I don't know if this movie was based on a true story, but it is believable, in that it was quite likely that there were mixed loyalties after the Civil War; some wanted to continue the fight, and some that wanted to put it behind them. I've seen plenty of movies where the Confederates are portrayed as bitter sore losers. This is the first time I've seen a movie with the Rebs trying to abide by the new rules, while being persecuted at the same time. Quite believable.
16 Reviews
Probably reflects the real post war Texas
padutchland-128 December 2006
Some of today's viewers might be a bit put off by what they see as racism in the beginning. Just remember not to judge other times by the current time in which you dwell. Black Union soldiers did make themselves unwelcome in post Civil War South. Carpetbaggers did go to the South to take advantage. The South WAS desperately poor after the war and unfair taxes were levied. These are historical facts which do not take sides. The writer took the facts and the attitudes, of both sides, and wove them into this story. Randolph Scott as a former Confederate who wanted the country reunited instead of taken over by Mexico. He said that all Yankees were not like the ones pushing their way around Texas, as he had met them in the war. The Union officer felt the same about many former Confederates. The movie showed this as the beginning of understanding between former foes. The acting was good. Perhaps one of Scott's better performances. Mae Robson was great and reminded me of Beula Bondi. Robert Cummings (well before his TV successes) was the former Confederate officer who could not accept the loss of the war. Joan Bennett was beautiful as the center of the love triangle between Scott, Cummings and herself. Character actors brought the film along quite well as they often do - Walter Brennan, Raymond Hatton, Frances Ford, Robert Barrat, Harvey Stephens. And there was Richard Denning with a small speaking part before his Mr. North fame. There was a most believable fight scene in the streets between Union troops and former confederates. It was well directed. There was an action scene of wagons, horses and cattle running from brush fire set by Indians that was very well done considering this was before digital special effects. The movie moved along nicely from the very beginning with plenty of Western excitement. Be sure to catch this Western if you get the chance. Although it has some twists and turns, it is still a good old fashioned Western.
The Battle For Cattle
FightingWesterner28 September 2010
With the U.S. Calvary on his tail, ex-Confederate Randolph Scott braves the elements and leads a massive cattle drive through Indian territory in order for his hard-case employer (and potential sweetheart) Joan Bennett to avoid paying the nasty carpetbagger government's new cattle tax.
The first thirty minutes of the film, with it's blistering portrait of reconstruction, is so grimy and claustrophobic that it comes as a bit of a relief when Scott and the boys (and the girls) hit the trail. In fact, they lay it on so thick that Randolph Scott's character comes off a bit silly when he voices his support for a reunified country!
Some slow spots help keep this from being one of the best of Scott's early Paramount vehicles. However it's probably one of the best produced, with some excellent photography and really well-staged action sequences. The scenes depicting the crossing of the Rio Grande and their battles with angry Comanches are particular standouts.
The end is a bit of a forerunner to Red River!
The first thirty minutes of the film, with it's blistering portrait of reconstruction, is so grimy and claustrophobic that it comes as a bit of a relief when Scott and the boys (and the girls) hit the trail. In fact, they lay it on so thick that Randolph Scott's character comes off a bit silly when he voices his support for a reunified country!
Some slow spots help keep this from being one of the best of Scott's early Paramount vehicles. However it's probably one of the best produced, with some excellent photography and really well-staged action sequences. The scenes depicting the crossing of the Rio Grande and their battles with angry Comanches are particular standouts.
The end is a bit of a forerunner to Red River!
An Action Filled Western That Just Misses
bsmith55521 August 2001
"The Texans" is a post civil war picture that is set in Texas. The story centers around carpetbaggers trying to cheat Texas ranchers out of their land which eventually forces them to undertake a cattle drive to Abeline.
The movie has the look and feel of a classic western but there's something missing. It has plenty of action to be sure, but the action sequences have the look of stock footage which Paramount was fond of using during the 30's. The Zane Grey series, most of which starred Randolph Scott is a case in point. The chief villain (Robert Barrat) is presented alternately as a heartless villain and buffoon, a major weakness in the story line. There are also too many obvious "studio exterior" shots for my liking.
In a major case of miscasting, Joan Bennett plays the heroine who we are to believe is a gun runner and large ranch owner. Why during her escape from town even gets a smudge of dirt on her pretty face, but not a hair is out of place. Somebody like Jean Arthur would have been more convincing. Randolph Scott is good as the hero, and May Robson as "Granna" virtually steals the picture. Robert Cummings as Scott's rival for the affections of Ms. Bennett, Walter Brennan as Bennett's crusty foreman and Raymond Hatton as Scott's sidekick are also along for the ride. Francis Ford (brother of John) stands out in a featured role as "Uncle Dud". If you look real close, you might spot Clayton Moore and Richard Denning in bit parts.
But as I suggested earlier, the picture suffers from the lack of a strong villain. A good western, but could have been much better.
The movie has the look and feel of a classic western but there's something missing. It has plenty of action to be sure, but the action sequences have the look of stock footage which Paramount was fond of using during the 30's. The Zane Grey series, most of which starred Randolph Scott is a case in point. The chief villain (Robert Barrat) is presented alternately as a heartless villain and buffoon, a major weakness in the story line. There are also too many obvious "studio exterior" shots for my liking.
In a major case of miscasting, Joan Bennett plays the heroine who we are to believe is a gun runner and large ranch owner. Why during her escape from town even gets a smudge of dirt on her pretty face, but not a hair is out of place. Somebody like Jean Arthur would have been more convincing. Randolph Scott is good as the hero, and May Robson as "Granna" virtually steals the picture. Robert Cummings as Scott's rival for the affections of Ms. Bennett, Walter Brennan as Bennett's crusty foreman and Raymond Hatton as Scott's sidekick are also along for the ride. Francis Ford (brother of John) stands out in a featured role as "Uncle Dud". If you look real close, you might spot Clayton Moore and Richard Denning in bit parts.
But as I suggested earlier, the picture suffers from the lack of a strong villain. A good western, but could have been much better.
Sore winners or sore losers?
mark.waltz12 February 2013
Warning: Spoilers
The defeated South tries to win back their dignity after the Civil War when smug Yankees begin a nasty little change called the re-construction. Brothers against brother during the war left many dead on both sides, and the resentments are strong. For elderly ranch widow May Robson, all she has is the massive cattle herds that the North tries to tax her on. Robson's granddaughter (Joan Bennett) is a belle on a mission: get arms to the surviving Southern soldiers so they can keep their own. Pretty crafty even against the more powerful North (obviously intent on humiliating their former enemy), the South hold on and even win sympathy as they deal with some pretty vindictive men.
