onto the top of the train.

The most famous stunt in the film is this one:

After the gang leaps from the rocks onto the top of the train, they move inside and rob the passengers and the express car, even though there is a boxcar full of lawmen guarding the train.  The outlaws make their getaway by jumping the lawmen's horses off the moving train.

Due to the danger to the horses, this is apparently the only time this stunt was ever staged.

Naturally, Bob is the last to jump from the train.  And because of that, he is forced to jump over a cliff into a lake.  (This very much appears to be archival footage. The year before, Cliff Lyons jumped a horse off a cliff into a lake during the filming of JESSE JAMES. Lyons survived but the horse was killed. This scene is not from that film and it doesn't appear to be the portly Mr. Lyons either. But I'm not sure who it was or from what movie it first appeared in. Nevertheless, it is spectacular.)

THE FINAL SHOOT-OUT.

The Daltons met their Waterloo when they attempted to rob two banks -- simultaneously -- in broad daylight -- in their hometown.  In the film, it is Grat's idea, but in reality Bob was the mastermind.  It has been written that he wanted to outdo the James boys.

The name of the town is never mentioned in the movie, but it was Coffeyville, located in southeastern Kansas a few miles from the Oklahoma border.

The three brothers, along with two other gang members, rode into the town on a day when there were many people on the street.  In an effort to disguise themselves they wore fake beards -- that fooled nobody.  In a town in which they were well-known, they were easily identified by people on the streets.

This is a depiction by local artist Paul Sprague of the Daltons raid on Coffeyville in 1892

Bob and Emmett entered the First National Bank while Grat and the other two gang members entered the C. W. Condon and Co. Bank across the plaza.

Everything went awry for the gang.  As they left the two banks, they were fired at from all directions by the town marshal and other townsmen who had been able to acquire weapons, many of them from a local hardware store located next door to the First National Bank.  

As the outlaws attempted to reach their horses in an alley where they had left them, four of them, including Bob and Grat, were killed.  Twenty-one year old Emmett, despite what occurs on the screen, and despite being wounded many, many times, was the only survivor.

Four townsmen, including the marshal, were also killed.

Emmett was later tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison.  He was pardoned in 1907.  He wrote two books: Beyond the Law (1918) and When the Daltons Rode (1931).  He died in 1937, three years before the film based on the book was released.

Well, at least all is well that ends well for some folks in Coffeyville:

Edgar Buchanan, Kay Francis, and Randolph Scott in the closing scenes of WHEN THE DALTONS RODE

 THE DIRECTOR.

Director George Marshall, star Marlene Dietrich, and producer Joe Pasternak on the set of DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939)

George Marshall entered films in 1912 as an actor.  In 1917, he made his directing debut.  In the silent era, he often directed Westerns including films starring the likes of Tom Mix, Harry Carey, and Jack Hoxie.

In the sound era, he specialized in Westerns that often poked gentle fun at the genre.  He is best known for DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939) starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart, with Brian Donlevy in a supporting role. 

After WHEN THE DALTONS RODE (1940), he directed TEXAS (1941), starring William Holden, Glen Ford, and Claire Trevor, with George Bancroft and Edgar Buchanan in support.  In 1954, he made DESTRY, starring Audie Murphy, a remake of the Dietrich-Stewart film.  Edgar Buchanan appears as the mayor. One of his most enjoyable Westerns is THE SHEEPMAN, starring Glen Ford and Shirley MacLaine.  Good old Edgar Buchanan is in that one, too.

FINAL NOTES.

Bosley Crowther in a review of WHEN THE DALTONS RODE in the New York Times wrote that "of one thing you may be sure: Universal will never make a sequel to 'When the Daltons Rode.' No, sir, friends, you'll never see a 'Return of Bob Dalton,' for instance, or 'The Daltons Ride Again' .... For the climax of this titanic Western ...  results in such wholesale tribal slaughter, such a complete patrilineal blackout of the clan, that 'When the Daltons Rode' is decisively the last of the Daltons. The Dalton gang is no more."

Five years later, Universal released THE DALTONS RIDE AGAIN.  You can look it up. It seems that old outlaws never die, they are just recycled.

