Joe Dakota (1957)

Thanks for the memories!

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Better Late Then Never

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I never made the "Bad Day at Black Rock" connection that some other reviewers mention for this film, so I had to go back and take a look at my own comments for that film. It turns out Spencer Tracy made an observation about Black Rock that went something like this - "... only just seems to me there aren't many towns like this in America, but one town like it is enough." Well, with this story, I guess there really was another town like Black Rock, going by the name of Arborville. It wasn't much of a town really, and wasn't mentioned to be in any particular state; the only thing you could assume was that it was out West somewhere.The thing about the filming that I find most curious were the handful of scenes in which characters get covered with oil. That first time with Joe Dakota (Jock Mahoney) had me jumping out of my seat - how'd they do that? I mean, Mahoney was seriously covered head to foot in some kind of black gunk, and even assuming it wasn't really oil, how did the film makers get the consistency right, and how did Mahoney keep it out of his eyes? I'm still puzzling over that.As it turns out, Mahoney's character becomes the conscience of the town of Arborville when he begins digging into the disappearance of the 'other' Joe Dakota. The story did a credible job of explaining what that was all about, leaving no loopholes for the citizens to employ once it became evident that the 'real' Joe Dakota had done his homework.Two things bothered me though. The first was the flashback scene showing the Old Indian coming to Jody Weaver's (Luana Patten) aid after she was assaulted by the unidentified attacker. He was smiling, and that didn't square with the situation. The other was during the eruption of the oil well when Joe got into the scrap with Cal Moore (Charles McGraw). Moore's tough guy henchmen (Claude Akins and Lee Van Cleef) were actually cheering for Joe! Why would that be the case? That situation just seemed to be out of synch with the story and the characters.Oh yeah, one other comment I made in my 'Black Rock' review - the Eastman Color format managed to add a modern sensibility to what might otherwise have been an out of place 1950's Western. Guess what? - this turned out to be that out of place 1950's Western.

TV's Range Rider tried his hand at big screen westerns and this one, Joe Dakota is one of them. Sad to say though that Jock Mahoney came along a bit too late to be a big screen cowboy hero. And the film while good is not anything you wouldn't see as a Gunsmoke episode.The plot is considerably borrowed from MGM's Bad Day At Black Rock, but its hero is a soft spoken Tom Destry like character. Jock Mahoney is in the title role and he comes to town looking for someone the locals only knew as 'The Old Indian'. He's disappeared now and a bunch of the locals under the supervision of town tough Charles McGraw are drilling an oil well on the Old Indian's land.Only it's not his land, it's Mahoney's land which 'the old Indian' was squatting on for Mahoney. Mahoney starts investigating, start asking questions and pretty soon the town is riled. Something McGraw hopes to use when the time comes.Mahoney does make a good cowboy hero, born a little too late to have made a career on the big screen. I remember him well as the Range Rider during my childhood years. As for 'the Old Indian' and McGraw if you've seen Bad Day At Black Rock you know how this one comes out.Such fine folks as Luana Patten, Barbara Lawrence, Paul Birch, Claude Akins and Lee Van Cleef fill out the cast. Sad Jock Mahoney came along too late to be a big screen cowboy hero.

A mysterious stranger (Mahoney) comes to town asking after the whereabouts of former resident Joe Dakota. Townsfolk are not very obliging, which seems to have something to do with a recently drilled oil well and who owns it.The movie year 1957 was saturated with westerns. This one tries to be different, and largely succeeds. Notice that no one—not even arch-movie villains Van Cleef or Akins—sports a six- gun. And, unless I missed something, not even a single shot is fired. Add to that an oil well, of all things, plus a woebegone little prairie town that's definitely not a studio set, and you've got a different looking western.Then too, the first part manages some pretty good low-key humor; at the same time, Mahoney gets an oil bath, courtesy the townsfolk, that leaves him looking like a human inkblot. For a western, however, there's not much action and none of the usual suspense of good-guy vs. bad-guy showdown. And truth be told, the basic plot is borrowed from 1955's mega-hit Bad Day at Black Rock. But the writers have added enough clever twists and turns to keep the viewer entertained. All in all, it's an interesting, if not very intense, little western.(In passing—I checked to see if the oil well was an anachronism for this time period. It's not. The first well was drilled in Pennsylvania in 1859. Also, note that William Tallman who played the DA on the old Perry Mason series is one of the two screenwriters here.)

A good film for Jocko fans and western fans in general. Seems to be a remake of "Bad Day at Black Rock" with a few changes. Mahoney is the stranger coming to town as Spencer Tracy was in "Black Rock". The old Indian that's missing was and older Japanese man in "Black Rock", and the town seems to be hiding something just like the townspeople in "Black Rock". Jocko investigates and irritates the townspeople just like Spencer Tracy did in "Black Rock". Mahoney always looks good on a horse and this film is no exception. There are a couple of good fight scenes with Jocko doing all his own stunts as usual. Could have used more action, but all in all is a good western.