The Black Dakotas

Gary Merrill, from the heights of "Twelve O'clock High", "Phone call From a Stranger", "All About Eve", and others, to this waste of celluloid. Was additionally disappointed the venerable Aussi "Indian" Michael Pate not cast. Pate's presence would have, at least, elevated this "oater ", somewhat.

This is the lousy example of what grade B pictures are most of the time. This one makes no exception, standard stuff full of clichés and foreseeable chaarcters and situations. I did my best to find something unusual and surprising but it was useless and also hopeless, a fight lost in advance. Except maybe Gary Merrill's character as a surprising evil dude, but this is not Alan Ladd in ONE FOOT IN HELL either. But because I am a big B movies buff, it remained a comfortable moment. I did not pay attention to check if it was produced by the infamous Sam Katzman; I had not the courage to push the back forward button of my VHS; cause I have this film from a late TNT channel taping off, from the nineties or late eighties. But I recognized the Columbia B department trade mark. Music score for instance.

A remarkably ruthless outdoor western set against the backdrop of the Civil War, rather incongruously shot on attractive locations in pretty colours; it features Gary Merrill as an exceptionally venal and self-centred anti-hero supposedly working for the South but actually just in it for himself.

Complex B-western with shifting loyalties and a few surprises. In the Dakotas, it's Civil War southerners conspiring against northerners for possession of big money, with the Sioux nation as a wild card. Needless to say, you may need a scorecard to keep track. Nonetheless, the screenplay is offbeat and generally unpredictable, always a plus for a western. There's also some surprisingly graphic violence on-screen, without the usual cut-aways to spare viewer feelings. Merrill's not a typical western lead, but then he's not playing a cowboy. Instead, he's an agent from Washington, but of uncertain loyalty. Watch for Noah Beery Jr. as Gimpy, bringing his usual down-home color to the role. All in all, it's an offbeat little western with some pleasant LA area scenery, which is enough for most of us.