Lone Star

It's 1845. Texas' future is in the balance. Sam Houston recently published an opinion against annexation after earlier attempts. News reaches ex-President Andrew Jackson (Lionel Barrymore) who decides to send in cattle baron Devereaux Burke (Clark Gable) to talk to Houston and recruit for the cause. He is opposed by powerful state senator Thomas Craden. He battles injuins on the way to Austin where he meets Craden's girlfriend Martha Ronda (Ava Gardner) who runs a local newspaper. He is assumed to be anti-annexation and decides to play along while Craden supporters hunt for him.

Historical accuracy is not always important. In this case, I find the history rather interesting and I wouldn't mind having the real story. This is obviously not the real story. I don't know anything about the real story and this is not going to enlighten me that much either. Some of the background issues are presented. The cast is headed by the great looking Clark Gable. This is a fine film but I would probably be more interested in a deep dive into the history.

This big budget Western deals with cattle baron Deveraux (Clark Gable) who his assigned by Andrew Jackson (Lionel Barrymore) to convince Sam Houston for union Texas to United States . A fiery newspaper editor (Ava Gardner) is the woman between Deveraux and the bad guy , Craden (Broderick Crawford) . Deveraux must fight state senators (Crawford , Ed Begley , Russell Simpson) for union to United States.

This exciting picture about Texas fights for independence contains Western action , drama , historical happenings , a love story and results to be quite entertaining . Based on a screenplay by Borden chase , a Western expert . Gorgeous Ava Gardner as an intrepid journalist as well as Clark Gable's love interest . Film debut for George Hamilton and secondary acting by William Conrad and Ed Begley . The motion picture was well directed by Vincent Sherman . Also available in horrible computer colorized version .

It's partially based on historical deeds about Texas independence, these are the followings : With Mexican permission Stephen Austin brought the first Anglo-American colonists to Texas, the first of many, their numbers grew and they wanted self-government and this desire led to the revolt of 1835, the Texas war for Independence. General Santa Anna, stormed the Alamo, and wiped out the garrison on 6 March 1836. But on 21 April 1836 General Santa Anna suffered a crushing defeat by Sam Houston and was taken prisoner. Texas was declared a Republic in October 1836 and Houston became its first president. In 1845 Texas joined the US, this lead to war with Mexico and disastrous results for that country. Samuel Houston(1793-1863)well performed by Moroni Olsen, was a frontiersman and politician , he went to live with the Cherokees and took a Cherokee wife. After the fall of the Alamo, he managed to keep together a small force and launched a furious surprise attack on the Mexican army of 1300 camped on the western bank of the San Jacinto River. With Texas free and independent republic, Houston was elected the first president. When Texas was admitted to the United States in 1845, Houston was a senator to Washington.

A movie set in 1845 Texas that deals with Texas either joining the union or going off and becoming an independent republic. Lionel Barrymore plays Andrew Jackson is who for joining the union and so is Clark Gable. Broderick Crawford and Ava Gardner want Texas to become an independent and Crawford wants to be the leader. Both sides are waiting for what Sam Huston has to say, but he is out helping the Indians form a peace treaty. Crawford is willing to do anything to get what he wants and Gardner begins to fall for Gable. At the end, of course, there is a big battle between Gable and Crawford's army and then a fight between the two of them. Clark Gable is the same as always and Broderick Crawford is miscast in this role. Ava Gardner is only OK and Lionel Barrymore is only in two scenes.

The diplomatic and political machinations around the admission of Texas to the USA are incredibly complex and are touched on in this film. It would have taken a longer and better film to explain it all. I think MGM had plans for one in this, but Dore Schary was budget cutting at the time and this got B western treatment for a stellar cast.

One thing they show is true and that is the influence of 77 year old former President Andrew Jackson on the Democratic Party he founded. His prestige was that big, he was the dominant political figure for 20 years or so in the country before, during and after his presidency.

Lionel Barrymore reprises the role of Jackson, he had previously played in MGM's The Gorgeous Hussy. He's still wheeling and dealing and he doesn't like what he's heard that his old friend and comrade in arms Sam Houston is climbing off his position of being for the annexation of the Texas Republic to the United States. On his own he sends Clark Gable as Devereaux Burke Texas cattleman to seek out Houston and get the real story.

On the way to completing his mission Gable finds Ava Gardner who is the editor of a local paper in Austin and Broderick Crawford another Texas cattleman who is violently opposed to annexation. They get a good political rivalry and a personal one over Gardner.

In the film as in real life Sam Houston, played by Moroni Olsen, is running a big bluff. He's playing footsie with the British by negotiating a treaty of alliance with them in order to force the hand of northern politicians who are against slavery, but who would like even less the British moving into Texas.

There's an exciting battle between the pro and anti annexation forces while the Texas Congress meets. It results however in a very unreal conclusion to the story.

It's unfortunate given the stellar cast Lone Star has that a better scripted story was not developed for them, even one that is completely factual. It's an A picture subject that got B picture treatment.

I afraid even with the starpower involved in this one since there's not much they can do with a poor script.

Convoluted plot about the annexation of Texas into the union, it involves the opposing forces of Gable and Broderick Crawford in a fight to see whether Texas will become a state, or an independent republic.

Although there's plenty of action, too much of the film gets bogged down in the romance between Gable and Gardner. I guess MGM needed another vehicle for the two of them after THE HUCKSTERS (1947) or MOGAMBO (1953)

And the battle scene and what happens to Crawford at the end is unreal. It turns into a 'Let's all unite for Texas' kinda of a thing that looks implausible, especially after what's been going on for the previous 94 minutes.

If they had a better script it might have turned out to be something more entertaining. 4 out of 10