TOP 21 FAVORITE WESTERNS -- JESSE JAMES

# 9

JESSE JAMES (Fox, 1939)

 

DIRECTOR: Henry King;  PRODUCER: Darryl F. Zanuck; WRITER: Nunnally Johnson;  CINEMATOGRAPHERS: George Barnes, W.H. Greene;  SECOND UNIT DIRECTOR: Otto Brower;  STUNTS:  Cliff Lyons;  HISTORICAL DATA ASSEMBLER: Jo Frances James

CAST:  Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda, Nancy Kelly, Randolph Scott, Henry Hull, Slim Summerville, J. Edward Bromberg, Brian Donlevy, John Carradine, Donald Meek, John Russell, Jane Darwell, Charles Tannen, Willard Robertson, Harold Goodwin, Ernest Whitman, Eddy Waller, Paul Burns, Spencer Charters, Charles Middleton, George Chandler, Lon Chaney, Jr., Ethan Laidlaw, Tom London, Paul Sutton, Harry Holman

JESSE JAMES #9?   

At this point I suppose I should address the question, "How in Sam Hill can you rank this film ahead of Ford's 'cavalry trilogy' or the Boetticher-Scott films, and for cryin' out loud, HIGH NOON? 

There is a simple answer.  This is not a ranking of "greatest" Western films.  I am not in a position to do that because I don't possess the necessary expertise.

Like any list this one is highly subjective, but more than most.  In fact, it is entirely subjective, for this is a ranking of "my favorite" Westerns and my only criterion is "Do I like this film and how well do I like it?"  And I am an expert on that subject for it is my personal opinion -- the only one I am qualified to give.

Historical Data Assembler.   

To ensure historical accuracy one of Jesse's granddaughters, Jo Frances James, was hired to serve as technical adviser on the film.  She was given the title of historical data assembler.

How did that work out?

Well, this is what she told reporters: "It seemed to me the story was fiction from beginning to end.  About the only connection it had with fact was that there was once a man named Jesse James and he did ride a horse."

It makes one wonder what a historical data assembler does.

Let's get the history out of the way.  First, to correct the historical errors in the film would necessitate far more time and energy than I have.  But let me correct three:

1). Frank and Jesse's mother is killed early in the film before the boys ever take to the outlaw trail.  

In fact, Mrs. Zerelda Elizabeth Cole James Simms Samuel (she was married three times and outlived all three husbands) died of natural causes in 1911.  She was 86-years-old.  Therefore, she outlived Jesse by almost twenty years and died only four years before Frank.

2). According to the movie, it was the land-grabbing St. Louis Midland Railroad's agents that killed Mrs. Samuel, which motivated Frank and Jesse to avenge her death and declare war on the greedy railroads.  

In fact, there has never been a St. Louis Midland Railroad, except in the movies.   Furthermore, at the time that railroad agents supposedly killed Mrs. Samuel in an effort to scare her into selling her land, there was no railroad anywhere near her farm and would not be for many years.

However, a railroad is tangentially connected to her demise.  She died in a pullman car while traveling from Fletcher, Oklahoma to her home near Kearney, Missouri.  She had been visiting Frank who farmed near Fletcher. 

Jane Darwell, Frank and Jesse's movie mother

Zerelda Cole James Simms Samuel, mother of Frank and Jesse

The real mother of Frank and Jesse is a very interesting and important part of the boys' life and times and it is too bad that Nunnally Johnson's script killed her off early in the story.  But matronly Jane Darwell, who portrayed her in the film, would have been the wrong person to portray the real Zerelda.

3). The James Gang in reality, at least before the Northfield debacle in 1876, should rightfully be called the James-Younger Gang.  But Cole and his brothers are absent from this film.  The only gang member, other than Frank and Jesse, that we learn anything about is Bob Ford, and most of what we learn is wrong.

Okay, that's enough history.  Let's go to the movie.

ENGINEER (Harry Holman): "What you aiming to do, pardner?"

JESSE JAMES (Tyrone Power): "I ain't aiming to do nothing.  I'm doing it.  I'm holding up this train."

ENGINEER: "The whole train?"

Heroes and Villains. 

Western movies do not always reflect the times in which they are set, but they do often reflect the times in which they are filmed.  And this is very much true of JESSE JAMES. The heroes in the film are the outlaws who rob the trains and banks and the villains are the trains and banks.

The movie was made during the Great Depression and the perceived villains of that economic collapse were the large greedy corporations.  

Throughout the 30's, Hollywood studios, especially Warner Brothers, produced gangster films and other dramatic productions that criticized the way big business had destroyed the American way of life.  

JESSE JAMES just happens to be a gangster film set in the post-Civil War Midwest.

