Surprisingly incoherent and boring
... View MoreSave your money for something good and enjoyable
... View MoreAlthough I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
... View MoreIt’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
... View MoreDonnell may not be as pretty as the standard girl lead, but she's a very good comedienne. In fact, her amusing impersonation of a boy (Jessie) just about overshadows the rest of this oater. The plot itself is fairly typical—crooked ranch hands try to bump off the boss, and in the process also steal Dave's (Holt) stage line gold shipment. Naturally Dave doesn't take kindly to this, and so the conflict takes off from there. Complicating things is Jessie who falls big time for Dave who, amusingly, thinks she's a boy, leading to some interesting situations.Aside from Donnell's expert turn, director Landers makes scenic use of the neolithic Alabama Hills familiar to generations of Western fans. In fact, for a journeyman director some of the outdoor staging is downright inspired (Jessie running across the flats in a long shot). Good to see veteran actors like Sawyer, Hall, and the mustachioed MacDonald (as a sheriff, no less!), picking up a payday. My only question is what Birdie (Carol Hughes) is doing in the movie since her role seems unnecessary—the romantic stuff being handled by Donnell. Probably, they wanted a foil for Chito (Martin); after all, this may be the only matinée series where the sidekick is handsomer than the lead!Anyway, it's a solid series entry with a standout performance and a bunch of fine outdoor scenery.
... View MoreThis entry in the Tim Holt B western series for RKO takes some inspiration from another gender bending film classic the studio did back in the Thirties, Sylvia Scarlett. Though Jeff Donnell isn't Katharine Hepburn, this film has a few more laughs in it than the normal Holt western where usually the laughs are provided by Richard Martin's amorous intentions.Thurston Hall and daughter Jeff Donnell are traveling to Arizona for him to check on one of his holdings, a ranch there and for Donnell to get away from some fortune hunter who's been romancing her. That's bad news for Joe Sawyer and a couple of hands there who've been stealing the absentee owner blind. Sawyer should have listened to his two henchmen who said it was time to flee the territory. Instead they set up an ambush to murder Hall.Bad luck to do it though within hearing range of the stagecoach station that Holt and Martin operate on their ranch. But does a thwarted stage holdup deter Donnell? Not a bad, she's determined to get back to San Francisco and marry her guy. While in town she sneaks away and dons the disguise of a boy and gets on the coach.No need to tell the rest of the story, it's set up nicely for quite a few laughs as well as the usual gunfights that are required. Stagecoach Kid is definitely one of the better Tim Holt westerns that RKO did and Donnell is quite a good comedienne.
... View MoreA young woman (Jeff Donnell) wants to escape to the big city and disguises herself as a cowboy but falls in love with a stagecoach guard (Tim Holt) who wants him/her to identify a bandit who robbed his stagecoach. Watchable B-western which is very lightweight and tries for much silly comedy, particularly the scenes where Donnell is confused as a real cowboy and not as a cowgirl. Most of the comedy fails to raise a grin let alone laughs. Perhaps the most amusing and bizarre thing about the film is the real name of the girl disguised as a boy - Jeff Donnell, sometimes billed as Miss Jeff Donnell! Given the gender-twist in the plot it really is funnier than anything that's actually in the script.
... View MoreHas a similar theme as "West of the Pecos" where a lady disguises herself briefly as a boy. This movie was fun to watch. Different from many Tim Holt westerns-he goes by another name in this movie,his character and Chito are not mending fences,and surprise, surprise-he gets the girl at the end. The ending is typical with a lady chasing Chito.
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