***/**** Image A- Sound A
starring Gary Cooper, Ruth Roman, Steve Cochran, Raymond Massey
screenplay by John Twist
directed by Stuart Heisler
by Travis Mackenzie Hoover I hate to be a stuck record, but this is the third consecutive Cooper title I've seen that is at once without serious subtext and possessed of reasonable entertainment value. I suppose historians could make something out of Coop's Southern rebel hero Blayde Hollister and his upward journey from post-Civil War guerrilla to Union lawman–I'm not qualified to judge the nuances of such a transference, though I can guarantee you that good times result. Plopping our man into the maelstrom of boomtown Dallas, the script does its best to bolster his uncomplicated man-of-the-west mystique and even hands him the girl of actual Marshal Martin Weatherby (Leif Erickson) as a going-away present. Nothing in the film is especially brilliant or resonant, but director Stuart Heisler manages the traffic to such a point that it moves in a steady stream without slowing down.
If you're asking how a wanted Southern guerrilla can somehow become a U.S. Marshal without raising eyebrows, you haven't bartered on the fancypants nature of Weatherby. He shows up in another town in order to relieve Wild Bill Hickock (Reed Hadley), but he's a complete greenhorn who can't shoot and is only in the game to impress his Texan fiancée Tonia Robles (Ruth Roman). Fortunately, Wild Bill has an entente cordiale with Hollister during which he tells him to help out poor Weatherby in his hunt for some Dallas no-goodniks. They manifest themselves in the form of the Marlow brothers (civilized face William (Raymond Massey), savage killer Brant (Steve Cochran)), moneylenders who've been foreclosing on properties with force when leveraging isn't an option. Hollister poses as Weatherby so as not to be arrested–though a chance encounter might unmask him.
To be sure, there are no big surprises in this bit of narrative. In fact, the whole thing rests on a foregone conclusion: that Hollister will redeem himself and enter the Marshals. There's a lot of talk about the new life being built in the place whose name means "friend" and putting old grudges behind us–and while the film plays both sides of the street in its baiting of blue-bellied Yankees like Weatherby, it's pretty sure that history written by the winners is the way it ought to be. Still, I haven't seen a movie with this many sneaky subterfuges in some time: Not only are the lead and his sidekick playing parts, but every encounter with Marlow's enforcers involves a deception of sorts as well. Nobody can tell the truth about who they are until the end, which keeps Dallas lively and watchable.
There are other pleasures, to be sure. It's fun to watch Massey in a villainous, moustache-twirling role: though he's billed under marquee name Cochran, he's the mean-spirited brains of the operation and gets his due in a memorable final shootout with Cooper. Cochran doesn't leave much of an impression as Massey, but it's likewise pretty funny to watch poor Erickson have the wind knocked out of him by both the job and the fact that Cooper is making eyes with his wife-to-be. If there's absolutely nothing to be learned that doesn't come out of a million join-America-see-the-world epics, the film is so unconcerned with the substance of that message that it gets in and gets out before you can become annoyed.
Warner's DVD release of Dallas is more or less up to the studio's usual standards. The full-frame image boasts extremely rich colours and surprisingly sharp definition; top marks are missed only by occasional blue flickering that I suspect is irreparable negative damage. The Dolby Digital 1.0 mono audio is equally fine, full and round and clear as a bell. Once again, there are no extras.
94 minutes; PG; 2.35:1 (16×9-enhanced); English DD 1.0, French DD 1.0; CC; English, French, Spanish subtitles; DVD-5; Region One; Warner
