JinRoz
For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!
ShangLuda
Admirable film.
Kaydan Christian
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
bkoganbing
Anne Baxter gets to do a Calamity Jane type role in A Ticket To Tomahawk where she is a hard riding fast shooting deputy to her father Will Wright. If Anne sang as well as acted, you'd swear she would have been poaching on territory established by Betty Hutton and later by Doris Day.But the music is left to traveling man Dan Dailey who gets innocently dragooned into an attempted killing of her father. Wright and Baxter dispatch the perpetrators involved easily. Dailey can't ride and shoot as well as Baxter, but he's loaded with charm and in one instance an interesting friend in high places.To complete the terms of a contract a Hooterville Cannonball type train must make a run to the frontier terminus of Tomahawk in Colorado. But their are a couple of miles of track missing for engineer Walter Brennan and fireman Arthur Hunnicutt to surmount. Never mind everybody pitches in and the results are ingenious and pretty funny.Of course the owner of the existing stagecoach line is doing what he can to prevent the railroad from completing its mission. And they've got a spy in the railroad crowd in the person of devilishly charming and deadly Rory Calhoun. He's making some moves on Baxter and arousing the concern and jealousy of many.Along for the trip are the troupe of entertainers that Connie Gilchrist heads. Look sharp and you'll see young Marilyn Monroe as one of the entertainers.A Ticket To Tomahawk is a pleasant and entertaining western with nice musical interludes and dead shot Anne Baxter who learns she can't get a man with a gun.
classicsoncall
This one starts with a fairly serious if not standard premise; if the new railroad train can make it to the town of Tomahawk, Colorado by the prescribed time, they'll win a subsidy that gives the rail line an advantage over the local stagecoach outfit. Unfortunately, the film devolves into virtual farce by the last half hour, as a reluctant engineer (Walter Brennan) is faced with the necessity of taking his train apart! in order to make it to the finish line. Which wound up being even more ludicrous than the team of horses it took to pull the engine and three additional railroad cars over forty miles of wilderness devoid of train tracks. If any of this was even remotely believable it would have made for an interesting story, but as it is, the picture is best viewed strictly for light entertainment.The surprising thing for me winds up being how this 1950 color picture previewed a couple of classic black and white TV Westerns down the road. In not too much of a stretch, Anne Baxter's character is turned into Annie Oakley for the 1954 series, the sharp shooting cowgirl who gained fame in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show of the late 1800's. And with Richard Sale writing and directing, there's no question that the Chief Yowlachie character was the basis for Yancy Derringer's sidekick and bodyguard Pahoo KaTeWah. The Chief used hand gestures to speak and portrayed the same stance and attitude as Pahoo, while using a tomahawk instead of a dagger. Need any more convincing? - his name was Pawnee, the same tribe that Pahoo came from.This was my first look at Dan Dailey in any kind of role, and he coyly plays off of the female Kit Dodge (Baxter) in an amusing manner, particularly in that 'bussing' routine. Lending support to the unconvincing dynamics of the story was his unique ability to participate in a perfectly choreographed song and dance routine with Madame Adelaide's girls, complete with his own props! You know, one of the Madame's dancing girls looked just like a young Marilyn Monroe! But geez, couldn't they get someone more authentic to play the role of Crooked Knife? So I check the credits, and that's none other than the original screen Tonto, Chief Thundercloud, not even attempting some phony Indian dialect. What a let down, and not even upset that the railroad hands wiped out half of his war party! At least the story had a neat twist finale when the Mayor of Tomahawk expanded the city limits to allow the train to achieve it's goal and 'win' against all the obstacles thrown it's way. But good grief, what was that farewell between Kit Dodge and Johnny Behind the Deuces all about when her five 'kids' joined to wave goodbye. Somewhere along the way Grandpa Dodge's birds and bees talk wound up being a mere afterthought.
Autlan
This film is more a stage show full of gypsies than a western full of cowboys, though the latter do get a chance to live up to their titles. Somehow, while breaking down the barriers of the frontier, the passengers aboard the first iron horse this far west, manage to bring all the jolly luxuries of civilisation with them. And though they're on a mission to secure a rail subsidy for a route thought so dangerous the first passenger would have to be hoodwinked, they aren't even remotely dampened. Along the way you'll be able to enjoy: a colourful music hall show, complete with dancing girls and a mechanised theatrical organ; a Chinese laundry service that always over starches your boldly coloured shirts; and the same tired card tricks you thought you left behind in the last town. The real focus however, is the romance between the tom-boy Sheriff's deputy, Kit, and the world-wise adventurer, Johnny Behind-the-Deuces, who's always playing his trick cards in futile attempts to impress. With her limited knowledge of the fairer sex, her heart flitters over these innocent advances and sticks to the conniving spanner-in-the-works instead.Trundling off the edge of the rails, it's customary that adventurers should have to swat away a few pests. Even with the frequent appearances of loud-mouthed schemers, we know that with little effort: Natives will be placated, saboteurs routed and bureaucrats negotiated into lifting their contractual trade barriers.(minor gimmicky spoiler)The ending is quite odd, and is summed up with a great line: maybe you wouldn't be so loose footed if I gave you a permanent limp. To drive this point home, Kit surprises Johnny by pulling five tricks out of her sleeve -- all daughters to boot -- and gets him a job on the rails to trick his insatiable wanderlust. The ending's a compromise on both fronts; probably just as many women are infuriated by her choice, to give up being a gun slinging deputy and take her rightful (said with a sneer) place at home, raising the kids. It leaves you with an unsettled feeling, that a year down the line, things won't be quite so pleasant in Tomahawk.
TcH-3
A fun movie. Marilyn Monore had a bit part as a dance-hall girl. Colorado mountain colors were beautiful. Need more movies like this.