It is a whitewash all the way and has done more to perpetuate the myth of Jesse as Robin Hood than any other movie or novel. 

Of course, Jesse did rob the rich, for it would have been incredibly stupid to rob the poor, and Jesse wasn't stupid, but he didn't give away his ill-gotten gains to the poor either, but kept it all for himself. 

The Other Jesse James Films.  

The 1939 film was not the first, nor the last, to portray the Missouri outlaws on the screen.  But it was the first to have a big-time director, a big-time budget, and a big-time cast of stars and supporting performers.

Furthermore, even though there have been more accurate films dealing with the subject, none, including Brad Pitt's more recent THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (WB, 2007), has been more enjoyable.  

JESSE JAMES is done in great style with an excellent cast, good production values, and excellent Technicolor photography. It also helped to establish a cycle of Westerns in the 40's in which actual outlaws of the Old West were whitewashed and glamorized.

Brian Garfield writes in The Western Film: A Complete Guide: "Comparing a full-bodied movie like this to the more recent GREAT NORTHFIELD MINNESOTA RAID [Universal, 1972] or THE LONG RIDERS [UA, 1980] is like comparing a long satisfying rich novel with a short story."  It would be interesting to know his opinion of Brad Pitt's film.  

1939.  

Despite the fact that the film was released in 1939, a year that saw the release of more classic films than any year in history, JESSE JAMES was a huge financial success.  Only three films -- GONE WITH THE WIND, THE WIZARD OF OZ, and THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME -- were larger grossing films that year.

Tyrone Power as Jesse James is surprisingly good

Henry Fonda, as Frank James, gives the best performance in the film

             

The Stars.  

Tyrone Power's first starring role had been in LLOYD'S OF LONDON (1936).  The director was Henry King.  JESSE JAMES was their fourth collaboration and they would go on to make a total of eleven films together.

JESSE JAMES was Power's first Western and it would be one of only a few that he would appear in.  The others with one exception are mostly forgettable.  

The exception is the generally forgotten and underrated RAWHIDE (1951, directed by Henry Hathaway, co-starring Susan Hayward)

(You can watch RAWHIDE on YouTube.)

Power isn't the best actor in JESSE JAMES, but he more than holds his own and turns in a fine performance.

JESSE JAMES was also Henry Fonda's first Western, but there would be many more in his future, several of them true classics.  He is outstanding as brother Frank and overshadows everyone else in the film.  

A year later he would reprise his role as Frank in the sequel, THE RETURN OF FRANK JAMES (Fox, directed by Fritz Lang), which is even more historically unreliable than its predecessor, but is nevertheless a well-made and enjoyable film. (also on YouTube)

Nancy Kelly as Jesse's faithful wife, Zee

Randolph Scott as fictitious faithful lawman friend of Frank and Jesse

The Supporting Cast. 

Nancy Kelly is acceptable as Jesse's long-suffering, but faithful wife, Zee.  Randolph Scott is good as an honest, but fictitious, lawman who attempts, but fails, to help the boys to go straight.

Comedy relief is supplied by Slim Summerville, Donald Meek, and Henry Hull.  

Hull's character is loosely based on Major John Newman Edwards who rode with Confederate General Jo Shelby during the Civil War.  After the war newspaperman Edwards became a champion of and apologist for ex-Confederate guerillas such as Frank and Jesse and the Youngers and others who rode the outlaw trail.

John Carradine (L), as Bob Ford, and Tyrone Power (R), as Jesse James, have a date with destiny

 

The real Bob Ford, "that dirty little coward"

John Carradine seems to have always given a good performance and he does not disappoint as Bob Ford, even though the real Ford was only 20-years-old when he shot Jesse and Carradine at the time was in his thirties.  

Nunnally Johnson's script also departed from the historical record by presenting Ford as a member of the outlaw gang from its inception to the very end.  The real Bob Ford did not participate in a single hold-up.

Henry Fonda, Henry Hull, John Carradine, J.Edward Bromberg, and Donald Meek would repeat their roles in Fox's sequel to JESSE JAMES

Pineville.   

Director Henry King wanted to film JESSE JAMES as much as possible in the area in which the events of the story transpired.  But after scouting the Kearney/Liberty, Missouri area, which is located near Kansas City, it was found that due to urbanization and modernization that would not be possible.

But down in the extreme southwestern corner of Missouri, they found what they were looking for.  Even though Pineville had fewer than 350 residents, it was the county seat of sparsely-settled McDonald County and thus had a red brick courthouse that was exactly the kind of structure the filmmakers were seeking.

