The Doolins of Oklahoma Reviews

An above-average western chronicling one of the last real-life outlaw gangs of the Southwest, the notorious Doolins, led by Scott, who survives the massacre of the Dalton Gang in Coffeyville, Kansas, on October 5, 1892. Scott recruits a new gang, including Ireland, Beery, Fenton, O'Mahoney, and Kemper, and leads raids against banks and trains. Huston and Scott are in love, but she can't persuade him to hang up his guns. He is a doomed man and says so, intending to die with his boots on. One by one the outlaws are cornered and killed by lawmen Macready, Barrat, and others; Scott is the last to go, wearing his boots and filled with buckshot. The action is brisk under Douglas' direction, and Lawton's cinematography is a standout, with its sharp black-and-white treatment. Gamet's screenplay is well researched and provides considerable black humor in a day when westerns usually provided humorous relief with a sneeze from Al "Fuzzy" St. John or a whine from Smiley Burnette. Scott gives a terrific portrayal of a westerner trapped by the coming of the modern age.