The Black Dakotas
Tags: violence, murder, historical fiction

Plot synopsis:
Over footage from The Man from Colorado, opening titles inform the audience that during the Civil War the Confederate States of America sent agitators to the American West to incite Indian tribes against the Federal Government to draw troops away from battles in the East.
In 1864 a stagecoach containing two passengers is attacked by an armed band who kill the driver and stop the stage. One of the passengers, Zachary Paige offers the armed but polite band his money but is surprised when they inform him that they are not interested in his money but know his identity as a diplomatic emissary of President Abraham Lincoln sent to the Dakota Territory to negoitate a treaty with the Sioux than includes payment of $130,000 in gold to the tribe. The band take his credentials and Paige is further surprised when his travelling companion, Brock Marsh tells him he is a secret agent of the Confederacy who will impersonate Paige in his diplomacy but will use the opportunity to break the promises and lure the Sioux into attacking the white settlements. The leader of the band John Lawrence informs Paige he will be held until after Marsh completes his mission then released. As Lawrence goes away Marsh further explains his mission in a courteous manner, then shoots and kills Paige to protect the mission to the surprise of Lawrence and his band.
Arriving in the nearest city, Marsh as Paige informs the town authorities of his mission and tells them his stage was attacked by an armed Indian band. Marsh meets "Gimpy" Joe Woods who offers to take him to the Sioux, but Marsh chooses Daugherty to take him. Before their departure a posse bring in John Lawrence who they have identified as a Confederate agent and seek to lynch him. The lynch mob becomes an impromptu court run by Judge Baker who try Lawrence for treason on the spot and sentence him to hanging. Gimpy implores Marsh as Paige to use his Federal authority to make the case a Federal matter and delay Lawrence's fate to a trial by Federal authorities. Marsh refuses and is hanged in front of his daughter Ruth, who swears vengeance on the town and its population. Gimpy takes Marsh aside and reveals himself as Lawrence's second in command and asks him why he did not save Lawrence with Marsh replying that his mission is more important to the Confederacy.
Daugherty informs Marsh that though Chief War Cloud is a reasonable man his son Black Buffalo desires the extermination of all whites. Proving his point, the pair are attacked by a war party led by Black Buffalo where his brother is killed by a proficient pistol shot by Marsh. The pair split up where Daugherty escapes but Marsh is captured. When Marsh realises Black Buffalo is not interested in the peace treaty and will burn him alive the clever Marsh shames the Indians that they are cowards and will be punished in the afterlife for not giving a prisoner a fair and sporting chance for his life. Marsh is pitted against a brave, both armed with knives in a fight to the death that Marsh wins by throwing his knife into the brave's back gaining him time for a rescue by Daugherty's posse.
Upon return to the town where Marsh intends to buy drinks for the posse he is called into the office of Judge Baker and Marshal Collins who show him the body of the real Paige who was buried in a shallow grave dug up by coyotes. As he is dressed as an Easterner and not dressed for riding the only possible way he could have come to the area would be as a passenger on the stage that Marsh came in on. Marsh denies he had a travelling companion; as the Marshal and Judge examine the body they find a label in the dead man's jacket with the name of Zachary Paige. As Marsh draws his pistol the pair are shot in the back from an open window by Gimpy armed with a rifle. When the townspeople burst in and see Marsh's weapon unfired they believe Ruth Lawrence is responsible.
Gimpy and his band discover the hard way that in addition to starting an Indian uprising, Marsh wants the $130,000 in gold for himself alone.

Review: Murky Machinations Afoot..
Ray Nazarro directs from a screenplay written by Ray Buffum and DeVallon Scott.
It stars Gary Merrill, Wanda Hendrix, John Bromfield, Noah Beery Junior, Jay Silverheels, Fay Roope and Howard Wendell.
Music is by Mischa Bakaleinikoff and Technicolor cinematography is by Ellis W.
