The Texas Rangers

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.

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.

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.

I was never really a fan of George Montgomery's westerns; they were pretty cookie-cutter jobs, one looking pretty much like the next, cheap black-and-white somewhat shoddy productions with lame scripts and made by mediocre and uninspired directors.

This, however, is WAY above his usual product. It's beautifully shot--I never thought SuperCinecolor could look so good--with a terrific cast of great western veterans, such as John Dehner, Ian McDonald, Douglas Kennedy, Noah Beery, Jock Mahoney, Myron Healey, to name just a few--and in Phil Karlson he had probably the best director he ever worked with. Karlson was known for his fast-paced, right, action-filled westerns that moved like lightning, and this one doesn't disappoint. Montgomery is more animated than he usually is--as a director himself maybe he realized just how good Karlson was and put more heart and effort into his performance than he usually did, Whatever the case, this is one of Montgomery's best westerns--fast, a lot of action and not slowed down too terribly by the usually hammy Gale Storm as his love interest.

If you're looking for a history lesson, look somewhere else--this isn't a documentary. If you're looking for an interesting, satisfying western with good action, beautiful color and spirited performances, this is one for you.