ada the leading man is my tpye

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

tostinati As has been generally observed, John Ford was making adult westerns long before the release of the high profile 'adult western' High Noon, and he was doing it under the radar of 99% of the critics of his day.While no Ford, Gordon Douglas directed lots of highly watchable films that likewise never got their due in their time. Doolins is one of these. As a well-known director for hire, Douglas once credited the existence of his entire oeuvre to having a family to feed.--Fair enough, and a pretty bravely self-deprecating and self-aware attitude in a town of pretentious auteur-wannabes. I'd offer the opinion that Douglas was the average intelligent man making films for his peers. Because of that, his films remain worth a sit-through. (His Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye rivals Walsh's White Heat in energy and noir viciousness as a late Cagney vehicle.) This is the best Randolph Scott western after the Boetticher films. Place it alongside other fine non-Ford westerns of the era, including Angel and the badman, Winchester 73 and Yellow Sky. It's definitely worth a watch.

utgard14 Fictionalized account of Bill Doolin, member of the Dalton Gang and founder of the Wild Bunch. The movie concerns itself little with history. Instead, it tells a pretty simple "outlaw trying to leave his past behind" story. The Bill Doolin of this movie is a relatively good guy who only kills in a fair fight. Scott's fine in the role. He could play this in his sleep. Nice supporting cast full of familiar faces like John Ireland, Robert Barrat, George Macready, and Noah Beery, Jr. Macready also narrates. Virginia Huston is Scott's love interest. Gorgeous Dona Drake and Louise Allbritton have small parts. It's not a good history lesson but it's a watchable western. Nothing special but some action, humor, and romance. A nice way to pass time on a lazy Saturday afternoon.

zardoz-13 The western outlaw biography "The Doolins of Oklahoma" is another rough-riding, bullet-blasting, gun-slinging outdoors saga about the notorious gang of bank robbers that plagued the Southwest during the 1890s. Scenarist Kenneth Gamet, who wrote scripts for several Randolph Scott westerns, including "Santa Fe," "Coroner Creek," "Man in the Saddle," and "The Stranger Wore A Gun," keeps things simple and straightforward. This law & order western puts the protagonist behind the eight ball, and director Gordon Douglas had no alternative but to let the Randolph Scott hero die since he plays a real-life outlaw and the Hays Production Code was still in effect.Narration over action footage establishes the time and setting of "The Doolins of Oklahoma." The narrator begins: "There was a time when Oklahoma Territory had its great free ranges. The cowboy went about his daily work, contentment in his heart. His only boundary—the limitless horizon. These were peaceful days, then the cattle herds disappeared. The government cut the ranches into sections and they became farms ringed by barbed strands. The free range was no more. The cowboy, who would not be fenced in, stared in anger at the intruder, blaming him for their loss of livelihood. Instead of turning their hand to a plow, their hands went to the six-gun to take what they reasoned was rightfully theirs, then to be joined by others so the outlaw gangs. The James boys . . . the Younger brothers . . . then behind them the United States marshals pushing on relentlessly. It was our sworn duty to hunt down to destroy this lawless element. And then, finally, bolder than their forerunners—the Daltons. Coffeyville, Kansas, October 5, 1892. The Dalton gang becoming so daring as to strike in broad daylight. The Dalton brothers, with Sam Powers, Bill Broadwell and Wichita Smith." As the narration concludes momentarily, we meet Bill Doolin (Randolph Scott of "Westbound") in a saloon at the bar, enjoying a drink. He is the victim of a lame horse. The local town sheriff brags to one and all that the townspeople and he blew the living daylights out of the Dalton gang. Doolin, who hasn't revealed his name yet, observes that the Dalton gang was shot down in the back. U. S. Marshal Sam Hughes (George Macready of "Gilda") approaches Doolin. He observes: "Never saw a man so bad he had to be shot in the back." Hughes' attitude takes Doolin by surprise. Doolin refuses to identify himself and leaves the saloon. In the stable, he discovers Bill Dalton. Dalton believes that Wichita squealed on the gang. Meanwhile, Wichita complains to Hughes and the town sheriff about flowers on the Dalton's graves. Wichita is anxious about this, so much so that he heads for the livery stable to hightail it and spots Bob Dalton through a crack in the plank walls. The informer circles around, entering the stable through the roof and surprises Bob and kills him. Wichita's luck with Doolin runs out; Doolin guns him down in self-defense, but our hero knows better than to stick around and argue his innocence. He skedattles and heads off to parts unknown.Eventually, Doolin forms his own outlaw gang. Bitter Creek (John Ireland of "Red River"), Thomas 'Arkansas' Jones (Charles Kemper of "Yellow Sky") and Tulsa Jack Blake (Jock Mahoney of "Tarzan Goes to India") are members of Doolin's gang. A posse of lawmen pursues Doolin and company, and he decides to split his gang up and reunite with them in three months elsewhere after their trail has cooled off. Doolin gallops off to another town, Clayville, with Hughes in hot pursuit. He throws Hughes off his scent by hiding in a church and later buys a ranch from his bank robbery loot. He marries Elaine Burton (Virginia Huston of "The Racket"), but his outlaw cronies show up and ruin his marriage. Elaine's father convinces Doolin to leave Elaine for her ultimate good. Doolin and the gang resume their depredations with Hughes hot on their trail. Gradually, the law whittles the gang down, with a wounded Bitter Creek dying during a long ride across the badlands. Eventually, after all but two remain of the Doolin gang, Big Bill (Scott) and Little Bill (Noah Beery, Jr. of "Sergeant York") ride back to Bill's old homestead. He remembers fondly his days as a farmer with an alias and a wife that he had to give up. They ride to his old farm, but when Bill spots Elaine working it, he pushes Little Bill out the door, but Elaine catches them trying to sneak away. Bill wants to take Elaine to a 'no man's land' territory that neither Kansas nor Arkansas claims where they can resume their lives under a new alias. "From this moment on we're going to forget everything that happened in the past," Elaine agrees. Just as things are looking up for our outlaw protagonist, Marshal Hughes and Marshal Heck Thomas (Robert Barrat of "The Texans") come knocking at the farm; they pose as census takers to get information out of Elaine. Elaine heads off into town with money to buy supplies. Doolin heads off elsewhere, but before he returns, Hughes and his deputies turns up impersonating census takers and question Elaine about her husband. Elaine heads into town. Little Bill rides out to warn Doolin about Hughes. Doolin is riding with a herd of horses and needs to get into Clayville, so Little Bill stampedes the horses to give Doolin a way to sneak into town and get Elaine. During the stampede, Little Bill dies when his horse goes down. Meanwhile, Doolin finds Elaine in the church and orders her to head out with the words of Elaine's father ringing in his head that he must leave his daughter alone. Doolin accepts his destiny, sends Elaine away, and walks out to be shot by the posse."The Doolins of Oklahoma" is a predictable, run of the mill oater.

