The Dalton Girls (1957)

The Dalton girls take up where the guys left off, pulling stage holdups, robbing a bank and generally wreaking mayhem.

Holly (Merry Anders) and Rose (Lisa Davis) are the hard-nosed twosome who stayed in the West while sending sisters Columbine (Penny Edwards) and Marigold (Sue George) to school in the East.

Now they’ve reunited, and manage to stay one step ahead of the law, at least for a while. Holly’s the mastermind, holding the group together. Rose is the killer, never anxious to leave a witness alive. Truth be told, Columbine and Marigold would like to settle down.

That’s especially true for Columbine after she meets a gambler by the name of “Illinois” Grey. He’s a victim of the Dalton girls thievery twice. The second time, Rose guns down a bank manager who owed “Illinois” a $6,000 gambling debt. She tries to gun down “Illinois,” too, but he survives the wound.

Now he has two reasons to track down the Dalton girls. He wants to see Columbine again. And he wants his $6,000.

Merry Anders as Holly Dalton, forced into a life of crime after killing an undertaker who assaulted her in The Dalton Girls (1957)

Lisa Davis as Rose Dalton, on her way to fool a bank owner in The Dalton Girls (1957)

Review:

The gimmick of women outlaws has one expecting little from this film, but it’s surprisingly effective — a good example of what a little imagination can do with a small budget Western.

In one of the film’s lighter moments, “Illinois” meets Columbine in the mining town of Dry Creek, not knowing she and her sisters are in the middle of a bank holdup. He offers to help her with the upcoming job interview she says she has. When he insists on hanging around, she guides him into the bank where a job interview is the last thing she’s looking for.

Another highlight is Rose singing “A Gun is My One True Love” while the gals are gathered around a campfire.

Penny Edwards as Columbine Dalton, meeting the man she’s falling for in The Dalton Girls (1957)

Sue George as Marigold Dalton, pleading with her sisters to stop arguing with one another in The Dalton Girls (1957)

Directed by:
Reginald Le Borg

Cast:
Merry Anders … Holly Dalton
Lisa Davis … Rose Dalton
Penny Edwards … Columbine Dalton
Sue George … Marigold Dalton
John Russell … “Illinois” Grey
Ed Hinton … Detective Hiram Parsh
Glenn Dixon … Mr. Slidell
Johnny Western … Joe
Malcolm Atterbury … Mr. Sewell
Douglas Henderson … Bank cashier
Kevin Enright … The bartender
Al Wyatt Sr. … Sheriff St. Ives

Runtime: 71 min.

John Russell as ‘Illinois’ Gray, the gambler who keeps getting tangled up with the female bandits in The Dalton Girls (1957)

Ed Hinton as Detective Hiram Parsh, a man on the trail of the female bandits in The Dalton Girls (1957)

Memorable lines:

Columbine to Rose: “You’re crazy. You kill like other women love.”

“Illinois” Grey to Sewell, the bank manager: “You’re not only a thief and a liar, Sewell, you’re a hypocrite. That’s about the one type of critter I can’t abide.”

Rose, when “Illinois” Grey shows up in the saloon she’s working in, after she shot him during a bank holdup: “I never believed in miracles, Holly. But this sure shakes my lack of faith.”

Rose, singing the title tune: “You can’t trust a man, cause a man will lie; But a gun stands by you, til the day that you die.”

Merry Anders as Holly Dalton and Lisa Davis as Rose Dalton, trying to make Columbine (Penny Edwards) understand the consequences of being named Dalton in The Dalton Girls (1957)

Malcolm Atterbury as Mr. Sewell, the bank owner who falls prey to the female bandits in The Dalton Girls (1957)

Johnny Western as Joe with Marigold (Sue George), his girlfriend … until he learns her last name in The Dalton Girls (1957)

Lisa Davis as Rose Dalton, singing about her her gun is her one true love in The Dalton Girls (1957)

Sue George as Marigold Dalton, being consoled by sister Holly (Merry Anders) in The Dalton Girls (1957)

Merry Anders as Holly Dalton, Penny Edwards as Columbine Dalton and Lisa Davis as Rose Dalton in The Dalton Girls (1957)