Texas Rangers Ride Again

Paramount has produced a neat little gem of a "B" western, worth seeing if only for a truly impressive cast, including two Oscar winners (Broderick Crawford and Anthony Quinn) and two other Oscar nominees (May Robson and Akim Tamiroff). Add in a virtual who's who of character actors including three walk-of-fame stars (Ellen Drew, John Howard and Monte Blue), Charley Grapewin (The Wizard of Oz), and Eddie Foy, Jr. (Yankee Doodle Dandy) among others, and you have lots to watch for in a relatively short picture.

Filmed on location in Arizona and set in the contemporary (for 1940) West, the usual elements of a cowboy adventure all appear: cattle rustlers and their ruthless leader, the beautiful rancher's daughter, the dominating landowner (this time, a formidable May Robson), an undercover lawman, the dishonest townsman, and a climactic shootout. And the hero gets the girl, naturally. An unusual ranch house/castle/fortress originally built to withstand Indian attack has an old dark house feel. The only real wrinkle is seeing the Texas Rangers in a modern office building, using motor vehicles (sometimes) and communicating by radio.

Well worth spending just over an hour for an afternoon's entertainment.

The legendary lawmen known as The Texas Rangers are called in when thousands of cattle are disappearing from the White Sage Ranch owned by the Dangerfield family. An outlaw known as The Pecos Kid (John Howard) is taken on as a ranch hand, and he meets cute with the lovely young Ellen 'Slats' Dangerfield (Ellen Drew), a family member just recently returned to the old homestead.

"The Texas Rangers Ride Again" is no more and no less than lightly entertaining, fun, routine B western fare. There's not much of a story here, but there is good atmosphere, and a healthy amount of humour. There are enough genuinely funny moments - especially when The Pecos Kid pretends that he's got a gunshot wound - to make this pleasant (if forgettable) entertainment.

The cast is full of solid actors: Akim Tamiroff, Broderick Crawford, John Miljan, Anthony Quinn, Monte Blue, Donald Curtis, Charles Lane, Tom Tyler, and a young, uncredited Robert Ryan. But the show is stolen by feisty old May Robson as Ellens' live wire grandmother Cecilia and Charley Grapewin as aged Ranger Ben Caldwalder. Howard is a charming and engaging lead, and Ms. Drew is quite cute and amiable. Some of the humour derives from 'Slats' being such a tenderfoot.

These 68 minutes pass by in likable enough fashion.

Six out of 10.

The romance between Jim and Ellen oozes cheese, and the Mexican servant is thrown in for laughs. Otherwise a decent story about a rustler, under investigation played by a young Anthony Quinn. The two best acted parts are Anthony Quinn and May Robson as Gran. She is very spry here at the age of 83 as the no nonsense ranch owner Mrs Dangerfield. Not as much action as When the Dalton's rode, but still entertaining enough to keep your interest. Broderick Crawford plays one of the other Rangers, and I was a bit surprised by the fact he made a couple critical errors in his raid of the plant, one man against a dozen. This western is also different as it is modern era with cars. Overall a decent watch 4/5.

I'm sure Paramount could not possibly have released what the end would be in the careers in the cast of Texas Rangers Ride Again. You've got the unusual situation where the nominal leads, John Howard and Ellen Drew, are overshadowed by the incredible supporting cast. Two of them, Anthony Quinn and Broderick Crawford went on to win Oscars. The rest of the cast included such worthies as May Robson, Akim Tamiroff, Eddie Foy, Jr., and Charley Grapewin probably all better known to the average movie buff than the leads.

The leads deem it a B film. But Paramount in shooting on location in Arizona gave it some A production values. Ellen Drew was best known as Hugette in If I Were King and John Howard's career role was as George Kittridge in The Philadelphia Story. Drew is the granddaughter of May Robson who is essentially reprising her role from The Texans. Howard and Crawford are Texas Rangers working undercover a cattle hijacking operation.

Well by any other name, it's rustling. And this is a modern day western so the Rangers are equipped with shortwave radios to aid in crime fighting and automobiles to supplement the horses.

One line really disturbed me though. From the gitgo it's clear that Anthony Quinn playing Indian cowboy Joe Yuma who's involved with the rustlers. But he's dismissed as the possible big boss with the line, "no Indian could possibly be clever enough to be behind this operation." I'm sure Anthony Quinn with his mestizo heritage got a real charge out of that. Actually his character is quite shrewd and that line doesn't gibe with the plot at all.

The supporting cast is classic, but this nothing to stay home on Saturday afternoon for.

An old lady rancher with a cattle rustling problem calls in the Texas Rangers, who in turn send undercover agents John Howard and Broderick Crawford to infiltrate the rustlers, led by Anthony Quinn, while also putting up with the ranch owner's spoiled granddaughter.

A supposed sequel to the king Vidor/Fred MacMurray classic, this has too much talking, not enough action, and an inept climax, with too much modern technology on display, ruining the western atmosphere. Neither a gun is fired, nor a horse ridden faster than a trot until forty-seven minutes into this sixty-eight minute movie! You'd be better off skipping this slow-moving studio B-picture and watching a poverty-row cheapie instead.

Crawford should have made like he did in All The King's Men and got all liquored up, before telling off the rustlers. now that would have been entertaining!