The Tall Texan

The Tall Texan casts Lloyd Bridges as a prisoner by sheriff Samuel Herrick to trial. To save time they are cutting across Indian country in a covered wagon driven by Syd Saylor along with other passengers Dean Train and wife Marie Windsor and beached sea captain Lee J. Cobb. They pick up a wounded Indian and no good deed goes unpunished in the west as his tribe who had wounded him in the first place wants him back to finish the job.

During the attack Train is killed and the Indians are driven off. In gratitude the Indian gives them some gold nuggets and shows them where there is a lot more. Problem being that the mother lode is in an Indian burial ground. The Indians take the groups guns from them and say they can pan for gold, but not to go beyond a marker they've set down.

They're all just ordinary folks, no cowboy heroes in this bunch. But the worst of them is a bottom feeding peddler they've picked up played by Luther Adler. He's the serpent in their golden garden and he's the real cause of their downfall.

Had this film been done at a major studio it might have proved as much a classic as that other film about gold fever, Lust For Gold which Columbia did a few years earlier. Still coming from Lippert Pictures it must be counted as a miracle that it turned out as well as it did.

A nice ensemble cast gives some great performances and the nice location shooting sure helps.

Try and catch this one if it's broadcast.

Considering that this movie is almost 50 years old, it holds up quite well. Bridges, Adler and Cobb give striking performances in a tale set amongst a group of barren rocks in the Southwest. The plot moves slowly, building to an exciting climax. One of the best western movies of the 50s with a great musical score.

Fresh off his success as award winning editor on "High Noon", Elmo Williams takes the Directors chair here for the first time. Often compared to Ford's "Stagecoach" this character study of lust and greed is more reminiscent of "Treasure of Sierra Madre." Bridges is superb as the tight lipped convict, Trask(the Tall Texan), however the real acting kudos go to Adler and Cobb as sniveling peddler and sadistic sea captain, respectively. The picture slowly builds to an action packed climax and a deliberately inconclusive ending. This is perhaps the finest picture from Lippert Inc.

That's a pretty good little western, pulled by a prestigious editor and producer, Elmo Williams. I like this little flick, mainly because of a cast very surprising in such a B picture: Lloyd Bridges, Lee J Cobb, Marie Windsor.... I really enjoyed it, thanks to some good action scenes and an adequate characters study, again not that foreseeable for such a little budget film. I don't remember having seen it before. I guess it is not widely known among western buffs and it's a bit shame because I think it deserves better. Try it if you have the opportunity to. The plot, though, has nothing special to offer.

I'm a big fan of B movie westerns, but this one just put me to sleep. I tried it again the next day, with not much better results. The acting is fine, but there's little action until the last 20 minutes or so. The tension does build up towards the end & it gets pretty good at that point, but not enough to make up for the slowness of the rest of the movie. There are some interesting turns in the story, but too much camera time is spent watching the characters slowly ride from one place to another, then slowly walk from one place to another, then slowly unmount their horses, then talk, then slowly move on to something else. I guess the word I'm looking for is "pacing." And to sum up the pacing of this movie in a word: slow! The interpersonal conflicts are not enough to keep my interest. I rate it only 5/10, & the 5 is for the acting & the character development, nothing for plot or "pacing."