This is quite different than usual westerns in the fact that it presents a part of history almost entirely overlooked in film. The beautiful Bennett may seem more Brooklyneese than Texan but is still a force to be reckoned with as she fights feelings for two men-the rugged Randolph Scott and the more gentlemanly Robert Cummings who goes off on a secret mission against the re-construction. Robson delivers an entirely convincing portrait of an aging matron refusing to lie down and die after loosing almost everything. Supporting players include the likes of Walter Brennan, Raymond Hatton and Robert Barrat who add authenticity to the proceedings. The lesser known character actress Esther Howard has a memorable cameo as an obvious madam. A few homey ditties are tossed in (including a song with lyrics by Frank Loesser).
The only problem is that the film tries too hard to cover too many issues in 90 minutes, including a brief mention of the Klu Klux Klan and their arrival in the declining town of Abilene. Had the story stuck to one or two themes and not (even briefly) mentioned important issues not explored, it would have been an even better film.
This is quite different than usual westerns in the fact that it presents a part of history almost entirely overlooked in film. The beautiful Bennett may seem more Brooklyneese than Texan but is still a force to be reckoned with as she fights feelings for two men-the rugged Randolph Scott and the more gentlemanly Robert Cummings who goes off on a secret mission against the re-construction. Robson delivers an entirely convincing portrait of an aging matron refusing to lie down and die after loosing almost everything. Supporting players include the likes of Walter Brennan, Raymond Hatton and Robert Barrat who add authenticity to the proceedings. The lesser known character actress Esther Howard has a memorable cameo as an obvious madam. A few homey ditties are tossed in (including a song with lyrics by Frank Loesser).
The only problem is that the film tries too hard to cover too many issues in 90 minutes, including a brief mention of the Klu Klux Klan and their arrival in the declining town of Abilene. Had the story stuck to one or two themes and not (even briefly) mentioned important issues not explored, it would have been an even better film.
Large-scale action and small-scale drama in Paramount A-western
BrianDanaCamp1 December 2010
THE TEXANS (1938) offers some great second unit action scenes in its simple tale of a cattle drive from Indianola, Texas to Abilene, Kansas. We see hundreds of head of cattle forced to swim across the Rio Grande, followed by the cowboys' struggles with such obstacles as dust storms, snow storms, prairie fires, Indian attacks, and pursuit by the U.S. Army. These sequences are quite spectacular, but they're somewhat undermined by the awkward dialogue scenes between the stars. Randolph Scott stars as an ex-Confederate soldier whose idea of taking the cattle to Kansas to keep them from being confiscated for back taxes by the Carpetbagger administrator is taken up by rancher Joan Bennett and her team of cowboys-turned-rebels-turned-cowboys-again. Scott is supposed to be a war-hardened vet trying to survive in Reconstruction Texas, but he comes off as way too cleancut and restrained. The actor needed at least another decade to develop the kind of seasoning that made him such a sturdy western star in the late 1940s-to-early 60s (THE DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA, SEVEN MEN FROM NOW, THE TALL T, et al). Joan Bennett is terribly miscast here and plays it as if she's in a romantic comedy. Despite having to run off with the cattle with no time to pack her things, she somehow manages to conjure up a parade of fresh feminine fashions along the way and arrives in Abilene with a spanking new dress and bonnet, a new hairdo and fresh makeup. She's never remotely believable as a rancher and frontierswoman who'd kept her spread thriving during the war.
On the other hand, May Robson, as Joan's rough-hewn pioneer grandmother, is appropriately fierce and participates in the action as closely as anybody in the film. (She was near 80 when she made this!) SHE should have been the star. And Walter Brennan is his usual dependable self as the ranch foreman, Chuckawalla. Robson and Brennan are often together and the drama scenes benefit considerably when they're on screen. Raymond Hatton is another old hand at this kind of thing and he appears as Cal, Scott's frontiersman sidekick. The problem is, he literally arrives out of nowhere. When we last see Scott at the end of the opening sequence, where he's fought Union soldiers and helped Bennett escape with a shipment of rifles meant for die-hard Southern rebels, he's alone, unarmed, unhorsed and wearing an ill-fitting new suit of clothes that cost him everything he had. In the next scene, he shows up in a fresh buckskin suit, riding a horse, armed with pistols and rifle, and accompanied by Cal, with no explanation of how these things materialized or where Cal came from. Gaps like this tend to disrupt the storytelling for me.
One of the problems is that the credited director, James Hogan, worked mostly in B-movies and had a largely undistinguished career at Paramount. Why couldn't the studio have gotten one of their more experienced hands, like Henry Hathaway (LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER), to helm an important western like this? After all, no less a showman than Cecil B. DeMille had made the comparably budgeted western saga THE PLAINSMAN for Paramount two years earlier. To go from DeMille to Hogan in two short years demonstrates a distinct impairment of studio judgment. In any event, as another reviewer here pointed out, THE TEXANS compares most unfavorably with a later film that told a similar story, Howard Hawks' RED RIVER (1948).
This film introduced the gentle, melodic western song, "Silver on the Sage," sung in the film by Bill Roberts (as "Singin' Cy") and written by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger, Paramount's ace in-house songwriting team. (The pair also gave us the title song of the Hopalong Cassidy western, HILLS OF OLD WYOMING, a year earlier.) I first heard "Silver on the Sage" when it was used on the soundtrack of the 1981 drama, BUTTERFLY, the score of which was composed by Ennio Morricone. I don't remember how the song was used in the film, but the BUTTERFLY soundtrack album featured Johnny Bond's rendition of it.
On the other hand, May Robson, as Joan's rough-hewn pioneer grandmother, is appropriately fierce and participates in the action as closely as anybody in the film. (She was near 80 when she made this!) SHE should have been the star. And Walter Brennan is his usual dependable self as the ranch foreman, Chuckawalla. Robson and Brennan are often together and the drama scenes benefit considerably when they're on screen. Raymond Hatton is another old hand at this kind of thing and he appears as Cal, Scott's frontiersman sidekick. The problem is, he literally arrives out of nowhere. When we last see Scott at the end of the opening sequence, where he's fought Union soldiers and helped Bennett escape with a shipment of rifles meant for die-hard Southern rebels, he's alone, unarmed, unhorsed and wearing an ill-fitting new suit of clothes that cost him everything he had. In the next scene, he shows up in a fresh buckskin suit, riding a horse, armed with pistols and rifle, and accompanied by Cal, with no explanation of how these things materialized or where Cal came from. Gaps like this tend to disrupt the storytelling for me.
