Undescribable Perfection

Just perfect...

Fantastic!

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This '50's drive-in chick flick is a cheesy western with amateurish acting that takes all the bad girl exploitation films and adds on corsets while taking away the bee-hive hairdo's. An inappropriate use of dramatic music shows this for the clunky bomb it is. One of the girls sings a song about not trusting a man cause they'll betray you while a gun will stay with you until you die. "You kill like other women love men" one of the sisters tells another. That sums up the best dialog in this misfire where there is no real motivation for the girls robbing coaches and saloons other than the fact that men have exploited them. Not a camp classic, but enjoyable if you know what you're getting yourself into.

"Voodoo Island" director Reginald Le Borg's vastly underrated movie "The Dalton Girls" is a surprisingly entertaining distaff western about the notorious outlaw gang's offspring. Indeed, this oater looks like a forerunner of Jonathan Kaplan's "Bad Girls" (1994) with Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell, and Drew Barrymore. Unlike "Bad Girls," "The Dalton Girls" features a cast of largely unknown actresses. The most recognizable name belongs to venerable western character actor John Russell. "El Alaméin" scenarist Herbert Purdom wrote the story while seasoned western scribe Maurice Tombragel penned the screenplay. Although there are no surprises in this modest but well-staged dust-raiser, the cast and the characters are endowed with a modicum of depth and the dialogue is sometimes quite striking. Anybody who appreciates a solid, interesting western will enjoy this 71-minute shoot'em up. The priority of the themes here is women versus men, women versus society, and women versus women. The girls quarrel about their predicament, but they have their hands full of unsavory gents. Producer Howard W. Koch went on to produce several Frank Sinatra epics, including "Sergeants 3," "Robin and the Four Hoods," "Four for Texas," and "None but the Brave." The action opens with the Dalton brothers getting cornered on the prairie and gunned down. If you look closely, their body positions change after they hit the dirt. Nevertheless, Mr. Slidell, the Mortician (Glenn Dixon of "Untamed Youth") puts their bodies on display in the back of his undertaking parlor for twenty-five cents. Later, when the two older sisters, Holly (Merry Anders of "Women of the Prehistoric Planet") and Columbine (Penny Edwards of "Missing Women"), visit the funeral home, Slidell talks about defraying the expenses of the funeral and tries to rape Holly. She clobbers him with a shovel, but she hits him hard enough that he dies. Earlier, a private detective name Hiram Parsh (Ed Hinton of "Jungle Moon Men") had stopped by to identify the bodies. Slidell refused to let him view the corpses until he paid his quarter because the undertaker didn't consider him in the same position as a public servant. Just so that we the audience know that Slidell is unsavory, Parsh drops his quarter in the dirt.Six years elapse and the Dalton girls hold up a stagecoach. One of the passengers tries to get fresh with Columbine and she pulls her pistol on him. W.T. "Illinois" Grey (John Russell of "Pale Rider") takes an instant liking to Columbine. Grey is a well-dressed gambler and he isn't exactly a hero, but neither is he a villain. Columbine is taken by his attention. The two older sisters Holly and Rose (Lisa Davis of "Baby Face Nelson") are hard-bitten, especially Rose who shows no qualms about killing. Columbine accuses her Rose of killing the same way that some women love.After the stagecoach robbery, they are looking for somewhere to go and Columbine remembers that Grey mentioned something about the gold strike in Dry Creek. They show up in Dry Creek and rob the bank of $6-thousand and coincidentally Grey catches them in the act because he is trying to collect a gambling debt from the bank manager Mr. Sewell (Malcolm Atterbury of "The Birds") who is somewhat shady. During the hold-up, Sewell grabs a gun in his desk drawer and Rose plugs him. She shoots Grey, but her bullet glances off the watch that the gambler wears and he survives the murder attempt. Columbine isn't happy about this turn of events. The sisters skedaddle and wind up in Tombstone. Grey trails them to Tombstone and a suspicious Parsh follows him.In Tombstone, Grey corners Rose and Holly in a saloon where they are working as hostesses and threatens to reveal their identities unless they give him his six grand. They concoct a scheme to rob a poker game. You see, the bigger poke games are private and Sheriff St. Ives (stunt man Al Wyatt, Sr.) guards the hotel room where the men play. The Dalton sisters get the drop on St. Ives and rob the game, but they don't get far because Parsh opens fire on them.One of the neat touches here is a song that Rose sings about how her six-gun is more dependable to her than a man. The lyrics go something like this . . . "Oh, you can't trust a man, cause a man will lie, but a gun stays beside you till the die you die." Director Le Borg does a good job of keeping the action moving along at full tilt so that there are no lulls in the action. The film appears to have been done on location, a factor that enhances its authenticity. The four sisters are differentiated in tone, dialogue, and character. "The Dalton Girls" may be a low-budget, B-western, but it never wears out its welcome and there is nothing unintentionally funny. Russell is usual stalwart self in a less than heroic role, considering that he starred as the title character in the television series "Lawman."

Actually this is not a half-bad Western if you're not expecting much, and certainly the title doesn't promise much in the way of artistry. What this B-flick has going for it are some well- staged scenes on the prairie and a couple of tough-minded chick scenes, especially the robbery episodes. The acting is uneven, to say the least. Merry Anders is fine as Holly, the leader, as is Lisa Davis as Rose, the second toughie. However, poor Sue George as Marigold should have auditioned for Leave It to Beaver. Maybe you won't have as much trouble as I did telling these "flowers" apart, but they do look alike and it can get confusing. Judging from the title, you'd probably expect more titillation than there is-- after all, this is the 1950's. Nonetheless, there is a legitimate feminist undercurrent even if much is compromised in the end. All in all, this minor production from a couple of old pro's (director Le Borg and producer Schenck) remains a rather interesting artifact as well as a fairly viable piece of period entertainment.

After the Dalton boys are killed by the law, one of the Dalton girls is forced to kill a lecherous mortician who tries to rape her. Being branded a murderess, the sisters follow in their brothers tracks and take up a life of crime. One of the sisters falls for a handsome gambler whom they rob and then develops second thoughts about a life of crime.THE DALTON GIRLS is one of the last gasps of the true Hollywood "B" western. This film is no different from a zillion other such films except that the outlaws are female. The box on the Fang video edition describes the film as a "J.D. chick western", and thats how the female leads play their roles; like they just stepped out of some biker flick. Aside from having the outlaws being females, there something to be said about John Russell as the slightly aloof and philosophical gambler Gray. Its little unusual to have the films hero to be a man who, while not a criminal, isn't exactly squeaky clean either. John Russell was a handsome actor with a very good speaking voice, but was also often somewhat stiff. Here he puts his stiffness, good looks and good speaking voice to his advantage. Otherwise, THE DALTON GIRLS is just another B western. Its not a film that is any good, but nothing about it is done really bad enough to make to someone hate it or provide unintentional laughs.