When the Daltons Rode

This is quite a solid western adventure depicting how the unstoppable railroad and their developers rode roughshod over all in their path. The "Dalton" family are one such family and when they engage "Jackson" (Randolph Scott) to help them out legally, to obviously no avail, they resort to lawlessness and start making life difficult for the trains and pursuing law enforcement alike. Scott actually features quite sparingly here, most of the film belongs to Brian Donlevy ("Grat") and Broderick Crawford ("Bob) and to the scene stealing Andy Devine ("Ozark") who knows how defuse a potentially lethal gun battle with a stagecoach and a little brass neck. It's only 80 minutes and George Marshall sees that the romance is kept to a minimum and that there are plenty of horse chases, shoot 'em ups and even some humour as the gang try to stay one step ahead. It's always nice to see Mary Gordon ("Ma Dalton" here, but always "Mrs. Hudson" in the Rathbone/Bruce "Sherlock Holmes" mysteries) and I quite enjoyed this.