One of the problems is that the credited director, James Hogan, worked mostly in B-movies and had a largely undistinguished career at Paramount. Why couldn't the studio have gotten one of their more experienced hands, like Henry Hathaway (LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER), to helm an important western like this? After all, no less a showman than Cecil B. DeMille had made the comparably budgeted western saga THE PLAINSMAN for Paramount two years earlier. To go from DeMille to Hogan in two short years demonstrates a distinct impairment of studio judgment. In any event, as another reviewer here pointed out, THE TEXANS compares most unfavorably with a later film that told a similar story, Howard Hawks' RED RIVER (1948).
This film introduced the gentle, melodic western song, "Silver on the Sage," sung in the film by Bill Roberts (as "Singin' Cy") and written by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger, Paramount's ace in-house songwriting team. (The pair also gave us the title song of the Hopalong Cassidy western, HILLS OF OLD WYOMING, a year earlier.) I first heard "Silver on the Sage" when it was used on the soundtrack of the 1981 drama, BUTTERFLY, the score of which was composed by Ennio Morricone. I don't remember how the song was used in the film, but the BUTTERFLY soundtrack album featured Johnny Bond's rendition of it.
Howard Hawks covered the same ground better.
bkoganbing13 May 2004
This was a big budget effort for Paramount in 1938. Westerns after years of being relegated to the B picture market were just starting to come back with major player casts. This concerns the a fictional adaption of the first cattle drive from Texas to Abilene, Kansas following the Chisholm Trail. Howard Hawks did the same story a decade later with Red River only he did it far better.
Hawks in Red River contents himself with a line or two explaining the economic situation in Texas, post Civil War. Here a good quarter of the film is taken up with it. And the kind of racism expressed wouldn't fly today at all.
In the first 10 minutes of the film we see a black Union Army soldier sauntering down the street saying, "Union Army coming." with a crowd of defeated Confederates scowling. Never mind that that man had just fought for his freedom. Right after that the veterans see some of their brethren working the docks of the port of Indianola and one remarks that that wasn't the kind of job a white man should be doing. I'm sure that longshoremen everywhere got a charge out of that.
Anyway our two leads are Joan Bennett, an unreconstructed rebel who is the granddaughter of May Robson who owns a lot of cattle and land, but has no liquid assets to pay the Yankee carpetbagger taxes. She's involved in gunrunning to a group of rebels at large of whom her sweetheart Bob Cummings is one. He and his cavalry troop are going to join Maximilian in Mexico and when Max is finished putting down his rebels, they're coming back to throw out the Yankees. The other lead is Randolph Scott who is a Confederate veteran, but who realizes the war is over and we have to make a living.
His idea is to drive May Robson's cattle and sell them in Abilene where the railroad has reached. They have to sneak them out from under the nose of Robert Barrat, the local carpetbagger administrator who wants to seize them and the land for taxes imposed by the carpetbagger occupational government. That by the way sets the scene for the film's most memorable moment as May Robson drinks Robert Barrat under the table and Scott, Bennett and the rest of the hands sneak off with the herd.
After that it's the usual situations one expects from westerns involving cattle drives. They pick up Bob Cummings along the way whose troops have been annihilated by the Juaristas. Bob Cummings also tells Bennett of a new movement he's getting involved in called the Ku Klux Klan. By the end of the film with all the trials and tribulations they've gone through, guess who Bennett winds up with?
Later on this would be routine stuff for Randolph Scott. He and Bennett work well together. They get good support from Walter Brennan, Raymond Hatton, Harvey Stephens, Francis Ford, and most of all May Robson and Robert Barrat. A previous reviewer said Barrat is a buffoon and to be sure he is. Barrat is the kind of idiot that could only rise to the top in a situation like carpetbagger Texas. He probably is somebody's idiot brother-in-law and got the job through influence. That doesn't make him any less sinister. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
This film is also an example of how the studios and the recording industry work hand in glove. A song called Silver on the Sage was written by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger for the film. It's sung around the campfire in the usual singing cowboy tradition that was so popular back then. It's sung by Eddie Dean who later became a movie cowboy star in his own right. But Paramount just happened to have THE number one recording artist of the century under contract at the time. They persuaded Bing Crosby to record it for Decca and it enjoyed a modest sale, not one of Bing's bigger hits. But Robin and Rainger did much better that year with a song they wrote for another Paramount star for The Big Broadcast of 1938. That would be Thanks for the Memory and the film's star Bob Hope. It won the Oscar for best song that year.
Nice film, good performances, but see Red River first.
Hawks in Red River contents himself with a line or two explaining the economic situation in Texas, post Civil War. Here a good quarter of the film is taken up with it. And the kind of racism expressed wouldn't fly today at all.
In the first 10 minutes of the film we see a black Union Army soldier sauntering down the street saying, "Union Army coming." with a crowd of defeated Confederates scowling. Never mind that that man had just fought for his freedom. Right after that the veterans see some of their brethren working the docks of the port of Indianola and one remarks that that wasn't the kind of job a white man should be doing. I'm sure that longshoremen everywhere got a charge out of that.
Anyway our two leads are Joan Bennett, an unreconstructed rebel who is the granddaughter of May Robson who owns a lot of cattle and land, but has no liquid assets to pay the Yankee carpetbagger taxes. She's involved in gunrunning to a group of rebels at large of whom her sweetheart Bob Cummings is one. He and his cavalry troop are going to join Maximilian in Mexico and when Max is finished putting down his rebels, they're coming back to throw out the Yankees. The other lead is Randolph Scott who is a Confederate veteran, but who realizes the war is over and we have to make a living.
His idea is to drive May Robson's cattle and sell them in Abilene where the railroad has reached. They have to sneak them out from under the nose of Robert Barrat, the local carpetbagger administrator who wants to seize them and the land for taxes imposed by the carpetbagger occupational government. That by the way sets the scene for the film's most memorable moment as May Robson drinks Robert Barrat under the table and Scott, Bennett and the rest of the hands sneak off with the herd.
