Trouble in Texas

Trouble In Texas finds Tex Ritter and sidekick Horace Murphy on the trail of a gang that is killing rodeo champions. The mistake that this gang headed by Earl Dwire makes is in killing Ritter's brother. He and Murphy have been on the trail for five years.

Devotees of the B western will find that a lot of usual players like Glenn Strange and Yakima Canutt are there. But if Trouble In Texas has any reason to be saved it is because one Rita Cansino who was the leading lady. All of 19 Ms. Cansino was playing a government agent who was also on the trail of the outlaws.

Of course we all know her better as Rita Hayworth so fans of the eternal Cover Girl will have a great opportunity to see her cowgirl attire.

There was a John Wayne B film from the Thirties where the same gambit was used to kill the rodeo cowboys. I can't remember which one so I don't know who stole from who.

Tex Ritter has been trying to find the fellows who killed his brother when he was on the point of winning big money in a rodeo. Accompanied by Horace Murphy as comic relief, he's growing discouraged, but won't give up. He doesn't know that pretty Rita Hayworth (still credited as Rita Cansino) is a government agent assigned to the case; others have died under similar circumstances. Ritter thinks she's a pretty girl who dances at the local cantina and may be tied up in the murders.

Director Robert Bradbury has remade his 1934 The Man From Utah, and reused a lot of the rodeo footage from there. Ritter isn't much of an actor, but he is.a good singer (although the sound on the copy I looked at was poor), and Miss Hayworth gets a big dance number. Bradbury liked to use his performers' talents to eke out his shows. Earl Dwire, Yakima Canutt and the usual faces seen in Gower Gulch westerns show up. I'm told that Hank Worden is one of the dancers, though as usual I didn't spot him.

TROUBLE IN Texas is an entertaining little B western with wider appeal than the norm due to the leading lady being the very young Rita Hayworth (billed under her real name, Cansino). The appealing Tex Ritter stars as a rodeo circuit cowboy/entertainer who remains on the circuit in hopes of tracking down the bad guys who killed his brother. As it happens, beautiful young government agent Carmen (Rita) is also after them although Tex suspects she may be part of their gang (she is, but is undercover for the government) though he also attempts to woo this gorgeous young woman, no fool he.

This little movie is clearly a quickie with is blatant stock footage (including quite a bit filmed at an actual rodeo which isn't exactly smoothly edited into the film and the scenes with the actors), threadbare sets, and the like but the cast is very appealing and 18-year-old Rita is stunningly beautiful and beams with unmistakable star quality (she has some absolutely gorgeous closeups in this low-budget effort that would rival those in an important studio film that are probably due more to her natural beauty than to the cinematography).

Tex Ritter is great as the always smiling, down-to-earth hero of the tale and while sidekick Horace Murphy (57 at the time, to modern eyes he seems a decade older) is fairly amusing in apparently one of the bigger roles of his career (according to IMDb, most of his parts were unbilled bits). Throw in some classic B western bad guys, excellent stunt work, a nice dance number by Rita, and some good western songs and you've got a pretty terrific if unambitious little B western.

Tex Ritter tours the rodeo circuit, looking for the murderous cowboys that he believed caused the death of his brother, killed by the gang for taking too much money from them by winning. Meanwhile, undercover agent Rita Hayworth (who's beautiful and very brunette) is also on the case.

A remake of the John Wayne vehicle The Man From Utah (with Yakima Canutt playing virtually the same role), this is actually the better of the two with the usual winning performance by Tex, some great songs to pass the time, and a load of exciting stock footage of the real rodeo.

There's also some good villainy by eternal heavies Earl Dwire and Charles King, while the usually villainous Glenn Strange (the future Frankenstein monster) gets to be a good guy.

An exciting climax features some excellent stunt work and an explosive finale.

If you like your villains straightforward and straight-faced, then this is a fun little B western. Tex Ritter is given the unenviable task of taking on the baddie trio of Earl Dwire, Yakima Canutt and Charles King. (If you're familiar with these fellows, you will have no trouble guessing who is the brains of the gang and who is simply brawn.)

Luckily, Tex's character is not named "Tex Masters" for nothing. Besides competing for rodeo prizes and singing a handful of catchy tunes, he suspects that the crooks in town are indeed the villains who killed his brother years ago, and are thus the gang he has been seeking all this time on the rodeo circuit. He also annoys Yakima to the point of uttering a classic threat: "All right, you guitar-playin' songbird, if you got anything to say, say it fast!"

Rita Cansino (Hayworth) is fine as an undercover government agent also after the same gang. And Horace Murphy is mildly amusing as Lucky, Tex's sidekick. I am not familiar with his work, but if IMDb's filmography is to be believed, he was busy in 1937--this was one of over 30 movies he appeared in that year!