A stranger rides into town and says he is looking for a local Indian. Told he left town, the truth everyone has been hiding comes out including the stranger's true identity.
Tire Joe et... amen!, Ein Toter kommt zurück, Sediento de justicia, La venganza del muerto, Il ritorno di Joe Dakota, A Desforra do Estranho
USANR
USA
Spoilers and mention of sexual assault ahead.
Joe Dakota is a decidedly B-western, very much inspired by Bad Day at Black Rock, which came out two years earlier. I'm wary of overselling it, but it's an unusual film that confronts very serious issues in a remarkably thoughtful way, including sexual assault, lynching, and the importance of belief.
In a conversation with Bertrand Tavernier, who was a huge admirer of the film, director Richard Bartlett described himself as "a disciple of christ," something which is infused into the film's firm commitment to drawing a line between right and wrong, and forcing those who do wrong, even under the influence of others, to confront what they have done. Unlike the heavy-handed presence…
Joe Dakota sounds like a QB for a new NFL Franchise, but back in 1957 he was another of those freshly-pressed, immaculately dressed, strangers in Arborville, a small town in California. Jock Mahoney must have had something in his contract about his clothes, because he never looks like a real cowboy or that he's even been in the Old West, and for a guy who starred in a lot of these low-budget Westerns, he's letting the side down on the realism stakes. As an actor however, well he has some charm, and he needs it here in a film packed with better actors, some that would go on to be icons within the genre, and his welcome in Arborville isn't…
After striking at oil, a small community gets suspicious as a stranger rolls into town asking about the rich land’s previous resident. There is a charming routine with Claude Adkin and Lee Van Cleef as a pair of perpetually amused roughnecks, and the duo's ten minutes of screen time is a delight. Even though the subject matter involves murder, the costumes and set design reflect a softer west - closer in tone to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Minimal gunplay makes this more of a drama than your traditional western, but those that can keep up with its slower pace are treated to a wild fight in the middle of a gushing oil vein.
Of the films numerous twists, I…
Has a whiff of the young blood filmmakers who will be writing and directing (and acting) in 5-10 years. Independent, cheap, riding on the tails of hundreds of B drive-in films about teens, monsters, rock 'n roll, fast cars and compact crime thrillers. Charles Griffith-ish, Monte Hellman-ish, Charles Eastman-ish, John Sayles-ish, Rudy Wurlitzer-ish, Robert Towne-ish, Jack Nicholson-ish, along with good character actors, tight scripts and sensical editing.
Joe Dakota is more compelling than many, with a subtext of perversity hiding in those deep shadows. It seems to point to something new on the horizon, a generation of obsessed film-school geeks who would meet Roger Corman, watch and read the French and Italians, ape the American masters and become the Raging…
A subdued B-western that slipped between the cracks underneath comparable films like Bad Day at Black Rock (1955). The film follows Jack Mahoney as a mysterious stranger who rides into an isolated town in search of his friend Joe Dakota but instead uncovers a dark secret behind the citizens and their local oil well. Mahoney saunters around the townsfolk with a calm aloofness. Even as he’s still learning everything, his reserved exterior keeps the villains guessing exactly how much he does know every step of the way. As he eventually finds his worst suspicions confirmed, he’s neither surprised nor outwardly upset but almost expectant of the town’s violent secret. His curious response may be representative of a post-WW2 America, internalizing…
The beginning of an invisible bridge connecting Bad Day at Black Rock with Eastwood's High Plains Drifter. The wholesome and romanticized American B-western (no better symbolized than in the angelic Luana Patten) starts getting perverted by glimpses of darkness and avarice. Another early secondary appearance in which Lee Van Cleef leaves a strong impression (before the Eyetalians turned him into a bona fide star). And that climactic scene at the exploding oil well becomes almost something expressionistic - not to mention a dramatic inversion of the more comical first time we encounter said location in the movie.
There was something about Jock's tight, pressed polyester outfits that just didn't scream "period-piece cowpoke." He seemed more like a 1970's British band's lead singer with a sock down his crotch sporting a Stetson. It was B movie all the way, but the cast was very good B movie. I think of it as a progenitor to Spaghetti Westerns yet to come--something that gave the genre a new wrinkle with an old set of tropes.
Unfortunately, the screenplay's central protagonist was just too ethical, thoughtful and tough--Superman with a kerchief tied around his neck riding a stunning buckskin quarter-horse down the center of a very quiet town instead of flying in front of a sound stage blue screen--but before we canonize Jocko in his role as Joe Dakota, let's agree not to read Sally Field's scandal-tinged memoir about him, her step-dad. Nothing fucks up a decent Western like the scent of child molestation.
Damn good. Jock Mahoney vs Charles McGraw, two of my favorites, plus Lee Van Cleef and Claude Akins as a couple of goofy bullies. You can't go wrong.
🐎 Ciclo: 21 westerns de la Universal #20
Aquí hay ya una reseña muy completa de su condición de cuasi remake en clave western de Bad Day at Black Rock, de su entramado moral y de la forma tan audaz de tratar temas espinosos. Esto último con el mérito añadido de que Bartlett le imprime un tono de comedia ligera muy bien integrado. Sobre todo al inicio, a base de pequeñas variaciones sobre motivos habituales del western con un pequeño giro: el abrevadero que se convierte en una bañera con espuma, el cowboy que embadurnado en petróleo se convierte en una silueta negra andante... Esto es, la película se permite jugar con su propio universo antes de impulsar la trama…
Ok B western with the lead played by a guy named Jock Mahoney who I guess also played Tarzan.
It’s kind of a mystery movie as he is trying to find out who killed an old Indian named Joe Dakota.
Ends with a pretty great fight under a just struck oil derrick that is raining down oil.
Unusual western that starts out as an offbeat semi-comedy before getting serious and losing momentum. Jock Mahoney plays a mysterious stranger stirring up tensions amongst the residents of a small town who have thrown in their lot with wildcat oilman Charles McGraw. Ok, but a bit of a disappointment after its strong start.
i tried to watch this last night after day of the badman but fell asleep halfway through it and had to rewind and finish it this morning. this of course created some mild comprehension issues for me but i kind of super don’t give a fuck about it. i don’t give a god damn about these people or this town or their indian or their stupid fucking oil well. heaven spare me the women of fifties westerns. the ending kinda sorta smacked tho. visually unique at the very least.
i got all i wanted just from gauntleted van cleef and his fellow frat bro playing grab-ass for ten minutes. also just an exquisite amount of bicep occurring here. a serve, i fear, because this film absolutely doesn’t deserve it.