After that it's the usual situations one expects from westerns involving cattle drives. They pick up Bob Cummings along the way whose troops have been annihilated by the Juaristas. Bob Cummings also tells Bennett of a new movement he's getting involved in called the Ku Klux Klan. By the end of the film with all the trials and tribulations they've gone through, guess who Bennett winds up with?
Later on this would be routine stuff for Randolph Scott. He and Bennett work well together. They get good support from Walter Brennan, Raymond Hatton, Harvey Stephens, Francis Ford, and most of all May Robson and Robert Barrat. A previous reviewer said Barrat is a buffoon and to be sure he is. Barrat is the kind of idiot that could only rise to the top in a situation like carpetbagger Texas. He probably is somebody's idiot brother-in-law and got the job through influence. That doesn't make him any less sinister. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
This film is also an example of how the studios and the recording industry work hand in glove. A song called Silver on the Sage was written by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger for the film. It's sung around the campfire in the usual singing cowboy tradition that was so popular back then. It's sung by Eddie Dean who later became a movie cowboy star in his own right. But Paramount just happened to have THE number one recording artist of the century under contract at the time. They persuaded Bing Crosby to record it for Decca and it enjoyed a modest sale, not one of Bing's bigger hits. But Robin and Rainger did much better that year with a song they wrote for another Paramount star for The Big Broadcast of 1938. That would be Thanks for the Memory and the film's star Bob Hope. It won the Oscar for best song that year.
Nice film, good performances, but see Red River first.
The first western theme
HotToastyRag29 July 2021
Cute as a button Joan Bennett and cute as a button Randolph Scott make for a lovely early western in the aptly titled The Texans. Set in the Reconstruction era after the Civil War, it once again illustrated how wonderful it would have been if a man with a natural Southern accent had been cast in Gone With the Wind, instead of other actors who couldn't have been bothered to put one on.
This movie deals with carpetbaggers and the terrible way the South was treated after the war. If you don't like that message, rent a different movie that favors the Yankees. Joan and her tough-as-nails grandmother May Robson run an illegal route through the back country so people can bring cattle, whiskey, or other supplies through without getting taxed. Scottie joins the trail, lured in part by the money and in part by her appeal. You'll also see Walter Brennan, Robert Cummings, and Robert Barrat in supporting roles; the latter won a Hot Toasty Rag nomination for his hilarious performance.
With stiff competition in the music department, The Texans won the Rag award for its groundbreaking theme. Before 1938, western movies just used old standard tunes as the background music. Gerald Carbonara wrote a beautiful, heart-tugging theme that was the granddaddy of all the lovely western themes we know today. This movie has been forgotten through the decades, but if you like to see obscure flicks, check out this cute one. You'll definitely have enough eye candy to see you through.
This movie deals with carpetbaggers and the terrible way the South was treated after the war. If you don't like that message, rent a different movie that favors the Yankees. Joan and her tough-as-nails grandmother May Robson run an illegal route through the back country so people can bring cattle, whiskey, or other supplies through without getting taxed. Scottie joins the trail, lured in part by the money and in part by her appeal. You'll also see Walter Brennan, Robert Cummings, and Robert Barrat in supporting roles; the latter won a Hot Toasty Rag nomination for his hilarious performance.
With stiff competition in the music department, The Texans won the Rag award for its groundbreaking theme. Before 1938, western movies just used old standard tunes as the background music. Gerald Carbonara wrote a beautiful, heart-tugging theme that was the granddaddy of all the lovely western themes we know today. This movie has been forgotten through the decades, but if you like to see obscure flicks, check out this cute one. You'll definitely have enough eye candy to see you through.
Stalwart Randolph Scott Western That Anticipated Two Wayne Oaters
zardoz-1322 June 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Although "The Texans" beat Howard Hawks' "Red River" to the draw by at least a decade, "Arizona Raiders" director James P. Hogan's 92-minute, black & white saga about the first cattle drive to Abilene lacks both the cinematic polish and the passion of the Hawks' classic. Nevertheless, this above-average but predictable oater boasts a solid cast, sympathetic characters, several surprises, and some factual history. The bristling frontier action unfolds after the American Civil War as Reconstruction becomes the order of the day in Texas, and the carpetbaggers haul their freight into the state to tax the poor citizens into poverty. Randolph Scott makes an appropriately stalwart, fearless hero. A former Confederate private, he has endured his trials and tribulations, while a largely miscast Joan Bennett is every inch the heroine but rather narrow-minded in her attitude. Not only did she support the Confederacy during the war, but she also is prepared to support any hopeless effort to resurrect the Confederacy with the use of foreign troops under the command of the Mexican emperor Maximilian. Bennett has fallen in love with an idealist Confederate captain who epitomizes the South's refusal to grovel in any set of circumstances. Moreover, our heroine wants nothing to do with the scheming carpetbaggers. Indeed, she wants nothing to do with America and prefers to throw all her support to the Austrian monarch.
Meanwhile, Texans suffer grievously under Reconstruction. The Scott character is the only individual who isn't reluctant to forget about the war and embark on a new life. At one point, the Scott hero states that he knew some good Yankees during the war and has decided to let bygones be bygones. The theme of change and how these former Confederates struggle to change with the times lies at the heart of action. When they aren't herding cattle, contending with carpetbaggers, and battling Comanche Indians, Scott and Bennett are battling with each other. As a carpetbagger who isn't easily dispensed with until he meets his match, Robert Barrat plays greedy Isaiah Middlebrack. He pursues the Confederates when they smuggles guns into the region and later goes after them with a troop of U.S. Cavalry when they try to take ten-thousand cattle to Mexico. "Ebb Tide" scenarists Bertram Millhauser, "Geronimo" scribe Paul Sloane, and "Black Legion" writer William Wiser Haines adapted author Emerson Hough's novel "North of '36." Mind you, these characters are every bit as desperate as John Wayne and company were in "Red River," but Scott doesn't have somebody like Montgomery Cliff to contend with and a secondary character dispatches the chief villain before Scott can finish him.
