When the Daltons Rode (1940)

INFORMATION FROM IMDb

Plot Summary
Young lawyer Tod Jackson arrives in pioneer Kansas
to visit his prosperous rancher friends the Daltons,
just as the latter are in danger of losing their land
to a crooked development company.
When Tod tries to help them, a faked murder charge turns the
Daltons into outlaws, but more victims than villains
in this fictionalized version.
Will Tod stay loyal to his friends despite falling in love
with Bob Dalton's former fiancée Julie?
Written by Rod Crawford

Cast
Randolph Scott ... Tod Jackson
Kay Francis ... Julie King
Brian Donlevy ... Grat Dalton
George Bancroft ... Caleb Winters
Broderick Crawford ... Bob Dalton
Stuart Erwin ... Ben Dalton
Andy Devine ... Ozark
Frank Albertson ... Emmett Dalton
Mary Gordon ... Ma Dalton
Harvey Stephens ... Rigby
Edgar Dearing ... Sheriff (as Edgar Deering)
Quen Ramsey ... Wilson
Dorothy Granger ... Nancy (as Dorothy Grainger)
Robert McKenzie ... Photographer (as Bob McKenzie)
Fay McKenzie ... Hannah
Walter Soderling ... Judge Lucius Thorndown [Judge Swain in credits]
Mary Ainslee ... Minnie
Erville Alderson ... District Attorney Wade
Sally Payne ... Annabella
June Wilkins ... Suzy
and many more...

Directed
George Marshall

Writing Credits
Harold Shumate ... (original screen play)
Emmett Dalton ... (based on: "When the Daltons Rode") &
Jack Jungmeyer ... (based on: "When the Daltons Rode") (as Jack Jungmeyer Sr.)

Music
Frank Skinner ... (musical score)

Cinematography
Hal Mohr ... director of photography Film Editing by

Trivia
Crazy Credits
Towards the end of the 19th Century in America, civilization surges ever west and in it's wake,
came that inseparable pair, INJUSTICE and CRIME. In the history of the reckless violence
that seized Kansas and Oklahoma, no name carried more terror than DALTON.
There were more famous outlaws, but none more daring, none more desperate.

This, then, is the story of the Dalton brothers, based, to a large extent,
on the tales that the old settlers still tell of them-woven together with strands of fiction.
But, so incredible were the Daltons, that no man can say where fact ends and fancy begins.

Goofs
Anachronisms
In one scene near the end, one of the townsfolk refers to Oklahoma as a state, "...not in this State".
Oklahoma only obtained Statehood in 1907, long after the Daltons' demise.

Factual errors
The film's climax shows Emmett Dalton being killed in a shoot-out
during an attempted bank robbery in Coffeyville, Kansas.
In reality, Dalton survived the shoot-out and went on to write the book that this film was based on.

Revealing mistakes
Just as Bob Dalton jumps on the stagecoach from the large rock,
the coach driver flinches before he even sees Bob jumping on him.

Watch the Movie

[extendedmedia]

Filming Locations
California, USA

When the Daltons Rode is a 1940 American Western film
directed by George Marshall starring Randolph Scott, Kay Francis and Brian Donlevy.
Based on the book When the Daltons Rode by Emmett Dalton,
the sole surviving real-life gang member, and Jack Jungmeyer,
the film is about a family friend of the Daltons
who tries to dissuade them from becoming outlaws.

User Review

Action Packed Classic
25 May 2014 | by FightingWesterner (The Lonesome Prairie)

Quote from fw

Lawyer Randolph Scott arrives in Kansas just in time to witness childhood friends the Dalton brothers turned into outlaws and thieves, after doing battle with crooked business interests, stacked courts, and violent mobs of mindless vigilantes.

Top-billed Scott melts into the background as the film is easily stolen by it's real stars Broderick Crawford, Brian Donlevy, and Andy Devine, who plays an overweight, hayseed version of Casanova, who joins the Dalton boys in order to get away from the large amount of aggressive women in his life!

Excellent, rowdy entertainment, this features some really awesome stunt work from Yakima Cannut, including the classic stagecoach backslide, where the stuntman goes from being dragged between the horses to the back of the coach by letting go and grabbing the back axle, as well as several horse jumps onto and from trains and cliffs, truly eye-popping! There's some exciting gun-play at work here too.

A good example of twisted Hollywood history, there's so much sympathy for the outlaws here, it's hard to imagine this making it past the National Board Of Review!

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