An ambitious effort to produce a feature length film within the confines of a "B" western series. Running at a lengthy 77 minutes (the norm for a series western is usually one hour or less) it is a better than average Lash LaRue western. Unfortunately the copy I viewed, contained in the Lash LaRue collector's edition released by Echo Bridge Home Entertainment, has two of the key sequences edited out of sequence.
At first we are watching Lash in a poker game, then it jumps over the bank robbery scenes to Lash following the bad guy after the robbery and the townspeople confronting the bad guy...then returning to the poker game and back to the post robbery scenes.
Once I straightened the story line out it turned out to be a not bad western. Bolstered by a strong supporting cast of familiar faces it also has, in my view, some entertaining musical numbers performed on the tight little saloon stage. There is a chanteuse by the name of Jacqueline Fontaine who also manages to get into a cat fight with another saloon gal.
The basic story line has Lash and his sidekick Al "Fuzzy" St. John on the trail of the notorious Dalton gang who are in town working under aliases.
The supporting cast is one of the best ever assembled for a "B" western. Jack Holt, Terry Frost, Stanley Price, Tom Tyler, Raymond Hatton and Bud Osborne (playing a stage driver yet again) are on the wrong side of the law and an under utilized Tom Neal, Lyle Talbot and J. Francis MacDonald play the concerned townsfolk. Pamela Blake and the afore-mentioned Ms. Fontaine are the female contributions to the action.
It should be pointed out that although the film's title is "The Daltons' Women" there are NO Dalton Women in evidence. As often happened with "B" series westerns, the title had little or nothing to due with the plot.
Still and all, the film is entertaining and a cut above the usual 55 minute Lash LaRue westerns.
At first we are watching Lash in a poker game, then it jumps over the bank robbery scenes to Lash following the bad guy after the robbery and the townspeople confronting the bad guy...then returning to the poker game and back to the post robbery scenes.
Once I straightened the story line out it turned out to be a not bad western. Bolstered by a strong supporting cast of familiar faces it also has, in my view, some entertaining musical numbers performed on the tight little saloon stage. There is a chanteuse by the name of Jacqueline Fontaine who also manages to get into a cat fight with another saloon gal.
The basic story line has Lash and his sidekick Al "Fuzzy" St. John on the trail of the notorious Dalton gang who are in town working under aliases.
The supporting cast is one of the best ever assembled for a "B" western. Jack Holt, Terry Frost, Stanley Price, Tom Tyler, Raymond Hatton and Bud Osborne (playing a stage driver yet again) are on the wrong side of the law and an under utilized Tom Neal, Lyle Talbot and J. Francis MacDonald play the concerned townsfolk. Pamela Blake and the afore-mentioned Ms. Fontaine are the female contributions to the action.
It should be pointed out that although the film's title is "The Daltons' Women" there are NO Dalton Women in evidence. As often happened with "B" series westerns, the title had little or nothing to due with the plot.
Still and all, the film is entertaining and a cut above the usual 55 minute Lash LaRue westerns.