Texas

Two young cowpokes played by William Holden and Glenn Ford in their youth are trying to make their way to Texas. As former Confederates they're not treated so well in Yankee country. When they spot some outlaws holding up a stage they decide to rob the outlaws. Of course when the sheriff finds Ford with the loot, Holden has to rescue him from a lynching. In eluding the posse the two go their separate ways and thereby hangs a tale.

This was the first of two films Holden and Ford made together, the second being The Man from Colorado after World War II. Both of them had the same unusual contract situation. Holden came up through Paramount ranks, but was spotted there by Harry Cohn at Columbia and given the lead as an unknown in Golden Boy. So confident was Cohn in Holden's success that he took the highly unusual step of purchasing half of his contract from Paramount. So Holden was under contract to two major studios at the same time.

Ironically enough Glenn Ford in the late Forties had half of his contract purchased by MGM when Harry Cohn sold it. These are the only two stars whoever had such an unusual arrangement.

It is also the first time Glenn Ford worked with Director George Marshall although it would take another 17 years for them to reunite in The Sheepman. After that the two of them did a whole string of successful comedies together.

There's is some humor in Texas, but the accent here is on action which comes pretty fast and furious. Holden falls in with the outlaws he and Ford held up and Ford becomes a big mover and shaker with the cattlemen. Ford persuades them all to get a big herd together and drive them to the railroad terminus in Kansas. He's also trying to impress Claire Trevor the rancher's daughter who Holden also is interested in.

Texas has a trio of villains in George Bancroft, Addison Richards and Edgar Buchanan. This was the film where Edgar Buchanan got his first attention. His folksy demeanor masks some serious scheming in this film, the first of many reprobates he played in the movies although most of them were not as seriously villainous as here.

Glenn Ford and Edgar Buchanan hit it off very well. They worked in about a dozen films together and in Ford's television series Cade's County.

Texas is a good western and it's a pleasure to watch two young screen immortals in their beginning days.