Mon 14 Nov 2016
A Western Book! Movie!! Review by Dan Stumpf: DALLAS (1950).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western Fiction , Western movies[6] Comments
DALLAS. Warner Brothers, 1950. Gary Cooper, Ruth Roman, Raymond Massey, Leif Ericson, Steve Cochran, Barbara Payton. Written by John Twist. Directed by Stuart Heisler.
WILL F. JENKINS – Dallas. Gold Medal #126, paperback original, 1950. Adaptation of the motion picture of the same title.
Okay: for starters, I know some of you out there will be tempted to reply with a smart-ass comment about “Who shot J.R.?†I’m not naming names; you know who you are. Please remember that the TV show in question was a long time ago and you may have to explain it to the younger readers who flock to this board. Now on to the review:
Every so often Warner Brothers decided to try doing another old-fashioned big-scale Western along the lines of their big hit from 1939, Dodge City. But somehow the spirit just wasn’t there. Where Dodge City was helmed by the talented and prestigious Michael Curtiz, they gave Dallas to the erratic Stuart Heisler. The difference is palpable: where the earlier film crackles along at a lively pace, Dallas seems to lurch awkwardly from incident to incident. Some of them are competently done, but mostly they just seem a bit tired.
As far as the plot goes, Dallas starts out with notorious outlaw Blayde “Reb†Hollister (Gary Cooper) getting himself gunned down in the street by Wild Bill Hickok (an appropriately saturnine Red Hadley; probably the best thing in the movie) in front of the new greenhorn U.S. Marshall (Leif Erickson.)
It’s all a put-up job of course, so that Reb can get close to Will Marlowe (Raymond Massey) a major businessman in Dallas with an unsavory reputation (not unlike Bruce Cabot in Dodge City) who murdered Reb’s family years ago in Georgia.
Plot complications call for Reb to impersonate the Marshall, romance his fiancée (the alluring Ruth Roman) and generally muck about until a respectable running time is achieved and he gets his revenge. Raymond Massey does a solid job as the dress-heavy, but the script doesn’t give him much to do, and writer Twist throws in time-wasting complications, such as Erickson getting a pardon for Reb, then hiding it, then revealing it, Coop getting arrested and breaking jail, caught by bad guys, escaping from bad guys….. It could have been exciting, but it just ain’t.
Warners promoted Dallas heavily, even working out a movie tie-in paperback with Gold Medal, who wisely gave it to Will F. Jenkins, who also wrote as Murray Leinster and did fine work in either persona.
Jenkins/Leinster actually takes John Twist’s scenario and makes a better book out of it than it was a movie, starting with forty pages which ain’t even in the film, detailing how Colonel Blayde Hollister, late of the Confederate Army, was forced into outlawry to avenge the murder of his family. And when we get into the story that’s in the movie, he adds depth and complexity to the characters. The greenhorn Marshall becomes more introspective, minor townspeople acquire convincing character traits, and there’s a bit part, an outlaw’s trollop named Flo (played in the movie by the ill-fated Barbara Payton) whose resigned self-hatred suddenly becomes very real and poignant.
Dallas the book is far from a western classic, but I found myself admiring it for what a competent pulpster could bring to a hackneyed project. I can’t recommend the movie, but the book is worth your time.
November 14th, 2016 at 9:41 pm
I can only recommend it for Cooper and that opening with Reed Hadley as Hickok. Beyond that it is pretty mundane, though good enough looking in technicolor.
November 15th, 2016 at 12:54 am
I’m sorry to hear that the movie isn’t as good as I’ve always thought it might be — I’ve never seen it — but I’m not surprised that the book is better. As a science fiction writer, Murray Leinster has always been a favorite of mine.
November 15th, 2016 at 5:16 pm
It’s a good solid technicolor Western with an all star cast, it just isn’t special, and with Cooper and Massey you think it might be. I enjoy it every time I watch it, for what it is, but the first time I was disappointed it wasn’t more, especially after that opening bit.
And being from the Dallas area history plays a role as well. Dallas was already more than just a dusty trail town by the post Civil War era. To be fair though, the only Western named for a Texas town that was anything like the real thing was Errol Flynn in SAN ANTONIO. The others all look like they were filmed in California — which they were.
November 15th, 2016 at 6:33 pm
San Antonio, without more than a moment or two originality is a great, not good, entertainment. Something to treasure. From performances, production, music, make that a real plus, and pure charm.
November 16th, 2016 at 2:31 am
Although it’s been out on DVD before, I see that SAN ANTONIO has just been released by Warner Archives. I may grab it up this time.
November 17th, 2016 at 11:53 pm
I agree with Barry, but the locale is more authentic as far as surrounding country and the look ot the city then than most Westerns set in Texas.