I noticed one reviewer gave this very standard western a 10. Well, I am not sure I saw what they did in the film, though it is, in my opinion, an agreeable film albeit filled with cliches and one incredibly dumb character.The film begins with some baddies deliberately halting a train out west. You learn later that some jerk-face is trying to prevent the trains from encroaching on stagecoach territory...a rather silly premise if you really think about it. Soon after this, some baddies attack the nearby sheriff and his rootin', tootin', butt-kicking daughter, Kit (Anne Baxter), immediately KNOWS that Johnny (Dan Dailey) is responsible...though HOW she came to this determination made no sense at all. And, through much of the film, she mistrusts him though there is no apparent logic to this. Can Johnny help Kit get the train through to the end of the line? Tune in and see...or not.As you noticed in my summary, I hated the character, Kit. She often seemed irrational and goofy...which is a shame as otherwise it's a decent film and Dailey has one of his better performances. A watchable time-passer in color...but otherwise a not particularly special film.

Anne Baxter gets to do a Calamity Jane type role in A Ticket To Tomahawk where she is a hard riding fast shooting deputy to her father Will Wright. If Anne sang as well as acted, you'd swear she would have been poaching on territory established by Betty Hutton and later by Doris Day.But the music is left to traveling man Dan Dailey who gets innocently dragooned into an attempted killing of her father. Wright and Baxter dispatch the perpetrators involved easily. Dailey can't ride and shoot as well as Baxter, but he's loaded with charm and in one instance an interesting friend in high places.To complete the terms of a contract a Hooterville Cannonball type train must make a run to the frontier terminus of Tomahawk in Colorado. But their are a couple of miles of track missing for engineer Walter Brennan and fireman Arthur Hunnicutt to surmount. Never mind everybody pitches in and the results are ingenious and pretty funny.Of course the owner of the existing stagecoach line is doing what he can to prevent the railroad from completing its mission. And they've got a spy in the railroad crowd in the person of devilishly charming and deadly Rory Calhoun. He's making some moves on Baxter and arousing the concern and jealousy of many.Along for the trip are the troupe of entertainers that Connie Gilchrist heads. Look sharp and you'll see young Marilyn Monroe as one of the entertainers.A Ticket To Tomahawk is a pleasant and entertaining western with nice musical interludes and dead shot Anne Baxter who learns she can't get a man with a gun.

A feel good, moderately entertaining western farce, along the lines of 'Calamity Jane' and 'Anne Get your Gun', but mostly lacking the musical aspects of these better known films of the same early '50s era. Actually, Anne Baxter(Kit) had played a rather similar tomboy with an itchy trigger finger a couple of years earlier , in the conventional western "Yellow Sky". It does feature the versatile and likable Dan Daily, who did star in quite a few lesser known musical comedy romances, perhaps most notably, several with Betty Grable. Dan plays a small time traveling salesman and con artist who journeys to a small town(Epitah) in western Colorado by train, on its maiden trip, with Walter Brennan as the engineer. Anne stars as the cute seemingly naive Calamity Jane-like granddaughter(Kit Dodge) of the town sheriff, who takes an immediate dislike toward Dan's character. Marilyn Monroe, in one of her early bit parts, is one of the show girls in a traveling troop, that happens to land in Epitah about the same time as Dan.One of those rare westerns actually shot, mostly, in the region it is scripted to be in(in the mountainous region near Durango, making use of the Denver and Rio Grande railway). The main plot involves the mostly botched attempts of the local stage line owner to sabotage the coming train line. The other significant aspect of the plot is the initial blatant hostility of Kit toward Dan's character, which gradually changes to an unlikely infatuation. True, Dan seems rootless and superficial, but he has seen much of the world, in contrast to Kit's lack of experience in the world beyond her little corner of Colorado. Included is a very strange parade-like train trip from Epitah to Tomahawk(both bogus town names for CO) with no rails for the first portion of the trip, the train being pulled by a team of horses, and the showgirls following in a stagecoach! Later, a war party of Arapahoes attack, stirred to action by the stage line owner. The Chinese train passenger plays a surprise role in finally scaring off the war party. Also, it's discovered that the chief used to be in a Wild West show with Dan! Thus, the remaining Arapahoes switch sides and help fight the would-be train saboteurs. There follows a stolen train and fight to reclaim the train. Dan is involved in the heroics, but the fleeing stage line owner appropriately is done in by a tomahawk. Dan and Kit have to decide whether they want to make their whirlwind association permanent. Be prepared for a 'surprise' flip flop. Evidently, Kit made good on her threat to give Dan a permanent limp to discourage his resumption of a wanderlust lifestyle!

A railroad owner and a frontier salesman who are anxious to arrive, by rail, at the town of Tomahawk are escorted by the deputized granddaughter of the recently wounded town marshal and her chaperon, to see that the railroad reaches its destination by the prescribed time or the contract is forfeited to the Stage Line, whose owner will do anything to stop them.The only problems are: Kit Dodge Jr.(Anne Baxter) believes that "Johnny Behind the Deuces" (Dan Dailey) was involved with her Grampa's shooting and besides he's a "drummer" and everyone knows that tall, handsome and suave salesmen are not to be trusted. Johnny, however, is the only "paying" passenger on the train and she must protect him although her trigger finger is prepared for his first wrong move. Not being aware of her feminine side holds some hilarious moments as Grampa makes his best tactful effort (words not to be missed ) at a quick version of "the birds and the bees". While she doesn't quite understand, her chaperon, Pawnee (Chief Yowlachie), does and a large Indian with his own tomahawk is the perfect deterrent.This train ride should be an easy ride for about 40 miles, but the tracks run out a few miles out of town, so they must carry the engine, cars and passenger over a mountain and fight off the stage line's efforts to stop. Soon they meet up with the tracks that run to Tomahawk. Along for the ride is a group of entertainers including Connie Gilchrist and a young Marilyn Monroe. Also in the cast are Walter Brennan as the train's engineer and Rory Calhoun.This is a fun movie for anyone with a ticket to Tomahawk!