Main Cast: Dan Dailey, Anne Baxter, Rory Calhoun, Walter Brennan, Charles Kemper
Release Year: 1950
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
Plot
A Ticket to Tomahawk has sometimes been described as a musical western satire, but in fact is more "straight" western than anything else--not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. Dan Dailey plays a travelling medicine show entrepreneur who comes to the aid of fast-shootin' Anne Baxter, daughter of a railroad man. Stagecoach line representative Rory Calhoun is doing everything he can to prevent a new train service from winning a Colorado territory franchise. The whole affair boils down to a race between the train and Calhoun's coaches. The film's never-take-a-breath action scenes are played out against some of the most gorgeous Colorado scenery ever captured on Technicolor. A Ticket to Tomahawk has achieved latter-day fame due to the unbilled presence of Marilyn Monroe as one of Dan Dailey's chorus gals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Although Anne Baxter is far too prettily made up to convincingly play the sharp-shooting tomboy in this fanciful comedy-western, lush Technicolor and a lively group of dance-hall girls that includes a very young Marilyn Monroe all but makes up for that bit of miscasting. At one point, Connie Gilchrist, as the dance-hall madam, lectures Miss Baxter on the subject of sex appeal, which, she claims, the naive girl sorely lacks. But Anne's Max Factored loveliness makes the scene not only redundant but slightly perplexing. Not that A Ticket to Tomahawk should be taken in any way serious, what with Dan Dailey joining the dancing girls and a train being pulled through the Colorado Rockies by mules. The songs, meanwhile, are cheery enough and if the film is a far cry from Annie Get Your Gun, which was rather obviously the inspiration, it does manage to entertain in its own clumsy way. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
In 1876 Dawson wants to prevent a train from getting to Tomahawk, Colorado on time, so to keep it from competing with his stage coach line. Kit Dodge Jr. (Anne Baxter), who must get the train to its goal, forces Johnny Behind-the-Deuces (Dan Dailey) aboard as the needed passenger. Madame Adelaide's (Connie Gilchrist) showgirls (including Marilyn Monroe as Clara) ride along and, in route to Tomahawk, join Johnny in "Oh, What a Forward Young Man You Are."
A "Tomahawk & Western Railroad" train (fictional railroad company)
