The Texas Rangers

When I was a kid and watching B films like this on television because generally they were the first to be sold there, I used to love these westerns where a gang of famous outlaw names band together for a united force of banditry in the old west. Such a film is The Texas Rangers, not to be confused with the Paramount film that starred Fred MacMurray in the Thirties. Different studio, different plot.

William Bishop plays the gentlemanly, but deadly Sam Bass and he's put together quite an all star lineup of outlaws in the old west. Such desperadoes as Dave Rudabaugh, John Wesley Hardin, King Fisher and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid all in one gang.

The answer is for Texas to reform the Texas Rangers and John Litel the captain as gotten a release for outlaws George Montgomery and Noah Beery, Jr. to set a pair of outlaws to catch some outlaws.

Here's where an otherwise good film gets colossally stupid. If you're going to do that, create a false escape from prison. But Litel doesn't do that and newspaper editor Gale Storm whose father was accidentally shot in shootout that Montgomery and Beery were involved in prints their names and mission in her paper. I mean, really.

Still with that handicap Montgomery gets the job done. Did you think he wouldn't?

I have to point out two standout performances the first being William Bishop as Sam Bass. One elegant and deadly killer and no one's fool. The second is that of Jerome Courtland playing Montgomery's younger brother who has an extremely touching death scene.

If only they had given Montgomery and Beery a cover story.

This movie gets my vote as Gale Storm's best western film. She is outstanding in her scenes with her leading man, George Montgomery. The film begins with Johnny Carver (Montgomery), Buff Smith (Noah Beery Jr) and the Sundance Kid (Ian MacDonald) robbing the Waco bank. Sundance double-crosses Carver and Smith, shooting Carver in the back and killing the town sheriff. Fade to prison where Carver and Smith are being held. Major Jones of the Texas Rangers gets the men freed to become Rangers and track down the outlaws who are terrorizing the good folks in Texas. They are released and become Rangers over Helen Fenton's (Gale Storm's) objections. As a Ranger, Johnny meets up with his kid brother (played by DYNASTY director Jerome Courtland) who is killed by the Sam Bass gang. Johnny vows his revenge and gets it. George Montgomery's scenes with Gale are absolutely first rate. The cinematography by Ellis W. Carter is breathtaking! Gale told me that The TEXAS RANGERS was filmed "on location" but in Hollywood-not Texas. No matter, the scenery is beautiful and real...not projected. This is a four star picture in my book. Well worth seeing and owning!

For being a western with George Montgomery this is unusually good. It all happens in Texas, which is almost entirely outlawed and at the mercy of ruthless gunslingers, all excelling each other in murdering people. A few of them are convinced the hard way to join the Rangers in cleaning up the country from all those murdering thugs. With a criminal past, they don 't find it very easy to stick to the straight side of the law, and when forced by circumstances they just flip across to what seems better for them. Thus there are many second thoughts here about opportunities. But on whatever side you are on you are bound to get a lot of shooting mainly to kill. Still there is also a woman and a boy involved, and at least the boy has nothing against extensive shoot-outs. There is a great train robbery at the end with plenty of cavalry scenes, different parties chasing each other, so at least the film is replenished with action. It is well directed and written with good enough actors all around, so you will be sure to be rewarded for having watched it, even if most of the actors get different kinds of rewards on the way.

Beautifully filmed, SuperCineColor production from Columbia pictures, with a good cast. George Montgomery and Noah Berry are ex-outlaws-turned-Texas Rangers, sent out to help round up the gang they used to ride with. Gale Storm plays a feisty newspaper lady who don't cotton much to Montgomery on account of he was with the outlaws who gunned down her father, the Sheriff, before Montgomery turned into a good guy.

Montgomery plays one of those a man-in-the-middle characters: he infiltrates the outlaw gang, but the Texas Rangers think he's gone bad again. Nobody believes he's a good guy except the lovely and faithful Miss Storm, after Montgomery works his charm on her. Meanwhile, the outlaw boss knows Montgomery is a spy, so they plan to kill him after he helps with a million-dollar train robbery

Action? Dern tootin', pardner! After being shot several times and almost falling off the train, Montgomery slugs it out with an outlaw for control of the engine while the rest of the gang rides alongside, shooting at him. The outlaw tries to feed him into the boiler! Montgomery wins the fight when he sticks the outlaw's gun down the man's pants and pulls the trigger! Ouch .. . ('This is for shootin' my kid brother in the back, you low-down varmit!')

Not exactly 'The Magnificent Seven', but good Western fun from the colorful 1950s.

A colourful western that packs a punch, the Texas rangers is solid entertainment with a good build up of the characters and the plot. George Montgomery is a convict given a chance to join the Texas rangers so he could nail Sam Bass and his motley crew who have become the scourge of the state. But Montgomery is only interested in getting the sun dance kid. And he does manage to kill him and he is about to renege on his oath to stop Sam Bass and his gang, but certain events stop him from doing that. The action is slam bang, the plot is smooth as oil, the villains are quite menacing, and there's some close-quarter shooting that's quite violent. An excellent train sequence at the finale is heart-stopping.