Unfortunately, the main street had recently been paved. But that was a minor inconvenience as many loads of dirt were hauled in to cover the pavement.  False fronts were added to buildings along the courthouse square and several buildings were even constructed from scratch.

The construction, the hiring of locals as extras, and the attracting of tourists who flocked to the area to see the movie stars had the effect of injecting some badly needed cash into Pineville's Depression-era economy.

  

Dabbs Greer, shown here in a much later role, made his screen debut as an extra in JESSE JAMES

Robert William "Dabbs" Greer, a native of southwest Missouri, 21-years-old at the time, made his screen debut as a $5 a day extra in the film.  

He did not appear in another film for another decade, but would later appear in almost a hundred films and hundreds of TV episodes.  He became best known for recurring roles on GUNSMOKE and LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE.

Stunts.   

Cliff Lyons, one of Hollywood's legendary stuntmen, doubled for both Power and Fonda in the film.  

During one of the most spectacular, and most unfortunate, stunts ever photographed Lyons plunges his horse off a high bluff into the Lake of the Ozarks.  He survived, but the horse was killed.  

Some accounts say that two horses and riders jumped off the bluff, but in fact it was only one.  Two cameras shot the leap from two different angles and the film was cut in such a manner that it appears to be two horses and two riders.

The death of the horse led the American Humane Association to become involved in monitoring the use of animals in film productions.

Another spectacular stunt, staged by second unit director Otto Brower and beautifully shot by cinematographer George Barnes, involves the first train hold-up.  

Lyons, doubling Power, races his horse behind the train on the crossties between the rails in order to catch and board the train.  The horse clearly stumbles and almost goes down.  Since there would have been no soft landing on the track, it would have been bad news for horse and rider. Both stunts have to be seen on a big screen to be truly appreciated but the complete movie can be viewed on YouTube.  

  

The Director.  

JESSE JAMES was director Henry King's first sound Western.  He only directed three, but he hit the jackpot each time.  The other two starred his favorite actor, Gregory Peck.  

They are THE GUNFIGHTER (Fox, 1950), a true classic, and THE BRAVADOS (Fox, 1958), an excellent and underrated Western.

The Song.    

Jesse James was a lad that killed many a man, 

He robbed the Danville train.

But that dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard 

Has laid poor Jesse in his grave.

Poor Jesse had a wife to mourn for his life,
Three children, they were brave,
But the dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard
Has laid poor Jesse in his grave.

It was Robert Ford, that dirty little coward,
I wonder how he did feel,
For he ate of Jesse's bread, and he slept in Jesse's bed,
Then he laid poor Jesse in his grave.

******

REVIEWS

"The movies have their truths, which rarely align with those of history....The true story of Jesse James, despite all the dime novels and B movies, remains untold, perhaps because in its savagery it really is as American as apple pie and, as such, unspeakably hard to tell." -- Manohla Dargis in The New York Times

"Jesse James, notorious train and bank bandit of the late 19th century, and an important figure in the history of the midwest frontier, gets a drastic bleaching.  Script by Nunnally Johnson is an excellent chore, nicely mixing human interest, dramatic suspense, romance and fine characterizations for swell entertainment." -- Variety 

"It is a good Western, told with astonishing sympathy for the brutal outlaws...[but] it would be interesting to know if Hollywood is just as proud of John Dillinger and Al Capone." -- New York Sun

 

"Henry Fonda, as the tobacco-chewing Frank James, is a beautiful characterization, but our favorite is Henry Hull, as the small-town editor and friend of the James clan, whose dictated editorials are priceless gems of frontier humor...." -- New York Times

"It is worth remarking that never can horses have been so thoroughly used as (literally) carriers of action and (symbolically) agents of movement.  They crash through plate-glass windows, ride tumultously over the terrain and even plunge over a cliff into a river, as Frank and Jesse make a particularly daring esape...." -- Clive Denton in Hollywood Professionals

"Although this is a dubious piece of historical revisionism, it is an exciting entertainment nevertheless....-- Steven H. Scheuer

Inscription Jesse's mother had engraved on his graveside monument.

In Loving Remembrance of My Beloved Son

Jesse W. James

Died April 3, 1882

AGED 34 YEARS, 6 MONTHS, 28 DAYS
MURDERED BY A TRAITOR AND COWARD WHOSE
NAME IS NOT WORTHY TO APPEAR HERE