"The Texans" opens at a river landing in Indianola, Texas, in 1865, where paddler wheelers are unloading cargo and supplies. The defeated Confederate soldiers are informed that they are still classified as the enemy until they shed their southern uniforms. In fact, the Union authorities refuse to let the men in gray pass the toll gate until they change clothing. Meanwhile, Ivy Preston (Joan Bennett of "The Woman in the Window") is driving a wagon laden with boxes of farm implements when a Union sergeant halts her so he can inspect her cargo. Kirk Jordan (Randolph Scott of "The Last of the Mohicans") spots the cargo and knows that the boxes contain weapons instead of tools. He helps Ivy get out of town before the Union authorities can poke around in those boxes. While Ivy delivers the weapons to Confederate Captain Alan Sanford (Robert Cummings of "Saboteur"), Kirk has to fork over ten acres of land to buy an ill-fitting suit of clothes. Ivy returns to Indianola to pick up her grandmother, Granna (May Robson of "Bringing Up Baby"), and Granna's ranch foreman Chuckawalla (Walter Brennan of "Red River"), so they can all return to their sprawling ranch Boca Grande on the border.
Everybody else seems pretty tame until these two show up, and Robson and Brennan steal the show. Brennan's character is intrigued with locomotives because he has never seen a train and wonders where they put the engines after dark. Granna is a headstrong woman with pioneering blood who refuses to buckle under any adversary. The two characters provide most of the comic relief in "The Texans," but the comedy doesn't overwhelm the drama. Kirk has to save Ivy's bacon again when the Union authorities, principally Middlebrack (Robert Barrat of "Baby Face"), arrests her and questions her not only about the stolen firearms but also a renegade Confederate officer Sanford. Granna has no use for Middlebrack. "There wouldn't be no enemy if there were scum of the earth like you. You with your plundering, murderous reconstruction." A riot enables our hero and heroine to escape from Indianola, and they ride back to Ivy's Boca Grande Ranch. The Preston women own ten-thousand cattle, and Ivy wants to drive the herd to Mexico to feed Southern troops working with Maximilian. Things, however, don't work out for Sanford. He eludes death in Mexico only to find himself back in Texas where the authorities want him for treason.
The scheming Middlebrack decides to let bygones be bygones with regard to the stolen rifles. Nevertheless, he saddles up with a detachment of Union cavalry and rides out to Boca Grande. He informs the Prestons about the new tax on cattle. While they are plying Middlebrack with liquor and food, Ivy strums a guitar and sings a coded song to Granna about taking the cattle away. Middlebrack plans to count the steers the following morning, but Granna drinks him under the table and Kirk leads the herd out. Middlebrack wastes no time when he recovers and chases them. Middlebrack dies during an Indian attack when Kirk's cohort, Cal Tuttle (Raymond Hatton of "Undersea Kingdom"), kills him with his tomahawk. Of course, we don't see Middlebrack bit the dust. Not only does this diminish the statue of his villain, but also it undercuts "The Texans." If you've seen "The Undefeated," you'll feel yourself on familiar turf.
Meanwhile, Texans suffer grievously under Reconstruction. The Scott character is the only individual who isn't reluctant to forget about the war and embark on a new life. At one point, the Scott hero states that he knew some good Yankees during the war and has decided to let bygones be bygones. The theme of change and how these former Confederates struggle to change with the times lies at the heart of action. When they aren't herding cattle, contending with carpetbaggers, and battling Comanche Indians, Scott and Bennett are battling with each other. As a carpetbagger who isn't easily dispensed with until he meets his match, Robert Barrat plays greedy Isaiah Middlebrack. He pursues the Confederates when they smuggles guns into the region and later goes after them with a troop of U.S. Cavalry when they try to take ten-thousand cattle to Mexico. "Ebb Tide" scenarists Bertram Millhauser, "Geronimo" scribe Paul Sloane, and "Black Legion" writer William Wiser Haines adapted author Emerson Hough's novel "North of '36." Mind you, these characters are every bit as desperate as John Wayne and company were in "Red River," but Scott doesn't have somebody like Montgomery Cliff to contend with and a secondary character dispatches the chief villain before Scott can finish him.
"The Texans" opens at a river landing in Indianola, Texas, in 1865, where paddler wheelers are unloading cargo and supplies. The defeated Confederate soldiers are informed that they are still classified as the enemy until they shed their southern uniforms. In fact, the Union authorities refuse to let the men in gray pass the toll gate until they change clothing. Meanwhile, Ivy Preston (Joan Bennett of "The Woman in the Window") is driving a wagon laden with boxes of farm implements when a Union sergeant halts her so he can inspect her cargo. Kirk Jordan (Randolph Scott of "The Last of the Mohicans") spots the cargo and knows that the boxes contain weapons instead of tools. He helps Ivy get out of town before the Union authorities can poke around in those boxes. While Ivy delivers the weapons to Confederate Captain Alan Sanford (Robert Cummings of "Saboteur"), Kirk has to fork over ten acres of land to buy an ill-fitting suit of clothes. Ivy returns to Indianola to pick up her grandmother, Granna (May Robson of "Bringing Up Baby"), and Granna's ranch foreman Chuckawalla (Walter Brennan of "Red River"), so they can all return to their sprawling ranch Boca Grande on the border.
Everybody else seems pretty tame until these two show up, and Robson and Brennan steal the show. Brennan's character is intrigued with locomotives because he has never seen a train and wonders where they put the engines after dark. Granna is a headstrong woman with pioneering blood who refuses to buckle under any adversary. The two characters provide most of the comic relief in "The Texans," but the comedy doesn't overwhelm the drama. Kirk has to save Ivy's bacon again when the Union authorities, principally Middlebrack (Robert Barrat of "Baby Face"), arrests her and questions her not only about the stolen firearms but also a renegade Confederate officer Sanford. Granna has no use for Middlebrack. "There wouldn't be no enemy if there were scum of the earth like you. You with your plundering, murderous reconstruction." A riot enables our hero and heroine to escape from Indianola, and they ride back to Ivy's Boca Grande Ranch. The Preston women own ten-thousand cattle, and Ivy wants to drive the herd to Mexico to feed Southern troops working with Maximilian. Things, however, don't work out for Sanford. He eludes death in Mexico only to find himself back in Texas where the authorities want him for treason.
