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Admirable film.

Absolutely Fantastic

A lot of fun.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Copyright 24 March 1948 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. New York opening at the Winter Garden: 3 May 1948. U.S. release: April 1948. U.K. release through Eros (the film was turned down by Rank): floating from November 1949. Australian release: 12 August 1948. 7,247 feet. 80 minutes. U.K. release title: BLACK BART, HIGHWAYMAN.SYNOPSIS: This film is based on the adventures of Charles E. Bolton, poet-highwayman who committed 28 hold-ups before he was apprehended, and Lola Montez, the internationally famous dancer. That they ever did meet is not impossible but highly improbable, for Lola was touring the U.S. under the direction of P. T. Barnum at the time Black Bart was on the rampage. This is a dashingly-played (particularly by Dan Duryea and lovely Yvonne De Carlo), fast-moving and very exciting melodrama, very competently directed with appealing Technicolor photography. - E.V.D.COMMENT: Quite an entertaining "B", photographed in most attractive Technicolor by Irving Glassberg, this classy Universal entry features an interesting and highly rewarding group of players, led by Yvonne De Carlo, Dan Duryea, Jeffrey Lynn and Percy Kilbride. Very capably directed by George Sherman from a taut, well-constructed and peopled-with-interesting-characters screenplay (to which William Bowers doubtless made a major contribution), Black Bart (despite its off-putting title) rates as a must-see western.

Before he directed "Black Bart," George Sherman had helmed over 40 B-westerns. Despite his prolific output, Sherman challenged John Ford for artistry mastery of the genre. Nevertheless, "Black Bart" qualifies as an entertaining but formulaic tongue-in-cheek oater. Three scenarists--Luci Ward, Jack Natteford, and William Bowers—knew something about writing horse operas. Ward & Natteford collaborated together on 11 westerns, including "The Last Bandit," "Return of the Badman," Blackjack Ketchum, Desperado," and "Badman's Territory." William Bowers wrote "The Law and Jake Wade," "The Sheepman," "Support Your Local Sheriff," "The Gunfighter," and "Advance to the Rear." Ostensibly about a real life character who used the alias "Black Bart," this colorful western takes place in California and concerns a clever bandit who dresses like Zorro and skillfully wields double-barrel, sawed-off shotgun. He robs stagecoaches, and his legend spreads across the southwest much to the chagrin of the Wells Fargo Company. Unlike the remake, "Black Bart" unfolds in flashback narrated by outlaw Jersey Brady (Percy Kilbride of the "Ma & Pa Kettle" series at Universal. According to Brady, our notorious protagonists, Charles E. Boles (Dan Duryea of "Winchester 73") and Lance Hardeen (Jeffrey Lynn of "Underground") are being taken to the hanging tree by the authorities because they robbed two banks, rode out on stolen horses, and took the mayor's wife with them in the same day. Meantime, Jersey has planted explosives at the base of the tree, and he blasts the tree, gets the drop on the lawman with his rifle. Afterward, the three outlaws split up, with Boles decides to ride to California, while Lance talks about heading to Texas. Boles prefers to be done with reckless Lance. Lance was the one who brought along the mayor's wife during their twin-bill bank robbery. "You're bad news, Lance," Boles complains, "you're not interested in growing old." "There ain't no permanence in this business," Jersey observes. "Just begin to like somebody and he turns up dead." Lance points out, "You lose a lot of people you don't like that way, too." Unlike Jersey and Lance, Boles aims to make a stake and then turn respectable. Lance laughs at Boles' ambition, "You don't have a respectable bone in your body. You've got larceny pumping through your bones the same as me. You'll never make it." The three have $3-thousand buried nearby, but Lance and Jersey double-cross Boles and leave him afoot so he cannot claim his share. They ride off, while he pulls that $3-thousand wad out of his pocket. Indeed, Boles has the last laugh on Lance. Sherman makes a clever transition to California. As Boles rides into another standard-issue western town, a covered wagon passes in front of the camera, and stenciled on the canopy is Sacramento. Typically, a set of graphic titles would have been superimposed on the screen to identify the setting, but this organic introduction looks far better. Boles drifts into a bar and encounters an old friend Clark (John McIntire of "Backlash"), who invites him to sit down. Clark had been participating in a conversation with a Wells Fargo representative. Clark informs Boles that he has become a legitimate lawyer because there are no records to condemn him as a criminal. Clark concocts an audacious scheme based on the widespread discovery of gold in the state. Indeed, Clark is referring to the Sutter's Fort gold rush. Clark poses a sarcastic question to Boles:"How would you like to be in the banking business?" Multiple newspaper headlines appear about the celebrated gold rush. Afterward, we catch our first glimpse of Boles dressed up in black, riding a galloping black horse, and wearing a black bag over his face. He robs his first stagecoach. Before long, Wells Fargo has placed a $10-thousand bounty on Black Bart's head. You see, Boles and Clark have gone into business. Inevitably, Lance and Jersey show up, and they persuade the stagecoach company to hire them as drivers. Things get even livelier as dance hall girl Lola Montez (Yvonne De Carlo of "Brute Force") arrives via Wells Fargo in Sacramento. She is riding on the same coach that Lance and Jersey have taken, and they admire her diamonds worth over $100-thousand dollars. Naturally, Black Bart strikes."Bend of the River" lenser Irving Glassberg's Technicolor cinematography is vivid and some of the scenery looks imposing. The other natural beauty is not mountainous. De Carlo performs a dance number that shows a lot of leg. The dialogue is above-average and leavened with humor. Duryea makes a good outlaw, but Lynn seems distinctively out of place. Percy Kilbride serves as comic relief, and there is a surprise ending. In some ways, "Black Bart" surpasses "Ride to the Hangman's Tree." The amazing thing is that Universal Pictures was able to insert some of the action footage from this 1948 movie into the 1967 remake.

