Based on real-life characters and set in 19th-century Oklahoma, regarding a couple of Eastern teen girls, Cattle Annie (Amanda Plummer) and Little Britches (Diane Lane) , join a band of friendly bandits , remnants of the Doolin (led by Burt Lancaster)-Dalton (led by Scott Glenn) band , after the Dalton Gang was partially wiped out in Coffeyville , Kansas . However , the two young girls inspire them to pull a few more assaults and heists. They find a shadow of a former gang and although disappointed , still attempt to help them escape from a stubborn sheriff Bill Tilghman (Rod Steiger) .They told the Doolin-Dalton Gang where to go. Then...they went with them.
Agreeable and atmospheric twilight western based on Robert Ward's book , starred by a couple of likable adolescents who take to the outlaw life like ducks to water . Slightly derivative in its playing with brooding themes , concerning the passage of ages with the need to withdraw or retirement , shrinking frontiers and changing times . It's a serious , mature Hollywood Western with winning cast and particular character studio about two aging people , both a gunslinger (Burt Lancaster) and a sheriff (Rod Steiger) looking for peace and quiet , while two troublemaker teenagers running , prowling and stalking here and there . In the film appears famous outlaws as Bill Doolin : Burt Lancaster , Bill Dalton : Scott Glenn , Marshal Tilghman : Rod Steiger and even the attractive teens Cattle Annie and Little Britches are based on real characters . There're also some final biographical remarks , such as : The gang scattered and went in different directions , Cattle Annie and Little Britches served two years in a reformatory in Massachusetts , Annie grew and led a rich full life in Kansas City , Jenny went to New York and worked as a domestic and a social worker . Bill Tilghman went to Hollywood and became a movie director . Bill Doolin married a minister's daughter and was killed on his way home from church. Great Burt Lancaster gives a vigorous acting as well as the veteran Rod Steiger. But the real protagonists are the newcomer actresses Amanda Plummer in her film debut and Diane Lane as the two brave teenagers , both of whom are pretty well and subsequently to be continued a long career . Alongside a fine plethora of secondaries with abundant familar faces , such as : William Russ , John Savage , Buck Taylor , Michael Conrad , Jerry Gatlin , Steven Ford , Mike Moroff , John Quade , Perry Lang, among others.
It displays a colorful , evocative cinematography by cameraman Larry Pizer ; shot on location in Durango, Mexico . Plagued by one of those habitual banjo soundtracks that should have been abandoned back in the days of Butch Cassidy and Bonnie and Clyde . Adequate production design and art direction with appropriate sets from the little town and spectacular rocky and desert outdoors . This is an enjoyable little Western which was thrown away by its distributor Universal Pictures , and being regular but professionally directed by Lamont Johnson (The last american hero , One on One , Lipstick , Visit to a Chief's Son, You'll Like My Mother , A Gunfight , Wallemberg and Mackenzie Break at his best) . If you're a Western fan you can't go far wrong with this . A time passer whose rating results to be 6/10 . An acceptable and passable though uninspired - at times- Western.
