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How sad is this?

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

With the completion of The Cimarron Kid Audie Murphy played three of the Old West's legendary outlaws, Billy The Kid in The Kid From Texas, Jesse James in Kansas Raiders, and Bill Doolin in this film. I'm not sure any other player earned that distinction.Not that this is a true story of Doolin any more than those other two Universal western classics. Still Murphy makes an appealing and misunderstood hero who tries to go straight but the elements and his destiny work against him.True enough his running buddies were the Dalton gang and in this film Doolin who was picked up by the railroad detectives after his release from prison when the Daltons held up the train he was riding. He was just a paying passenger, but the railroad cops thought he was in on it.Standing out in the supporting cast is Hugh O'Brian who plays Murphy's rival for gang leadership. The fact that Murphy shoots better and has more upstairs than O'Brian fazes him not a wit. He's a mean and surly man miles from the upright Wyatt Earp he played on television.Budd Boetticher directed Murphy in good polished style and this western delivers on both action and plot.

This B Western opens with protagonist Bill Doolin being released from prison on parole; he intends to go straight but things soon go wrong when the train he is travelling on is robbed by the Dalton Gang. While he never rode with them he knew them as friends so when one of them recognises and speaks to him the other passengers assume he is involved with the gang. He jumps off the train and gets away but rather than running he returns to town to answer questions. The sheriff doesn't want to hear any excuses though and tries to arrest Bill; he gets away once again and ends up hiding out with the Dalton Gang. This time he ends up riding with them although there first robbery goes disastrously wrong leaving many of the gang dead or wounded. It isn't ling before Bill, know known as 'The Cimarron Kid' is leading the gang as they rob banks and steal from trains across Oklahoma Territory. Eventually the law begins to catch up with them; but with one last job planned Bill reckons he can earn enough to buy a ranch in Argentina and live there with his sweetheart... of course things don't go according to plan.The plot for this western might not be that deep but there is plenty of solid action and a decent cast of characters. Audie Murphy puts in a decent performance playing against type as Doolin. Beverly Tyler is good enough as love interest Carrie Roberts but Yvette Duguay is the most memorable of the female cast; she plays Rose whose job it is to get information about targets for their robberies... it is great to see a female character doing more than occasionally act as a nurse or only get involved in the action when it is absolutely necessary; Rose is very much one of the gang. There is plenty of varied action including people jumping from a train onto horses; a burning hay wagon being pulled through a town and an impressive shoot out in a railway yard. The film was made in some stunning scenery although, as was often the case, it is Californian scenery not Oklahoman. This might not be an all time great but it is a pretty good western and fans of the genre should check it out if they get a chance.

When I received a DVD from Netflix with this film and "The Man From the Alamo" on it, I wondered why I'd placed this disk on my queue. After all, I am not a huge fan of westerns and the films appeared pretty unremarkable. However, when I noticed both films were directed by Budd Boetticher, I remembered that THIS was why I'd put these films on my list many months earlier. Boetticher was a wonderful director who managed to make his westerns better than the norm--with stories that lack many of the usual clichés. Unfortunately, this film is not typical of Boetticher's better films, as there are a lot of clichés spread throughout the movie.This is an odd film, since it is a remake of another movie ("The Doolins of Oklahoma") that was released just three years earlier! While remakes were very common, remaking a film so quickly wasn't. In the case of "The Cimarron Kid", Audie Murphy takes on the role previously played by Randolph Scott--and, frankly, no one can play a western role better than Scott, so Murphy is at a big disadvantage.The film begins with Murphy being pardoned and released from prison. It seems that he'd been convicted of robbery based solely on his friendships and the law finally realized her was innocent. However, when the train he's on is robbed by his old friends, people naturally assume he's one of them--and he's a wanted man all over again! So, in an odd twist, he DOES join the gang. But because he's basically a swell guy, he leads the gang in becoming more thoughtful and less prone to just blasting people--sort of a kinder, gentler form of banditry. I really expected this all to pay off better than it did. But the film is morally ambiguous and seems to say that Murphy is a good bad-guy! And, until it concludes, there are lots of clichés--such as the quick-tempered guy (Hugh O'Brian) who you just know will have a showdown with Murphy sooner or later, the lady who thinks Murphy is not beyond redemption and several others. Despite the clichés and the strange leading character, the film was well made and is interesting--even with the dumb ending that made little sense.I should also add that while I love Boetticher films, I also hate westerns that portray and glamorize minor western villains like the Daltons, Jesse James or Billy the Kid. 99% of the exploits they do on film are untrue and the men were mostly a lot of cheap crooks--yet Hollywood raised them almost to hero status and fictionalized their lives. So, when Murphy infiltrates this famous gang, I felt a bit annoyed...the sort of annoyed that history teachers like myself are good at becoming!By the way, during the roundhouse scene, why was it important for Rose to activate the turntable?! Really. The gang was NOT using a train!!

"The Cimarron Kid" was another of Universal's great little 80 minute westerns based on legendary outlaws of the old west. This one benefits from crisp direction from soon to be legendary Diector Budd Boetticher, a great supporting cast and good story. It stars Audie Murphy in one his early and best roles.Bill Doolin aka "The Cimarron Kid" (Murphy) is paroled from prison and intends to go straight. Unfortunately, the train on which he is riding is held up by the notorious Dalton Gang (I always thought that there were four Daltons but this story has six). One of the gang, Red Buck (Hugh O'Brian complete with red hair and beard) recognizes the Kid. The passengers think that the Kid is a part of the gang and try to restrain him. The Kid escapes and goes to the Dalton's camp.The Daltons led by Bob Dalton (Noah Beery Jr.) welcome him into the gang. The overly ambitious Red Buck doesn't trust the Kid and a conflict develops. The gang has a two bank heist planned for Coffeyville, Kansas. Seasonedw western fans will know what happens there. With the gang decimated, the Kid takes over as leader and they flee to the ranch of Pat Roberts (Roy Roberts) to hide out with Marshal John Sutton (Leif Ericson) and Railroad detective Tilden (Eugene Baxter) hot on their trail. Naturally Roberts has a comely young daughter, Carrie (Beverly Tyler) who is attracted to the Kid and likewise.The gang in spite of several setbacks, continues to operate. Dynamite Dick Dalton (John Hudson), who was believed to be lost, returns to the hideout with a proposal. With the help of his brother-in-law Geaorge Webster (John Hubbard), he proposes the robbery of a train carrying gold bullion and replacing it with lead. As the plan unfolds, the Kid discovers a double cross and.........................................As with most of Universal's westerns, the supporting cast consists of several of their up and coming contract players, sprinkled with a few recognizable veterans. In addition to those mentioned above we have James Best, Gregg Palmer (aka Palmer Lee), Rand Brooks and William Reynolds as the other Daltons, as well as, Yvette Duguay as Best's girlfriend Rose, John Bromfield, Richard Garland and Frank Silvera as Dalton Gang members and Tristram Coffin as a womanizer/gambler.The boyish looking Murphy was developing into a competent actor by this time and would enjoy a long career at Universal making these excellent little westerns.