The Rounders

So said the agreeable Henry Fonda to just about every suggestion Glenn Ford or other cast members made to him.

This the first of a series of very agreeable entertaining comic westerns that Burt Kennedy directed and/or wrote starring some of Hollywood's great but aging male stars. I think for the first and only time both Ford and Fonda play a pair of losers. They seem to forever be in financial bondage to their off-and-on employer Chill Wills. Wills just out-slickers Ford and Fonda just goes along with that line that must have been repeated about 8 times in The Rounders.

But their biggest problem comes from a white-faced roan horse that Wills has talked the gullible Ford into taking. The horse named "Old Fooler" has a streak of cunning malevolence that provides most of the laughs in this comedy. If there was a special award given to animals for performances Old Fooler should have won it in 1965. In fact that horse created his own acting genre, the animal anti-hero.

Burt Kennedy gave us a lot of good laughs starting in the mid60s with his films and this is one of the funniest.

This is truly the number 1, modern cowboy "cult" movie. The film captures the true life of a modern day working cowboy. All aspects of this film are the most realistic and true, day to day accounts of the REAL cowboy. The mundane, humor, drama, suspense and romance of the American Cowboy are captured in The Rounders. A must see!

You might think that with a film starring Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda, you can't lose ... and you'd be right. They could probably film those two men simply having an animated conversation for 90 minutes and you'd find it fascinating ... and that's almost what they did. :-)

Henry Fonda plays his character VERY much like Jimmy Stewart's pal in The Cheyenne Social Club. He's more than Glenn Ford's sidekick, but less than a partner in their decision making process.

Glenn Ford is an unlikely dreamer ... a man who can't keep a dollar in his pocket yet wants to break out of the cycle of his life and buy a boat.

In the midst of their cycle of life, the two men ... reliable bronco busters ... come across an ornery old horse that can't be broken and seems to delight in making life rough on the two ... particularly Glenn Ford.

The movie, whether or not it's true, drips with a realistic quality of life for two aging modern cowboys and their colorful set of friends, highlighted by wonderful scenes with Chill Wills.

Recommended.

This movie is far from a classic of the western genre but, to use a far-fetched metaphor, watching it is like putting on a very comfortable pair of old, worn slippers. The story line is hardly earth-shaking - two modern day, never-quite-making-it, just-over-the-hill cowboys spend another year treading water in their line of work and wind up pretty much where they started, not that it matters a whole lot to them. But the story is worked out with just right the combination of charm, humor, pathos and whimsy to make it a thoroughly enjoyable hour and a half. The main key to the movie's success is the work of old hands Henry Fonda and Glenn Ford; their chemistry is just right, and a joy to watch. Also worth mentioning is the gorgeous cinematography of the western setting. This little charmer is minor gem of its type.

My husband and I saw this film when it was first released and all I remembered these many years later was that we had liked it, so I taped it when TCM reran it and loved it! The fellow from England who complained that it seems more like the 1880s just didn't know that in S. Texas, where we're from, and I guess AZ where the film was set, cowboying was still much the same. All of this, including the small town parade rang really true. I absolutely fell in love with the horse all over again; he should have had top billing. I wonder where there might be a bio of him...anybody know? And for the one who regrets they didn't show baby animals being killed...I thank them for that. I see movies for entertainment!