Yvonne de Carlo has to share Howard Duff's(Sam Bass) romantic interest with Dorothy Hart(Kathy Egan) in this Technicolor 'B' western, directed by the talented 'B' picture specialist George Sherman. Obviously, Dorothy was characterized as 'the good girl', while Yvonne, as Calamity Jane, was characterized as 'the bad girl'. Both fell in love with the handsome, but dirt poor, Bass almost immediately. Calamity more dominates the 2nd half, while Kathy is more influential in the first half. Director Sherman ordered some great close-ups of Yvonne's face, especially toward the end. For a more fun western costarring Yvonne, I recommend "Frontier Gal". Both these films are currently available at YouTube.
I disagree with the paragraph under 'Trivia' at this site, which claims that there is little historically accurate information about Bass in this film. The inclusion of the 2 women is the greatest fictional component. As mentioned in the film, Bass was raised on an Indiana farm, and gradually made his way south and west, finally to Denton, TX. He did work for Sheriff Will Egan on his ranch, saved his money and bought an excellent race horse, named 'the Denton Mare'. He won some races with her and was skilled in other bets on horses. Later, he did get into robbing stages, trains, and banks. The dramatized train robbery at Big Spring Station closely duplicates the details of what actually happened, including the wood boxes holding a fortune in gold coins. His fatal attempt at robbing the Round Rock bank is also dramatized.
Howard Keel, as Bass, doesn't present the sort of charisma a John Wayne or Gary Cooper would, but he does an adequate job. Yvonne makes a striking, if quite unreal, facsimile of Calamity.
I disagree with the paragraph under 'Trivia' at this site, which claims that there is little historically accurate information about Bass in this film. The inclusion of the 2 women is the greatest fictional component. As mentioned in the film, Bass was raised on an Indiana farm, and gradually made his way south and west, finally to Denton, TX. He did work for Sheriff Will Egan on his ranch, saved his money and bought an excellent race horse, named 'the Denton Mare'. He won some races with her and was skilled in other bets on horses. Later, he did get into robbing stages, trains, and banks. The dramatized train robbery at Big Spring Station closely duplicates the details of what actually happened, including the wood boxes holding a fortune in gold coins. His fatal attempt at robbing the Round Rock bank is also dramatized.
Howard Keel, as Bass, doesn't present the sort of charisma a John Wayne or Gary Cooper would, but he does an adequate job. Yvonne makes a striking, if quite unreal, facsimile of Calamity.