The Texas Rangers

A nice clean action movie, beautiful scenery, a decent script, and a long list of major movie stars including John Dehner, Douglas Kennedy, and John Doucette.

George Montgomery plays his part well. (Note to "A Team" fans: as a Texas Ranger, Montgomery bears no resemblance to "Colonel Hannibal Smith").

Gale Storm is cute and convincing in her role, but just a bit over the top. The writers throw in a snappy little boy named "Jimmy" to make the movie entertaining for children.

Yes, there are numerous historical inaccuracies, but so what, it's a movie, not a documentary. We know that in real life, all of those outlaws never joined up with each other. The Sundance Kid is believed to have died in Bolivia, not in Texas,and the real John Wesley Hardin was a mean, vicious killer, not a gentleman. And so forth.

But the premise of Sam Bass robbing a train of $60,000 and then dying in Round Rock, Texas is historically correct. There are roads in Texas named after Sam Bass.

This movie is largely based upon the second incarnation of "The Texas Rangers". Following the Civil War, lawlessness abounded in Texas. In addition to hostile Indian tribes, Texans were continually accosted by gangs of outlaws and marauders. The Governor of Texas summoned Confederate Major John B. Jones (played here by actor John Litel) to head up a team of lawmen. The rest is history.

I rate "The Texas Rangers" 8 stars.