Face au châtiment

The big switch in THE DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA is that GEORGE MACREADY is on the side of the law as a U.S. Marshall, while RANDOLPH SCOTT strays far from the heroic cowboy image he played in so many previous westerns.

He's a hunted man, a fugitive wanted for murder during the era of the Dalton Brothers--and rightly concerned about his survival. As Bill Doolin, he forms his own gang of robbers. On the lam from some pursuers, he enters a church during service and meets a family of church-goers, falling in love with the deacon's daughter. Soon he has a farm, is married to the young lady (VIRGINIA HOUSTON) and wants to go straight and put the past behind him. That is, until his old friends from the Doolin gang show up in town and have other ideas.

When his wife learns his real identity, he rides off to rejoin the gang after a talk with her deacon father (GRIFF BARNETT). The western takes a darker turn, the action gets grittier, and the gang members--including NOAH BEERY, JR., JOHN IRELAND and JOCK MAHONEY--have a little more to do, including some energetic fight scenes well directed by Gordon Douglas.

With a good background score by George Duning, it's a better than average western with Scott in fine form as the ambiguous anti-hero.