This Universal B picture is yet another example of Hollywood taking a famous character of the old west and fashioning their own story about him without a bit of reality to it. All that I can say is that Black Bart did go by the real name of Charles Bolles and they did do his crime thing in California in the 19th century. Other than that this film has nothing to do with Black Bart's real story.Among other things Black Bart was always a gentleman and left a bit of poetic verse at the scene of each robbery. Not a line of poetry comes from Dan Duryea's lips. As Black Bart died in 1888 and Lola Montez died in 1861 it's highly unlikely they ever even met.Yvonne DeCarlo plays the exotic dancer who had King Ludwig of Bavaria panting for more. But that's all done with, Lola's in America on a tour and she's now in San Francisco. On the way there she meets up with Black Bart when he holds up the stagecoach. Also along are a pair of Duryea's associates from his past, Jeffrey Lynn and Percy Kilbride. They know Duryea even behind the mask and want in on the set up. Lynn also wants in on Lola Montez.Black Bart despite its gross historical inaccuracies is an interesting and unique film. No happy endings for anyone here as Duryea and Lynn go out like Butch and Sundance. Yvonne DeCarlo is properly fetching as Lola though I think the one who should have played Lola in a better film of her life should have been Greta Garbo.

This film manages to be relatively non-formulaic, and even more non-historical, though the real Black Bart was indeed named Charles E. Boles as portrayed. British-born Boles, however, did not conduct his outlaw career as a Zorroesque black-clad horseman, but hiked to all his holdups and wore a long linen duster, with a flour sack over his head. He was also pushing 50 when he started robbing the stage. So much for a romantic image! If the intention was to make Bart/Boles a dashing figure, I think another actor would have been a better choice than Dan Duryea, who after all pretty much built his career on playing creeps. But it's always interesting to see a departure, and the script is more clever than that of the routine horse opera of the day.As Lola Montez, Yvonne De Carlo makes no effort at a real characterization of the famous Countess (former mistress to Ludwig I of Bavaria), but acts-- well, like Yvonne De Carlo, delivering her lines in her usual flat New World tones. The witty, volatile and multilingual Lola (nee Eliza Gilbert), though Irish by birth, affected a sort of Spanish accent to go with her assumed Sevillian identity. De Carlo's dancing, I fear, bears little resemblance to Lola's, but it's always a pleasure to watch Yvonne in her early roles; this film came only three years after her dazzling debut in 1945's "Salome, Where She Danced", in which she played a quasi Lola Montez, thereby confusing the record considerably.In reference to this: the real Lola never danced as Salome nor visited Arizona, and the town there called "Salome, Where She Danced" was named in 1904, and for quite another lady. To play Lola or a quasi-Lola, De Carlo does certainly fit the bill visually as a stunning blue-eyed brunette with a memorable figure. As to Lola ever encountering Black Bart-- well, when he began his career as a highway robber in 1875 Lola had been in her grave for fourteen years. So much for romance!