Dakota Incident

All aboard the intriguing stage to Laramie.

An assorted group of people are waiting in Christian Flats for the stage to take them to Laramie. Once the empty stage arrives it's evident that it has been the victim of a Cheyenne attack, but out of need and bravery, the hardy souls decide to risk the journey regardless...

Very much a minor Western in the grand scheme of the 1950s offerings, Dakota Incident makes up for what it lacks in quality, by being an oddly structured film of intrigue. The actual "incident" of the film isn't until about the half way point, because prior to the inevitable Cheyenne attack, there is no shortage of character forming. In fact this might be the longest prologue in Western history! Basically crooked John Ba...

The billing for this film is slightly misleading. Certainly it is about a group of stagecoach passengers trapped in a dried out river valley by some angry natives, but that is only after what seems like an age of preamble in the nearby town where scores are settled and the feisty entertainer "Amy" (Linda Darnell) tries to buy, beg or blag her way to Laramie. Ward Bond seems to quite enjoy his role as the rather optimistic "Sen. Blakely" and Regis Toomey also enters into the spirit as her "Minstrel" but the leading men - Dale Robertson ("Banner") and John Lund ("Carter") are little more than rough round the edges eye candy delivering what is, admittedly, a pretty banal script. Lewis Foster does manage to redeem it in the last twenty minutes ...