User Reviews

A decent , action-packed Western set in California in which the events crackle with intrigue , fights , and suspense . In the sparsely populated town of Arborville, that seems to be hiding a guilty secret , rides a lone stranger who arrives in the little location . His name is Joe Dakota (Jock Mahoney) and he's looking for an old friend whom he calls The Old Indian and is also called Dakota Joe (Francis McDonald). His attempts to do so will confront him against the entire little town including Cal Moore (Charles McGraw) who claims to have purchased the land , Myrna Weaver (Barbara Lawrence) , Aaron Grant (Claude Akins) , his brother Adam Grant (Lee Van Cleef) , Marcus Vizzin (Anthony Caruso) , Frank Weaver (Paul Birch) , among others .The townsfolk claim the Old Indian had packed up and left town but Joe doubts it . He suffers a strong hostility and hatred by the inhabitants and neighbours. When Joe starts asking questions about his old friend, the men either clam up or state that the old Indian has sold his land and left town. Heading for the old man's farm Joe notices a bunch of men working on a new oil rig dug right on The Old Indian's property . Then Dakota uncovering up a terrible secret and being threatened ; dangerous attempts will be made by the hostile villagers ; as he will be mercilessly chased . Joe decides to stick around and investigate further, despite protests from the townsfolk who want to see him far from town . Joe makes one new friend, Miss Jody Weaver (Luana Patten) , who falls for him , who is willing to shed some light on The Old Indian's fate .WHY did This Town Without a Conscience...Fear This Man Without a Name? What evil did they try to hide from him?The West's most startling story ! In this town without a conscience ... Revenge walked the streets with a stranger !

This interesting movie contains enjoyable performances from all concerned , suspense , tension , thrills , exciting situations and some action . Moving and attractive Western with a simple , standard story with a certain intrigue that engages the viewer until the last scene when there takes place the denouement by a final fighting into an oil well . However , too much conversation and too little action , at times , bogs down this Western , although fights , shootouts and suspense are nice . And at the ending the crude truth everyone has been hiding comes out including the stranger's true identity. This is a suspenseful as well as intriguing film in which Jock Mahoney plays decently a stranger rides into town looking for a local Indian and he suffers threats , intimidation , violence by the nasty neighbours . Not very-known actor Jock Mahoney was an acceptable player who had a passable career . When World War II broke out, he enlisted as a Marine fighter pilot and instructor. In Hollywood, he was a noted stunt man, doubling for Errol Flynn, John Wayne, and Gregory Peck. Gene Autry signed him for the lead in his 78-episode The Range Rider (1951) TV series. He tested to replace Johnny Weissmuller, as Tarzan but lost out to Lex Barker. In 1960, he played the heavy in Gordon Scott's Tarzan the magnificent (1960), and his part there led Sy Weintraub to hire him as Scott's replacement. In his two Tarzan movies, he did all his own stunts. As he played Tarzan goes to India and Tarzan's three challenges Tarzan (1963), he continued working in spite of dysentery, dengue fever and pneumonia. By this time, Weintraub was looking for a younger Tarzan, envisioning a future TV series. By mutual agreement, his contract with Mahoney was dissolved. After a couple of years regaining his strength and weight, Jock returned to making action films .There are excellent acting from some Hollywood's best support players , including prestigious secondaries such as : Charles McGraw , Barbara Lawrence , Claude Akins , Lee Van Cleef , Anthony Caruso , Gregg Barton , Paul Birch and uncredited Francis McDonald as Joe Dakota

It contains colorful cinematography in Universal International Picture style by cameraman George Robinson . And functional and thrilling musical score by uncredited and Universal regular composers : Henry Mancini , Hans J. Salter , Herman Stein . The motion picture was made in low budget and professionally directed by Richard Barlett . He was a good craftsman and Western expertise , directing films as Two-Gun Lady , The Lonesome Trail , The Silver Star , Money, Women and Guns , some of them starred by Jock Mahoney .From late 50s and 60s he went on directing episodes of famous TV series as Laredo , Riverboat , Calibre 44 , Shotgun Slade , Bonanza , Markham , The Tall Man , Cimarron City and Wagon Train . Rating : 6/10 . Well worth watching .

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.

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 stranger rides into town. It's Ron Ely, and he's looking for an Indian. Pretty shopgirl Luana Patten sends him out to the oil well, where they figure he's a wildcatter, and they drench him in crude. Ely doesn't leave, despite Charles McGraw, Cllaude Akins, Lee Van Cleef and others not wanting him there.

Well, you'd hardly have this Universal Shaky A western if he left, would you? It's a darker and more complex story than you'd get in one of the old B westerns; oh, some baddie might have lynched the land owner for the mineral rights, and forged his name to a transfer, but he'd hardly be sharing the well with the entire town. He'd have enough gelt to do it on his own, or would be rustling cattle or robbing stage coaches for the capital. And it wouldn't have been an Indian; however Universal had been making westerns sympathetic to Amerindians since Broken Arrow.

