The Legend of Tom Dooley

I'm surprised how many of the reviews here trash this movie...

Okay, first the bad stuff. Maybe there is some historical inaccuracy to the guns people were using in the movie for that era, and I'll say I agree that the 'Tom Dooley' song doesn't really fit with the plot other than the character's name and that he might be hanged. For all I know the army uniforms didn't have the right number of buttons. For a general entertainment film such as this, sometimes you have to grin and bear the small flubs to enjoy the rest of the film, and that's true here.

But now let's get to the good stuff and it's considerable. The story begins when Tom Dooley (Michael Landon) and Country Boy (Richard Rust) kill someone in the line of following their orders as soldiers. Unfortunately the war has ended but they weren't told - and nobody is going to cut them any slack. While they thought they were just doing their jobs, now they are called murderers and try desperately to get out of this mess alive.

This movie has a few things that really hooked me. First off, the main characters played by Landon and Rust were likable types you could care about what happens to. If you don't care about the characters, then what interest is the story? But here, that's no problem - you can't help wanting to see them come out okay. And they got into this mess by accident, through no fault of their own, and every other person they encounter calls them 'murderers' and says they will hang for their crime. Here, the 'bad' guys are really the good guys, and the 'good' townspeople and sheriff etc. are the bad ones. I found Rust's character of Country Boy to be better-played than Landon's Tom Dooley, but both were quite good.

Part of the story is that Landon and Rust might get away, but Landon insists on going back to get his girl so she can come with them. That complicates things tremendously and contributes to the final outcome.

This movie moves along at a good pace and stays interesting from the beginning to the end. It has engaging characters caught in a tough situation. No, you can't count on it for historical accuracy, and the occasional playing of the Tom Dooley song in the background is not the best idea, but really - it is much better of a movie than many I've seen which got good ratings. I usually prefer Westerns by far to Civil War movies, but this one I like.

I have just seen this film on TV last night, it is the first time I have seen it, and although not a classic, it does have a certain amount of charm and given that it was a cheaply made 'B' movie I thought it was well acted and well directed. It certainly held my attention and kept me entertained for the 90 minutes or so that it was on for. I would certainly like to watch more films like this one than the majority of the films that are made now. I notice that several reviewers have stated that it is not historically accurate in a few details, maybe that is so, I couldn't say, but whether it was accurate historically or not is of small consequence to me, I watch a film to be entertained not to have a lesson in factual history. Others have said that it is too much like an episode of "Gunsmoke" and uses the same sets, as "Gunsmoke" was one of the longest running and best western series ever aired on TV I would have thought that was not a bad thing and a plus rather than a negative.

A real bow-wow, as are most Civil War westerns (surprising how many have been churned out, though apparently nobody has compiled a list). Both the Confederate gang and the townspeople manage to acquire guns that weren't thought of yet. They include the Colt Peacemaker of 1873 and the Winchester Model 1892 (and maybe a 94 for good measure) plus double-action, cartridge conversions of cap and ball revolvers!

Also, you have to wonder why the producers took a popular folk song and set it in another era. The similarity with "Burning Bridges," the "Kelly's Heroes" theme by the Mike Curb Congregation, comes to mind. Absolutely no connection between score and plot.

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.

Now in endless reruns on the Western Channel, the movie's not half-bad for a quickie production intended to exploit the booming popularity of the folk song. Landon and Rust are quite good as returning rebs caught behind Union lines at Civil War's end. Their chemistry is more like that of brothers than comrades-in-arms. The production appears to have piggy-backed on the "Gunsmoke" series, using many of the same sets and locations, along with veteran Gunsmoke director Ted Post. Maybe that's why the fist-fight at the gutted cabin is so well executed-- the boys really give the slick choreographing their all. Then too, I wouldn't be surprised that this performance won Landon the career role of Little Joe on Bonanza; it's certainly good enough. Anyway, the film shows how even a cheap quickie with no pedigree can exceed expectations.