Robert J. Maxwell Randolph Scott usually has a bit of rogue in his characters but there's less of it here than usual. Scott is a member of a gang of thieves and barely escapes when the others are slaughtered by the U.S. Marshal, played by George MacReady who is a bad guy even when he's a good guy, as he is here. That was a close call, Scott reflects, and maybe it's time to hang up my sixguns and take up farming. Not only does he farm (corn) but he marries the daughter of the local church deacon. How good can you get?Nothing good lasts, however, as anyone over the age of eight knows. His former buddies play a dirty trick on him and expose his identity as a bandit, forcing him to leave wife and home and take to the road again. The Doolin Gang isn't bad, as bank-robbing thieving murdering gangs go. None of them is really evil, although they have their differences. The movie differentiates them pretty well and gives us a chance to get to know them, weaknesses and virtues alike. They have colorful names which I can't remember exactly but are something like "Tulsa," "Brickbat," "Arkansas," "Little Billy." Little Billy is the educated one. He's been to school in Pennsylvania. You can tell because he can quote Benjamin Franklin. He's played in such an effete manner by Noah Beery, Jr., that one wonders if his character isn't one of those barely disguised gay people that some of the older movies used. In any case he does not utter one believable line. But Scott is pretty good, playing it so straight. And John Ireland is very watchable too. I don't know why, but I've always liked John Ireland even in villainous roles. The bridge of his nose seems to have caved in and drawn his eyes closer together. His best role was in "All the King's Men." He had a much more prominent part in "Red River" than we see on screen in today's prints. His role was cut to the bone by director Howard Hawks when Hawks found out that Ireland was romancing Hawks' girl friend at the time, who shall remain nameless here except for her real name -- Letitia laCock -- which wasn't made up by Andy Warhol. Where was I? Oh, yes, Scott's pretty good. I enjoyed him in his earlier movies, "My Favorite Wife" and "Follow the Fleet," where he established and retired the world's record for repeating the word "swell" on screen. There was a considerable hiatus in his career while he played replaceable heroes in replaceable Westerns, until he made "Ride the High Country" for Sam Peckinpah. He was genuinely good in that -- all rogue, from beginning to end.