Fictionalized account of Bill Doolin, member of the Dalton Gang and founder of the Wild Bunch. The movie concerns itself little with history. Instead, it tells a pretty simple "outlaw trying to leave his past behind" story. The Bill Doolin of this movie is a relatively good guy who only kills in a fair fight. Scott's fine in the role. He could play this in his sleep. Nice supporting cast full of familiar faces like John Ireland, Robert Barrat, George Macready, and Noah Beery, Jr. Macready also narrates. Virginia Huston is Scott's love interest. Gorgeous Dona Drake and Louise Allbritton have small parts. It's not a good history lesson but it's a watchable western. Nothing special but some action, humor, and romance. A nice way to pass time on a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Good Scott western, with lots of action, interesting characters, and a solid script. Doolin (Scott) may be a bankrobber but he's also capable of noble deeds. In short, he's a good-bad guy of the sort the iron-jawed Scott could play to perfection. Here he leads a gang of outlaws whose members are known to us by name. Funny thing about the movies. Even bad guys can be humanized enough so that we care about them. That happens more or less with these gang members. And get a load of the familiar Alabama Hills that Scott and Buddy Boetticher explored in their great Ranown series of oaters. Director Douglas does some effective staging with the Neolithic slabs, worthy of Boetticher. There're some other good touches by Douglas. I especially like the little boy who stares Scott down in church. I don't think I've seen anything quite like it. Surprisingly, veteran screen baddie George Macready plays a federal marshal, which took some getting used to. And what a sweetheart Virginia Huston is. Who wouldn't give up a life of crime for her. It's that element, I think, that lends the ending such poignancy. All in all, it's a well done 90-minutes by Columbia, somewhere between an A-production and a B. I'm just sorry Scott never got the recognition as a western star that he deserved.

"The Doolins of Oklahoma" begins with the faked Dalton Gang being blown apart during one of their many bank robberies. However, one member of the gang, Bill Doolin (Randolph Scott) escapes and eventually forms his own gang. They, too, terrorize the countryside--robbing banks throughout the territory. However, and this REALLY annoyed me, the film tried to portray the gang as a bunch of NICE crooks--and Doolin was the nicest of them! This is a very bad cliché and making heroes out of scum is something Hollywood did a lot in the so-called 'good old days'. I don't get it--and it seriously damaged my enjoyment of the film. It's a shame, as Scott, as usual, was quite good in the lead and the movie was reasonably entertaining and well made. But, because it starts off with a ridiculous premise and makes it hard to care about the characters, it's definitely one of the weakest Randolph Scott films you can see. Not terrible...just not very good.

In one of the few times in Randolph Scott's career he played a real character, he's notorious outlaw Bill Doolin who was active in the Oklahoma Territory in the Gay Nineties until the law took its course.Scott had previously played Wyatt Earp in Frontier Marshal and Bat Masterson in Trail Street and was Sam Starr in Belle Starr. But here he plays real life outlaw protagonist Bill Doolin in his own starring film and not in support of Gene Tierney in Belle Starr or a legendary good guy as in the first two. But after watching The Doolins of Oklahoma you'd think Bill Doolin was forced into a life of crime.No doubt Bill Doolin (1858-1896) may have been forced economically to turn outlaw, but he certainly did take to the trade, much like his earlier peer Jesse James. The film does touch upon parts of the Doolin legend, such as him being in on the Dalton gang raid in Coffeyville because he was holding the horses. You can't reduce Randolph Scott to holding horses so in this film his horse pulled up lame. His band certainly had some colorful names and in fact those were the names of his men. I liked John Ireland and Noah Beery, Jr. best of that bunch. George MacReady who showed up in many a Scott western, here is a U.S. Marshal for a change and ostensibly a good guy for once.It's not history, but it's a good Randolph Scott western that forgets the facts and films the legend.