The Texas Rangers

In so many ways, this is typical Hollywood.

History is botched so thoroughly, this script becomes caricature.

Despite a great cast, and a pretty good story, watching it was painful for me because of all the character names: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, John Wesley Hardin, and so many other real villains of history are thrown into the mix here.

Naturally, being bad guys, most of them get bumped off -- and it is really infuriating to watch because all those people had real deaths at other places and times.

Why?

Why not just make up other names and present a nice fictional story? It would have been a much better movie.

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.

This movie starts off a bit slow but the story line captures you and before you know it you are caught up in a wonderful adventure, I was sorry to see it end. Wonderful location shots , snappy dialog, a really good cast , the villains are played to the hilt and the good guys start off a bit shaky but by the final reel they take control. In one scene Myron Healey an excellent actor, one of the perennial heavies in the fifties westerns forgets and leaves a modern day hearing aid on his right ear, it is clearly visible in the shot, I wonder how many people in the audience picked up on it. The movie ends up with a real good chase involving a train carrying a million dollars in gold and the band of outlaws and the Texas Rangers converging in the final shootout. Attention all western buffs, don't miss this one.

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.

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.