THE DALTONS' WOMEN

Lash La Rue

THE DALTON'S WOMEN (1950). Director: Thomas Carr.

In the town of Navaho, members of the Dalton gang have seemingly become respectable citizens with new identities. However, they are up to their old tricks of holding up stagecoaches and robbing banks. Into town comes a man that everyone assumes is one of the Daltons, but "Mike Leonard" -- actually Clint Dalton (Jack Holt) -- knows better. He hires this stranger as a dealer in his saloon, suspecting that he's actually the law. Yes, indeed, the stranger is U.S. Marshall Lash La Rue (Lash La Rue), and he and Pinkerton agent Joan Talbot (Pamela Blake) set out to expose and round up the gang with the help of Lash's grizzled old pal Fuzzy Jones (Al St. John).

burlesque in the wild west?

Lash La Rue was a cowboy star who appeared in a great many low-budget productions for poverty row studio, PRC. In spite of this he gained a large following and had his own comic book that lasted until 1960. Although some have noted a resemblance to Humphrey Bogart, La Rue was actually handsomer than Bogie, although his acting range was much more limited. Playing himself in his movies, La Rue always dressed in black and carried a whip which he eventually learned to wield with a certain expertise; he also did his own stunts, which fitted neatly into PRC's budgetary plans. La Rue occasionally had small roles in films for other studios.

Catfight! June Benbow vs. Jacqueline Fontaine

The Dalton's Women throws in everything but the kitchen sink. There are sexy show girls strutting their stuff and doing the can can; a juggler whose act is interrupted by a shooting party; and a songstress named Jacqueline Fontaine (played by Jacqueline Fontaine, who was introduced in this picture). Fontaine delivers two numbers, including the catchy "The Right Kind of Man," in a husky and sensual voice; she knows how to deliver a song. The best scene in the movie has Fontaine involved in a wild, protracted catfight with saloon gal, May (June Benbow) over a character named Honest Hank (Archie Twitchell), who otherwise doesn't really figure in the plot. The catfight, with the two women pulling hair and nearly tearing the clothing off of each other, is one of the longest female-female fight scenes I've seen in any movie!

Tom Neal, Lyle Talbot, J. Farrell MacDoanld

Others in the cast include the ubiquitous Lyle Talbot as an honest businessman, Tom Neal [Jungle Girl] as the dishonest Mayor, J. Farrell MacDonald as the representative of the stagecoach company, Stanley Price [The Invisible Monster] as bad guy Manson, and Tom Tyler [Adventures of Captain Marvel] as Emmett Dalton. Thomas Carr also co-directed the serial Jesse James Rides Again. This really was the first movie for Jacqueline Fontaine, who had thirteen successive credits in B movies like Outlaw Women, A productions such as The Country Girl, and assorted television programs. A "Western Adventure" Production. 

Verdict: If you've always wanted to see a Lash La Rue picture, this is the one to go for. Dig that zesty catfight! **1/2. 

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL

Tom Tyler crashes through!

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL/12 chapter Republic serial/1941). Directed by John English and William Witney. 

Very young reporter Billy Batson (Frank Coghlan Jr.) accompanies some scientists to the Valley of the Tombs in Siam. There they uncover some secret chambers,  one of which holds ancient lenses that could be used to create a devastating weapon. In another chamber Billy meets the old wizard Shazam, who imbues him with special powers based on the gods of legend. All he has to do is utter the magic word "Shazam!" and he instantly transforms into the powerful hero, Captaim Marvel (Tom Tyler)!

The sinister Scorpion wants those lenses!

Back in the States, both nerdy Billy and the super-butch captain will need their wits about them because they have an adversary, a masked man who calls himself the Scorpion and who is secretly one of the scientists on the expedition.  The lenses have been divided up among the other men and the Scorpion will stop at nothing to get them so that he can create a "Solar Atom Smasher." Billy, CM, and secretary Betty (Louise Currie) all find themselves in doom-traps thanks to the Scorpion and his equally evil henchmen. These include a guillotine, a bomb in Billy's plane, a machine gun safe trap, and a car with Betty inside careening floor by floor down a parking garage, among others.   

Captain Marvel takes to the air

"Junior" Coghlan is boyishly earnest and although older than the character in the Captain Marvel comic book this is based on, he manages to come off as a juvenile even though he was 25-years-old at the time. Former cowboy hero Tom Tyler has limited dialogue but he makes an impressive Captain Marvel, and the flying sequences and other FX are well-done by the Lydecker brothers. Captain Marvel is a tough character who takes no prisoners, tossing crooks around like tenpins, and even throws one guy off the roof of a building to his death in chapter five, in which he also gets trapped by a river of molten ore. 

Frank (Junior) Coghlan Jr. as Billy Batson 

Among the supporting cast, the best impressions are made by Reed Hadley [Public Defender] as Rahman Bar, who is working with the Scorpion, and John Davidson as the Indian Tal Chotali, who is also a suspect. An unseen Gerald Mohr is the voice of the Scorpion and apparently plays the part while masked, but when the villain is unmasked he is revealed as someone else entirely. An exciting scene in chapter ten has the gang trapped on a floundering ship, and Billy suggests they use a breeches buoy to get everyone off of it before it sinks. It's a suspenseful sequence, but one can't help but think that Captain Marvel could have simply flown everyone off the ship in a quarter of the time. Nevertheless, this is a very entertaining serial. 

Verdict: More entertaining than the comic books, frankly. ***.