Carter."During the Civil War, Southern sympathisers made desperate efforts to aid the Confederacy by inciting Indian uprisings against defenceless towns along the Western frontier.
The objective was to force large withdrawals of Northern troops from the main battlefronts, leaving them more vulnerable to Southern attack.
This is the story of one such attempt that took place in Dakota territory in the year 1864."A colourful and brisk picture that finds the efficient Nazarro cramming as much Oater styled fun as he can into just over an hour of film.
The core basics of the story is full of intrigue, with undercover Confederate operatives moving amongst Union denizens as the Sioux argue amongst themselves about the viability of Abe Lincoln's offer of peace.
There's a bit of thought gone into the screenplay, even offering up one or two genuine surprises, while it's nice to find that the lead female role played by Hendrix gives us a feisty femme of substance as opposed to the many other dressage characterisations that so dominated other 50s Oaters.
California location landscapes a bonus, as is Beery Junior's commitment to his role, and Nazarro knows his way around a violent action scene.Fun enough while it's on without ever breaking out of its very basic "B" Western worth, The Black Dakotas is regardless above average and worth some viewing time by fans of such high spirited dusters.
So-so film with interesting cast.
This color western from the 1950's is most notable for a rare, non-Lone Ranger appearance by Clayton Moore (unbilled) and Jay Silverheels.
The story is engaging but most of the cast seems detached from their performances.Jay Silverheels stands out in a great role as the Native-American leader.
Gary Merrill does the best with the script given him.
the action scenes are well-staged and help move the average script along.The storyline is a familiar one, but the top-notch production value makes this one worth checking out This is not a great western, but there are worse ways to kill an hour of your free time..
In business for himself.
Gary Merrill stars in this low budget B western from Columbia in which the villain is top billed.
Merrill plays a southerner sent out on a mission to disrupt treaty negotiations with the Sioux in the Dakota territory while the Civil War is on.
There's a treaty on its way to the Sioux already signed on the Union end by President Abraham Lincoln and arriving later a shipment of gold for the Sioux valued at $100,000.00.
That's for not attacking the settlers out in Dakota.But Merrill is in business for himself.
He shoots the American envoy and takes his place.
He nearly gets away with what he's doing, but it's a question of one double cross too many.Merrill's villainy totally dominates the proceedings here.
John Bromfield is the northern boy and Wanda Hendrix the southern girl who help put a stop to things.
Some more western familiar faces are here.
A lot of the cast is killed most by Merrill, some on his behalf before things are set right.A little far fetched but entertaining nonetheless..
Manages a Few Surprises.
Complex B-western with shifting loyalties and a few surprises.
In the Dakotas, it's Civil War southerners conspiring against northerners for possession of big money, with the Sioux nation as a wild card.
Needless to say, you may need a scorecard to keep track.
Nonetheless, the screenplay is offbeat and generally unpredictable, always a plus for a western.
There's also some surprisingly graphic violence on-screen, without the usual cut-aways to spare viewer feelings.
Merrill's not a typical western lead, but then he's not playing a cowboy.
Instead, he's an agent from Washington, but of uncertain loyalty.
Watch for Noah Beery Jr. as Gimpy, bringing his usual down-home color to the role.
All in all, it's an offbeat little western with some pleasant LA area scenery, which is enough for most of us..
"I take it I'm dealing with traitors.".
When you come right down to it, there aren't a lot of good guys here.
The only one that comes to mind is moderate Mike Daugherty (John Bromfield) as the head of a stage line company.
Everyone else, and that includes fiancée Ruth Lawrence (Wanda Hendrix), had at least a little bit of larceny in their heart which leads to the undoing of more or less everybody in the picture.The premise is laid out in the opening screen narrative that states how Southern sympathizers aided the Confederacy during the Civil War by fomenting trouble in remote parts of the country to draw away Union forces from the main areas of battle.
Interestingly, there really aren't any direct confrontations between the Blue and the Gray in the story, what we have is the old double cross perpetrated by a Southern Reb (Gary Merrill) who we eventually learn has loyalty to neither side.
