Waco

Producer A C Lyles made several low budget Westerns in the 60's and they invariably featured -like this movie -a cast of veteran stars whose golden days may have been but a distant memory but who were still very able performers .The pictures never scaled any dizzy heights but provided satisfying B movie experiences Waco does not refer to the town in Texas but is the name of the hero,played with authority by Howard Keel.A town is being terrorised by gunmen under the leadership of the black garbed Ace Ross (Brian Donleavy) who kills a prominent citizen (Richard Arlen- a regular member of Lyles stock company)The citizens then realise the one man who might be able to save them is Waco but the problem is that he is in gaol but he is released in order to tackle the bad guys and in the process stake a claim in society.

The performances are good especially from Wendell Corey as a gunman turned preacher ,Sam Stone ,and the ever radiant Jane Russell as Jill Stone with whom Waco has a romantic dalliance .Other veterans in the cast include DeForrest Kelley ,John Agar and Gene Evans It is more violent than most Lyles movies but not excessively so and certainly not by today's standards Good solid B movie making and worth your time if you like Westerns

This is another obscure western that I just watched on Netflix streaming. It stars Howard Keel as Waco, a formerly jailed gunman who's pardoned by the governor and sent to Emporia to tame that town. Unfortunately for him, his former lover Jane Russell is now married to preacher Wendell Corey who was a former gunman himself. I'll stop there and just say that while the triangle that I just described makes some of this oater dramatically compelling, it's not the only exciting part of this movie. There's also the Jenner family who holds a grudge against Waco for killing one of their members and then there's DeForest Kelley who's the bouncer at the local casino who's also anxious to eliminate him. Oh, and there's also a pretty good story-song about the title character as told by Lorne Greene. So on that note, I highly recommend Waco. P.S. Not long after Kelley made this, he would soon become a Sci-Fi icon when he began playing Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy on the original "Star Trek".

The town is falling apart, so the decent people petition the governor to free Howard Keel so he can serve as their sheriff. He returns to find things changed: his girl, Jane Russell, is married to preacher Wendell Corey, and Brian Donleavy is leading one of the factions trying to own the town. What the town doesn't realize is that Keel has changed too.

THis is one of the Geezer Westerns produced by A.C. Lyles for Paramount, a chance to squeeze out the remaining juice from aging stars like John Agar and Richard Arlen. Its themes are very good, with the ideas of perception and aging brought squarely into focus. Keel is no longer the singing slab of beef he had been for MGM fifteen years earlier. Now he looks beefy and a bit worn around the edges. So does everyone, except for Wendell Corey, who seems to have been 50 when he first appeared on the big screen, and the same age when he last appeared on it.

Where the movie falls apart is in the mechanics of the western. There are no vistas, no beautiful landscape, and the fight that wraps up the plot looks random, with poor stuntwork. The result, despite a promising start, is just average.

In this movie Keel is NOT a unloving-turned-loving Adam Ponifee nor a kind Wild Bill Hickok. Rather, he is about the meanest man anybody can find anywhere. He knows no bounds to treating people mean. Of course, in this particular movie he is the sheriff of a wild town which tries to be run by vengeful outlaws, outlaws who meet their match with him. The beautiful Jane Russell is superb as his love interest, but even she sometimes is frustrated with him. He is excellent in this role as the mean, no-nonsense marshal. A great acting feat for him. But I would hate to think for the people that knew him that he was ever this cold, hard, and mean!

A.C. Lyles turned out another good geezer western with Waco starring Howard Keel a recently released outlaw from prison who's been hired to clean up a really bad town run by saloon owner John Smith and his hired gun DeForest Kelley. Keel is kind of hoping to take things up where they left off with Jane Russell, but turns out she's gone and married preacher Wendell Corey. That sort of disillusions him as he wavers back and forth between doing the job he was hired or resuming his old outlaw ways.

If it's action you want than Waco will not disappoint. Keel in the title role and we never do learn his real name because he probably was not born with that name, has a number of nasty fights and shootings. Besides Smith and Kelley, he's also got the Jenner family to contend with he killed one of them years ago. Willard Parker and Reg Parton are the remaining Jenner brothers and there's Anne Seymour, Ma Barker of the old west. In many ways, she's the one you'll remember from this film.

Waco's also a pretty adult western with such themes as infidelity lightly touched upon and rape of Tracy Olsen an integral part of the story. The final shootout in the town involves just about every member of the cast.

If you like western action you can't go wrong with Waco.