The Legend of Tom Dooley

An early big screen effort for Landon(along with the unforgettable "I was a Teenage Werewolf") this is a pedestrian effort at best. Obviously put out to capitalize on the popularity of the Kingston Trio hit, in this incarnation, Dooley, who is being un-justly pursued by the law, accidentally kills his true love. In short-good song-bad movie!

Michael Landon is Tom Dooley, in charge of a Confederate cavalry unit who have just killed some Union soldiers.... only the war is over. This makes it murder, because no one believes him, except his girl, Jo Morrow, who marries him. But the law and the Union Army are still after him.

It's a decent little movie made to take advantage of the Kingston Trio's recording of the song, It was a popular North Carolina folk song by this point, but it was based on the murder of Laura Foster by Tom Dula; he, like Landon in this movie, was a Confederate veteran. The case attracted national attention as an early case of a crime of passion. Dula's lover, Anna Melton was implicated, but Dula, in a letter written just before his death, took sole responsibility.

It was Landon's fourth big screen appearance. He would make more over the years, but his career was consumed by television. He died in 1991, aged 54.

The popularity of The Kingston Trio's record of the song guaranteed The Legend Of Tom Dooley a built in audience. As a lad I remember going to see this film as the second feature of a double bill at the old Nostrand Theater in Brooklyn. I also remember for months during 1958 you could not avoid hearing the title song over the radio.

Before he was Little Joe Cartwright Michael Landon plays the title role in this film. Tom is a part of Mosby's raiders along with his two fellow soldiers Dee Pollock and Richard Rust and they do all kinds of guerrilla type action behind enemy lines like holding up the stagecoach you see in this film. The problem here is that after killing three Union soldiers acting as escort they find out the war is over. Worse than that Landon is from the area and the passengers recognize him.

Here's where common sense departs and the male member takes over. It would be the reasonable course of action to flee immediately, but Pollock is wounded and Landon wants to see the girl he left behind Jo Morrow. He was of Confederate persuasion in a Union area and they remember. And Morrow has Jack Hogan looking to move in on Landon's claim.

The Legend Of Tom Dooley is a cheaply made quickie by Columbia to take advantage of the song's popularity. Still I have to say that Landon and Morrow are a pair of winning young lovers who deliver sincere performances and that helps put the film over.

Not great, but a decent film and Michael Landon's fans should love it. He's even got the left handed draw that Little Joe Cartwright had.

The Legend of Tom Dooley is based on the old folk song, Tom Dooley, which itself was inspired by a real life case about Tom Dula, who was convicted of the murder of Laura Foster in 1866. The films story pretty much follows the song, performed by The Kingston Trio as the title song and as part of the soundtrack - cum - screenplay!

Photographed nicely out of Chatsworth and Thousand Oaks, California, by Gilbert Warrenton, it stars Michael Landon, Jo Morrow, Jack Hogan, Richard Rust and Dee Pollock. The narrative and various character actions hit all the right emotional beats. A series of events, where circumstance dictates, puts Dooley and his two pals on the run, which with the Civil War literally only just over, makes for a powder-keg like backdrop. Things are further compounded by the fact that Dooley wants to go to his home town and get Laura, to elope to Tennessee, only he has a major love rival, the bitter and vengeful Charlie Grayson.

There's nary a dull moment in the 80 minute runtime, no pointless exposition or scene fillers of no consequence. Action junkies are catered for, with the usual Western staples adhered - though the speeding up of one round of knuckles is more chucklesome than exciting, but a shoot-out (actually a hold-out is a more appropriate terminology) part of the play is splendidly executed. Cast are dandy, doing what is needed to make it all work on an emotional level, with the stand out being Rust as Country Boy. He's a sort of John Ireland/Kevin Bacon hybrid, a very good character actor who deserves to be better known, even if he thankfully carved out a good career in film and TV.

It's no hidden gem of the Western genre sphere, and it doesn't break any new ground, but it's admirably constructed and keeps those wagon wheels turning. 7/10

After a lot of tv works, Ted Post directed a first western (The Peacemaker) and then this "Legend of Tom Dooley", who looks like tv movie with same kind of light, casting and settings. But the hit song "Tom Dooley" by the Kingston Trio is here to serve the story (I have heard this song since the 60's when my father brought it back from Usa). The action is non stop, every scene is important. The main attraction of this movie is Richard Rust, he's so precise and threatening in all his main scenes (his arrest, his escape,...)(remember him as gus in "Underworld Usa"). The best scene of the movie is the violent fight between Tom Dooley (played by Michael Landon who can move fast, but with no charisma) and Grayson, in a Phil Karlson style.