The scheming Middlebrack decides to let bygones be bygones with regard to the stolen rifles. Nevertheless, he saddles up with a detachment of Union cavalry and rides out to Boca Grande. He informs the Prestons about the new tax on cattle. While they are plying Middlebrack with liquor and food, Ivy strums a guitar and sings a coded song to Granna about taking the cattle away. Middlebrack plans to count the steers the following morning, but Granna drinks him under the table and Kirk leads the herd out. Middlebrack wastes no time when he recovers and chases them. Middlebrack dies during an Indian attack when Kirk's cohort, Cal Tuttle (Raymond Hatton of "Undersea Kingdom"), kills him with his tomahawk. Of course, we don't see Middlebrack bit the dust. Not only does this diminish the statue of his villain, but also it undercuts "The Texans." If you've seen "The Undefeated," you'll feel yourself on familiar turf.
RECONSTRUCTION...SOUTHERN RESENTMENT...CATTLE DRIVE...EARLY RANDOLPH SCOTT
LeonLouisRicci1 September 2021
Somewhat Rare in 1938, a Big Budget Western with Plenty of Plot Involving the Post Civil-War Angst in Texas.
Randolph Scott in His Earlier Years before Maturing into the Granite Faced, Unshakable Moral Hero He would become in the Final Act of a Long Career.
Here He is a Fresh Faced Ex-Confederate that has a Progressive Attitude Concerning the War and is Ready to Forgive and Forget Unlike Most of the "Texans".
The North has its Villains Portrayed here by Carpetbaggers and Alcoholic Fat-Cat Politicians and Eager Plunderers.
Joan Bennett, a bit Miscast, but Pretty and Pretty Set in Revenge against the "Yankees" at All Costs.
The Highlight of the Movie is the Cattle Drive with one Fiery Sequence an Exciting Eye-Popper that is Late Thirties Hollywood Showing its Stuff.
Overall, the Themes would be Revisited in Future Better Westerns, but this is Worth a Watch for its Early Experiment in the Genre.
A Good Cast, quite a bit of Humor, and some Sprawling Outdoor Action make it quite an Entertainment.
It was the Period when the Studio System was Peaking.
This was the Type of Achievement that could Showcase the Movie Machine Approaching High-Pop-Culture-Art from a Conglomerate of Cooperative Creators.
Randolph Scott in His Earlier Years before Maturing into the Granite Faced, Unshakable Moral Hero He would become in the Final Act of a Long Career.
Here He is a Fresh Faced Ex-Confederate that has a Progressive Attitude Concerning the War and is Ready to Forgive and Forget Unlike Most of the "Texans".
The North has its Villains Portrayed here by Carpetbaggers and Alcoholic Fat-Cat Politicians and Eager Plunderers.
Joan Bennett, a bit Miscast, but Pretty and Pretty Set in Revenge against the "Yankees" at All Costs.
The Highlight of the Movie is the Cattle Drive with one Fiery Sequence an Exciting Eye-Popper that is Late Thirties Hollywood Showing its Stuff.
Overall, the Themes would be Revisited in Future Better Westerns, but this is Worth a Watch for its Early Experiment in the Genre.
A Good Cast, quite a bit of Humor, and some Sprawling Outdoor Action make it quite an Entertainment.
It was the Period when the Studio System was Peaking.
This was the Type of Achievement that could Showcase the Movie Machine Approaching High-Pop-Culture-Art from a Conglomerate of Cooperative Creators.
Average...no better
planktonrules6 April 2010
Warning: Spoilers
"The south was ruled as a conquered enemy. Northern politicians wallowed in an orgy of power--of plunder by organized mobs--of tribute and tyranny and death." This is taken from the prologue to this film. From the early 20th century until about 1960, there was a revisionist view of the Reconstruction years in which the Southerners were all portrayed as victims of evil Yankees and 'uppity' blacks! It turns out that this really is NOT what this era was like but it sure dominated films from "Birth of a Nation" (1915) through "Gallant Legion" (1948)--see David Blight and Eric Foner as well as the Nebraska Partnership for American History Education for more information about this). "The Texans" carries on this tradition of carpetbaggers (Northerners whose sole aims are to get rich and mistreat the Southerners) and scallywags (Southerners
who would betray their neighbors by working with the evil carpetbaggers).
The film begins with the Yankee soldiers doing all kinds of injustices to Southerners. Randolph Scott, Walter Brennan and the other good guys are all ex-Confederate soldiers who can only look on in horror as the occupying Northern soldiers do their worst. However, Joan Bennett (sporting blonde hair as she did early in her career) and May Robson have an idea--to sell guns to their Southern friends, hide cattle from greedy Northern tax collectors and sow discord against evil Yankee oppression. While completely wrong, at least this film doesn't credit the wonderful KKK with being heroes of the post-war South (like in "Birth of a Nation"!)!
During this portion of the film, oddly, Randolph Scott seems to be strangely absent from the plot. He's there but doesn't do a whole lot. Later, however, he's a little more obvious in the film and convinces a group of angry ex-Confederates to relocate to Abilene--and to get away from the repressive Yanks. After a long and arduous journey through Indian attacks and a pursuit by carpetbaggers intent on jailing the lot on trumped up charges, they arrive in Abilene at the exact perfect time. And, everyone lives happily ever after.
As far as this film goes, with so many westerns like it, it didn't do a whole lot to stand out from the crowd. Heck, even Randolph Scott made at least one other film with the same plot idea ("Thunder Over the Plains"). In addition, Errol Flynn and several other actors have made similar films--it was an awfully familiar theme. While I am a huge fan of Randolph Scott westerns, this one is amazingly ordinary despite some nice scenes and acting here and there and is far from being a must-see film. If you do watch it, just don't think it's in any way a history lesson!
who would betray their neighbors by working with the evil carpetbaggers).
The film begins with the Yankee soldiers doing all kinds of injustices to Southerners. Randolph Scott, Walter Brennan and the other good guys are all ex-Confederate soldiers who can only look on in horror as the occupying Northern soldiers do their worst. However, Joan Bennett (sporting blonde hair as she did early in her career) and May Robson have an idea--to sell guns to their Southern friends, hide cattle from greedy Northern tax collectors and sow discord against evil Yankee oppression. While completely wrong, at least this film doesn't credit the wonderful KKK with being heroes of the post-war South (like in "Birth of a Nation"!)!
During this portion of the film, oddly, Randolph Scott seems to be strangely absent from the plot. He's there but doesn't do a whole lot. Later, however, he's a little more obvious in the film and convinces a group of angry ex-Confederates to relocate to Abilene--and to get away from the repressive Yanks. After a long and arduous journey through Indian attacks and a pursuit by carpetbaggers intent on jailing the lot on trumped up charges, they arrive in Abilene at the exact perfect time. And, everyone lives happily ever after.