He's in it for himself.What's really troubling is when you drill down to the motives of the Southern sympathizers led by the short lived John Lawrence (Fay Roope).
He and his bunch were quite willing to deceive the nearby Sioux Indian tribe led by Chief War Cloud (John War Eagle, love that name) with a government peace treaty and a promise of a hundred thousand dollars in gold.
Intending all along to steal the gold for the Confederate cause, this betrayal would have led to the Sioux massacre of the entire nearby town.
That takes a special kind of villainy that isn't found in your usual old time Western fare.Nice to see some familiar faces in unfamiliar territory here.
Jay Silverheels steps off the set of 'The Lone Ranger' TV show to portray the war hawk of his tribe, Black Buffalo, while Clayton Moore makes a couple of spot appearances as henchman Stone, one of the Lawrence gang.
A puzzler is the role Noah Beery Jr. has, he's a Southern loyalist with that friendly good guy persona who takes out the town marshal (Robert F.
Simon) and judge (Howard Wendell) by bushwhacking them through the jail-house window.
As mentioned earlier, he would have been one of the guys who wouldn't have had a problem if the Sioux wiped out his fellow citizens as a means to an end.In the finale, level headed Mike Daugherty makes the save by taking down Brock Marsh (Merrill) following an outlaw shoot out with the stage carrying the gold shipment.
If you take note of that battle, you'd have to agree there's a fair degree of marksmanship on both sides as stage guards and bandits routinely pick each other off as they seek cover behind boulders and other protection.
It didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but it was getting time to wrap things up..
Plenty of Treachery in This One!.
"The Black Dakotas" is a tight action packed little 65 minutes of a western.
It takes place in 1864 during the American Civil War.An emissary from President Lincoln, Zachary Paige (Frank Wilcox) is being sent to negotiate a treaty with the Sioux Indians under Chief War Cloud (John War Eagle).
The Indians are to be paid $100K as part of the deal.
Brock Marsh (Gary Merrill) is travelling with him when their stage coach is stopped.
John Lawrence (Fay Roope) is a southern patriot who plans to substitute Marsh for Zachary and divert the gold shipment to the confederacy.
After Lawrence leaves, Marsh , who has his own plans, murders Paige.Later in town a posse headed by Marshal Collins (Robert F.
Simon) brings Lawrence in under arrest.
With the urging of loud mouthed townsman Grimes (Peter Whitney) a trial is quickly held and Lawrence sentenced to be hanged.
In spite of the intervention of stage line owner Mike Daugherty (John Bromfield) and Lawrence's fiery young daughter Ruth (Wanda Hendrix), Lawrence is hanged and Marsh puts his plan into action.
Gimpy Joe Woods (Noah Beery Jr.) reveals himself to Marsh as Lawrence's right hand man and agrees to help him get the gold for the south.Daugherty agrees to take Marsh (as Paige) to the Indian village but are attacked by renegade Black Buffalo (Jay Silverheels).
Marsh almost is burned at the stake before being rescued by Gimpy and a posse.
They go on to meet with the Chief to negotiate the treaty.Later, Sheriff Collins and Judge Baker(Howard Wendell) discover that Marsh is an impostor forcing Gimpy to reluctantly gun them down.
Grimes and the townspeople believe that Ruth did the shooting and set out to get her.
Then as the stage carrying the gold approaches......................................As it turns out, top billed Merrill is the chief villain who ruthlessly guns down several people over the course of the film.
Bromfield is the hero and Hendrix the object of his affections.
Lawrence's gang includes such recognizable faces as James Griffith, Richard Webb, Clayton Moore and Chris Alcaide.
Silent screen veterans Heinie Conklin and Hank Mann have small parts as townsmen.
There's also a couple of good scraps involving Bromfield with Whitney and Merrill.
I'm not sure but I think that this was the only feature film in which Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels appeared not as The Lone Ranger and Tonto.