It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The Bland and Take No Chances Decade of the 1950's Announced itself with Things like this. It was Things like this that Inspired Anthony Mann and Budd Boetticher to Reconsider the Western. This Movie is an Elite Effeminate Opposite of the Down and Dirty Wild West with its Dandy Costumes and Villains out of Central "Cliched" Casting from all of those B-Westerns.Just because it has an A-List Production and Gary Cooper in the Lead, don't expect anything Exceptional. In Fact, this is Unexceptional in just about every way. OK, there's the Color, Let's Give it that. But the Script is pure Corn Fritters, with Dialog that can Raise Howls, and Cowpoke Behavior Only Overlooked by the Kiddies.How about the Scene with the Cat? Or Perhaps, the "Exciting", Final Shootout that takes Place, wait for it, in a Living Room. In said Parlor, "Coop" carries on One of those Finale Contrived Conversations as He Belittles the Villain and Counts Down the Number of Bullets."Whadda ya want me to do, count three like in the Movies?"- Canino from "The Big Sleep" (1947).Silly, but Entertaining bit of Nonsense, but if You Like Your Westerns with some True Grit, Look Elsewhere.

Stylized Hollywood Westerns, full of familiar conventions, seem to have eternal life and this is an avatar. Everything in it seems to have been scraped out of the back of a drawer from 1939, a larger budget applied, and this production its issue.Gary Cooper has played this sort of role dozens of times -- the displaced Southerner, fast on the draw and firm with honor, though kinda easy going whenever possible. He plays Blayde Hollister who travels to Texas looking for the gang who destroyed his cotton plantation. He wears a buckskin-fringed shirt and packs two ivory-handled six shooters. He speaks with a countrified accent -- "A feller could get hurt doin' this." (Cf., "Sergeant York.") The gang is led by sneering Raymond Massey, who buys and sells land, usually by underhanded means whenever possible. The gang includes Steve Cochran, who cannot play a Westerner though he's very good at scum bags in general. The requisite woman is Ruth Roman, daughter of the Mexican plantation owner, who looks and speaks about as Mexican as a Boston brown betty.I don't think I'll bother too much with the plot. No doubt someone has gone into it in some detail and it's not worth much more mention. As in any 1939 Western, it's labyrinthine. Everyone except Cooper and his friends are underhanded and there are multiple double crosses and switched identities and hidden secrets.Everything is retro. The plot, the dialog, the wardrobe, even the music. The score is by Warner's stalwart Max Steiner. He's the guy that scored "King Kong." That was 1932. This movie was released in 1950.Cooper's name, by the way -- "Blayde Hollister" -- prompted me to look through the records of the RACA -- the Real American Cowboy Associaton -- to see if that name cropped up in their archives, which date from the beginning of time to February 4th, 1911, when the last Real Cowboy passed away due to an unfortunate encounter with a deranged peccary. There has never been a Real Cowboy with the name Blayde. Hollister, yes, but not Blayde. As a matter of fact, there is no record of any Real Cowboy named Wade, Luke, Cole, or Matt either. The most popular names for genuine cowboys, in descending order of frequency, were Clarence, Mortimer, Noble, Nebukadnezzar, Plautus, Pinchbeck, and Hortense.If this movie had been released in 1939, it would have been routine. In 1950, it is a calamitous monument in the history of human recycling.

The only reason I watched this film was because of Gary Cooper. While maybe not the nicest person in the world in real life, he was a wonderful actor and I'd watch even one of his weaker films just to see him act. And, as usual, he was very good (though a bit old to win the girl at the end of the film).The problem, then, is that despite all of Cooper's talent, the film is just a very ordinary and run-of-the-mill cowboy film. I could EASILY have imagined almost any other actor being able to do Cooper's role and the film would STILL have been mediocre. It's because so many elements of the plot just seem too familiar and too clichéd.About the only thing that stood out was the interesting character played by Leif Erickson---who oddly received such low billing in the film even though he was one of the main characters! The idea of an Eastern "dude" coming West to impress his girl was kind of funny and he did provide a few cute moments and an interesting sidekick, of sorts, for Cooper.Aside from that, the film is imminently skipable. It's a film that only Cooper addicts or B-quality Western addicts should watch--there are frankly too many better films out there worth your time.

A throwback to the "old fashioned" Westerns of the 30s and 40s (such as DODGE CITY), DALLAS has a number of things going for it: Gary Cooper at his coolest, blazing Technicolor photography by Ernest Haller (GONE WITH THE WIND) and a pulse-pounding Max Steiner (KING KONG, GWTW, DODGE CITY et al.) score. In addition, there is a masquerade, mistaken identity, a faked death and more hair-breath escapes than a Republic serial. As always, Cooper defines what it is to be a man under pressure. Forget the 50s angst Western... this is pure entertainment!