As far as this film goes, with so many westerns like it, it didn't do a whole lot to stand out from the crowd. Heck, even Randolph Scott made at least one other film with the same plot idea ("Thunder Over the Plains"). In addition, Errol Flynn and several other actors have made similar films--it was an awfully familiar theme. While I am a huge fan of Randolph Scott westerns, this one is amazingly ordinary despite some nice scenes and acting here and there and is far from being a must-see film. If you do watch it, just don't think it's in any way a history lesson!
a worthy primer for the later "Red River" and "The Undefeated"
weezeralfalfa3 January 2015
Warning: Spoilers
The first, by a decade, of 4 Hollywood films I'm familiar with, with a story centered around a large cattle drive northward out of Texas. The others are "Red River", "The Tall Men" and "Cowboy". They are all quite different from each other, and each is well worth a look, if you like epic westerns. This early film is typically disparaged as much the least of the 4. But after taking a look, I can say it certainly doesn't deserve this categorization. Some complain about the acting of stars Randy Scott and Joan Bennett, but I don't find anything terribly wrong. in a role tailor-made for Gary Cooper, Randy looks and acts the part well. Joan obviously is no cowgirl, but otherwise does fine. I would say this has the most complex plot and best balance of humor and drama of the 4 films, with the fresh aftermath of the Civil War playing a much more prominent part in the screenplay.
We have 3 'old timers' to spearhead much of the humor: Walter Brennan, who returned to "Red River", Francis Ford: older acting and directing brother of John Ford is peg-legged 'Uncle Dud', and May Robson, as Joan's pioneer grandmother. We have busy character actor Robert Barrat playing the chief villain, Isaiah Middlebrack: an oily money-grubbing Yankee come to steal Texan land from landowners who can't pay all the new taxes on everything, including cattle. He plays it as a stereotypical gruff-voiced villain, come to prey on vulnerable women, especially. There's Robert Cummings; Scott's competitor for the affections of Joan. He's sort of the equivalent of Dunson in "Red River", pursuing the wrong choices to Scott's right choices. Through most of the film, Joan supports him, but after the failure of his venture to ally with Maximillian against the Juarez rebels in Mexico, and then his support of the new Ku Klux Klan anti-negro organization, she decides that he's a loser fanatic, and that Scott's character is a winner, with an eye for a realistic future.
"Red River" provided another tall tale of the first cattle drive from deep in Texas to the new railhead in Abilene, KS. It too includes a stampede(but only one), several hostile Indian encounters, and conflicts between the principle characters. In some ways, it's more polished, but I think you will enjoy this film at least as much. The film starts out looking like it might turn into something more akin to the later Wayne-starring "The Undefeated", based on the historic attempt of General Shelby to join forces with Mexico's Maximillian, rather than surrendering to Union forces. However, Randy's persistence turned it into a "Red River" primer, instead.
As in "Red River", the film cattle were nearly all Herefords, rather than the historical longhorns, which were nearly extinct, by then. The semi-wild longhorns were uniquely well adapted to do well on long drives in this climate, provided they weren't pushed too fast. Actually, before the Civil War, longer drives to California were undertaken to take advantage of high prices in the gold mining districts.
The film begins with a steamboat arriving at the town of Indianola, TX. I wondered if this was a purely fictitious name, thus I checked it out. Turns out Indianola was a major seaport of the central Texas coast in this era, but was later wiped out twice by hurricanes and associated fires, thus abandoned as a ghost town. It's main competitor: Galveston, suffered a similar fate in 1900, but was rebuilt.
Presently available as part of the Classic Western Round-up, volume 2 DVD set, along with "The Man from the Alamo", "California", and "The Cimarron Kid"
We have 3 'old timers' to spearhead much of the humor: Walter Brennan, who returned to "Red River", Francis Ford: older acting and directing brother of John Ford is peg-legged 'Uncle Dud', and May Robson, as Joan's pioneer grandmother. We have busy character actor Robert Barrat playing the chief villain, Isaiah Middlebrack: an oily money-grubbing Yankee come to steal Texan land from landowners who can't pay all the new taxes on everything, including cattle. He plays it as a stereotypical gruff-voiced villain, come to prey on vulnerable women, especially. There's Robert Cummings; Scott's competitor for the affections of Joan. He's sort of the equivalent of Dunson in "Red River", pursuing the wrong choices to Scott's right choices. Through most of the film, Joan supports him, but after the failure of his venture to ally with Maximillian against the Juarez rebels in Mexico, and then his support of the new Ku Klux Klan anti-negro organization, she decides that he's a loser fanatic, and that Scott's character is a winner, with an eye for a realistic future.
"Red River" provided another tall tale of the first cattle drive from deep in Texas to the new railhead in Abilene, KS. It too includes a stampede(but only one), several hostile Indian encounters, and conflicts between the principle characters. In some ways, it's more polished, but I think you will enjoy this film at least as much. The film starts out looking like it might turn into something more akin to the later Wayne-starring "The Undefeated", based on the historic attempt of General Shelby to join forces with Mexico's Maximillian, rather than surrendering to Union forces. However, Randy's persistence turned it into a "Red River" primer, instead.
As in "Red River", the film cattle were nearly all Herefords, rather than the historical longhorns, which were nearly extinct, by then. The semi-wild longhorns were uniquely well adapted to do well on long drives in this climate, provided they weren't pushed too fast. Actually, before the Civil War, longer drives to California were undertaken to take advantage of high prices in the gold mining districts.
The film begins with a steamboat arriving at the town of Indianola, TX. I wondered if this was a purely fictitious name, thus I checked it out. Turns out Indianola was a major seaport of the central Texas coast in this era, but was later wiped out twice by hurricanes and associated fires, thus abandoned as a ghost town. It's main competitor: Galveston, suffered a similar fate in 1900, but was rebuilt.
Presently available as part of the Classic Western Round-up, volume 2 DVD set, along with "The Man from the Alamo", "California", and "The Cimarron Kid"
The Texans
coltras3521 April 2024
After the Civil War, the former Confederates of Texas are suffering under harsh taxes, ill treatment and corruption by the Federal Government during the Reconstruction era. Texas ranch owner, Ivy Preston accompanied by her grandmother Granna and her old ranch foreman, now the trail boss, Chuckawalla is trying to move her cattle to market to sell them. The carpetbaggers are not only trying to seize her cattle without payment but want her ranch as well for their own ends.