Economics, bigotry, and Eastmancolor aside, it's a decent B western. Still, a good way to spend an hour or two.

I met Anthony Joachim coming out of a drainage tunnel while running along PCH in my post college days while training at UCLA with coach Tellez in the mid 70s. My buddy Wyatt and I took him home.

That night we went to a party his housemates invited us to with many actors from the thee uh Tuhr. They made sure we pronounced it correctly. Such nice folks to invite two Texans to tye oarty. I remembered his name after these forty years plus and always wondered if I'd see him in a movie. Today I watched the one I'd recorded last night. Joe Dakota. I was 6 years old when this movie was made. JM was also a great actor that missed out on being he big guy he fouldve been.

I saw this Western movie on afternoon TV when I was a child. I remember it as suspenseful, yet sweet and touching. There's the mystery: who is this Stranger who rides into town, what does he want, and what has happened to the old Indian scout named "Joe Dakota"? What are the townspeople hiding? The sweet and touching ending: the Stranger exposes the injustice that has been done, which leads the townspeople into repentance.

I really felt like I should have gone to sleep instead of watching this lackluster 'western', the other reviews here are heaping too much praise, giving it a 10 in two cases!!?? (one mixes Jock for Ron Ely!) Jock walks through this flick like his boots are three sizes too small, which makes him look like Walter Brennen in the Real McCoys... 'dag nabit pepita'!

It's actually worth seeing for this reason!

And the bar fight's good....

I saw this movie when I was younger and never forgot the story, but I couldn't recall the title. I'm so glad to find it after a long search. A man called Joe Dakota arrives in a small western town in California looking for his friend, an old Native American who owns a farm nearby. Why is there such secrecy around the old man's disappearance? Nobody in town wants to talk about it. The mystery slowly unfolds as Joe Dakota launches an investigation. One scene that was unforgettable to me was the bathing scene with the sound of meadowlark birds singing in the background. Great story!

JOE DAKOTA, directed by Richard Bartlett in 1957, is one of the best B Westerns I remember watching. Jock Mahoney, Charles McGraw (playing villain against type), Luana Patten, Claude Akins and Lee Van Cleef were all B picture names in 1957. Van Cleef went on to earn some considerable visibility with leading roles in Spaghetti Westerns in the late 60s.

Despite their modest status, all act rather competently in a solid and credible Western done at a point when racism was beginning to come into question in US society and the world at large. As another crit points out, it bears some similarities with the storyline of BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK, done two years earlier.

In spite of some similarities, the script is very good in that it slowly draws out its real aim. Jock Mahoney does particularly well as the calm stranger with "the gall" to stand up to an entire town to try to learn about the Indian who was hanged for reportedly trying to rape a white girl.

His initial visit to the oil rig, Akins and van Cleef dropping him in the oil pool, and his bath in the town's watering hole are sequences of the highest quality, far above and beyond what one would expect from a B pic.

JOE DAKOTA keeps its slow, deliberate pace throughout, until the final showdown, but it is arresting throughout thanks to credible dialogue.

I had never heard of it, and accidentally found it on Youtube. As an avid Western watcher, I just had to watch this hitherto unknown flick, and I am glad I did.

I recommend it, too!

I stumbled upon this movie one day on Encore Westerns, our favorite channel and it is very well done! Joe Dakota was well written and played out very nicely. It was sweet and charming along with great character development and extremely witty. Unlike some other classic westerns that are "to cute" and wrap up quickly to a very predictable end, this movie was fluid and swept you right along a smooth ride! A must see for any true classic western lover! Jock Mahoney was great! I will truly look out for more of his work in the future! His role was thought out and kept you thinking and wondering up until that "uh huh!" moment. I can only say I'm disappointed it took me this long to see it!

Shame Mahony was not a bigger star. He made most of his movies by being a uncredited stunt man which is a waste. The whistle in this is catching but could not find who the Whistler was. Enjoyable movie without a lot of violence or suspense. Turns out the whole town is keeping a secret about the location of the old Indian. Apparently one man was able to fool and fleece the others.

This was a great movie with great actors. Jock was so cool till he got to the bottom of finding out who killed the Indian and why. Our law system today needs to be as serious as he was, and lots of people are getting by with crimes they have committed..Lanai was a great actress too..

This is a pretty nice little western though inspired - it is so obvious - by John Sturge's BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK. Yes, it is well done, full of charm and charisma, helped by a Jock Mahoney as convincing as ever. There is nothing spectacular, as in any Richard Bartlett's movie, nearly an oater, so for once I advise you to forget cavalry, Indians on warpath, outlaws, and focus on this cute story of a man in search of his pal. It is not a harsh drama, on the contrary, light hearted movie, perfect for sunday matinees at home or in your favourite theater. Of course, Sturges' film was far far better in terms of directing and overall making matters, and the actors different too: Spence Tracy, Bob Ryan, Ernest Borgnine.... But is was not a grade B picture either.