A Confederate veteran named Kirk Jordan ( Randolph Scott) who has had enough of war and convinces her to drive her cattle to Abilene, Kansas rather than Mexico but he is upset with her when he learns she wants to use the money to help the South continue fighting.
The Texans is a solid western set around the aftermath of the Civil War and the carpetbaggers (its depiction is really well done, quite grim). It has a healthy mix of humour, adventure and action, namely in some exciting sequences where the cattle driving are braving the elements through conflict such as Comanches and carpetbaggers. Joan Bennett plays the heroine and she's quite breezy, Randolph Scott is Randolph Scott and is solid but it's May Robson as "Granna" who steals the picture. There's a little love rivalry thrown in with Scott and Cummings vying for Bennett. I wonder who gets the gal. Ah! That's a no brainer. There's some slow bits and too many subjects are shoved into his running time but overall a solid western.
A Confederate veteran named Kirk Jordan ( Randolph Scott) who has had enough of war and convinces her to drive her cattle to Abilene, Kansas rather than Mexico but he is upset with her when he learns she wants to use the money to help the South continue fighting.
The Texans is a solid western set around the aftermath of the Civil War and the carpetbaggers (its depiction is really well done, quite grim). It has a healthy mix of humour, adventure and action, namely in some exciting sequences where the cattle driving are braving the elements through conflict such as Comanches and carpetbaggers. Joan Bennett plays the heroine and she's quite breezy, Randolph Scott is Randolph Scott and is solid but it's May Robson as "Granna" who steals the picture. There's a little love rivalry thrown in with Scott and Cummings vying for Bennett. I wonder who gets the gal. Ah! That's a no brainer. There's some slow bits and too many subjects are shoved into his running time but overall a solid western.
Unfortunate but not without charm
funkyfry19 April 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Randolph Scott is a former Confederate soldier and Joan Bennett plays a woman who refuses to admit when the Civil War is over in James Hogan's cattle rustling epic, which looks and feels in retrospect a lot like a B version of Howard Hawks' "Red River." There's a general lack of ambition here and the movie doesn't add up to much, just a formula picture that pretends to be somewhat more important than a singing cowboy picture.
Anytime Randolph Scott is wearing more makeup in the movie than Joan Bennett, that's a sign of trouble right there. Scott annoyed me to no end in this movie, and it's hard to believe he's the same man who became such a convincing western star in the 50s and 60s. The director is partly to blame, because he's always having Scott do these clownish double takes to the camera that really do not suit him. You shouldn't ask actors to do things that they really can't do. Joan Bennett is mis-cast because she feels too contemporary. Walter Brennan basically stole the movie and made a couple good scenes out of it. I wouldn't be surprised if Hawks did see the movie and figure he could do it better. The following year after this film, Brennan made a memorable appearance in Fritz Lang's "Fury," and shortly after that he began his memorable run of character performances for Hawks. So this film might if anything be somewhat important in terms of Brennan's filmography, since he basically proves here that he's even better than Gabby Hayes.
May Robson is also very amusing as "Granna", the ancient frontier woman who won't be left behind and who nurses a maternal affection for the aging Brennan character. Robert Cummings plays the rival love interest for Joan Bennett, a smarmy Confederate dead ender who dreams of leading rebel excursions from Mexico to reclaim Texas. B western regular Raymond Hatton also puts in a patented supporting performance as some kind of wilderness man to round up the rather generic but pleasant nature of the cast and film generally.
Not much else to say here. Hogan's direction is pedestrian and the story is somewhat interesting but very contrived. For instance, when the uber-annoying regional bureaucrat (Robert Barrat) is murdered rather obviously in the midst of a fray by Scott's trapping buddy (Hatton), the military officer in charge (Harvey Stephens) barely bothers to investigate and suddenly switches plans and agrees to help the ranchers. It's all tied up in such a way as to soothe the frayed nerves between the Southerners and the Northerners, as if this was some piece of propaganda delayed by some 60 odd years. There's a couple shoot-outs against Indians but nothing really invested with any drama or meaning. Violence in this movie is simply action, and not very good action. Basically the movie would suffice for Saturday morning but it seems to want to be at least a bit more than that, and fails.
Anytime Randolph Scott is wearing more makeup in the movie than Joan Bennett, that's a sign of trouble right there. Scott annoyed me to no end in this movie, and it's hard to believe he's the same man who became such a convincing western star in the 50s and 60s. The director is partly to blame, because he's always having Scott do these clownish double takes to the camera that really do not suit him. You shouldn't ask actors to do things that they really can't do. Joan Bennett is mis-cast because she feels too contemporary. Walter Brennan basically stole the movie and made a couple good scenes out of it. I wouldn't be surprised if Hawks did see the movie and figure he could do it better. The following year after this film, Brennan made a memorable appearance in Fritz Lang's "Fury," and shortly after that he began his memorable run of character performances for Hawks. So this film might if anything be somewhat important in terms of Brennan's filmography, since he basically proves here that he's even better than Gabby Hayes.
May Robson is also very amusing as "Granna", the ancient frontier woman who won't be left behind and who nurses a maternal affection for the aging Brennan character. Robert Cummings plays the rival love interest for Joan Bennett, a smarmy Confederate dead ender who dreams of leading rebel excursions from Mexico to reclaim Texas. B western regular Raymond Hatton also puts in a patented supporting performance as some kind of wilderness man to round up the rather generic but pleasant nature of the cast and film generally.
Not much else to say here. Hogan's direction is pedestrian and the story is somewhat interesting but very contrived. For instance, when the uber-annoying regional bureaucrat (Robert Barrat) is murdered rather obviously in the midst of a fray by Scott's trapping buddy (Hatton), the military officer in charge (Harvey Stephens) barely bothers to investigate and suddenly switches plans and agrees to help the ranchers. It's all tied up in such a way as to soothe the frayed nerves between the Southerners and the Northerners, as if this was some piece of propaganda delayed by some 60 odd years. There's a couple shoot-outs against Indians but nothing really invested with any drama or meaning. Violence in this movie is simply action, and not very good action. Basically the movie would suffice for Saturday morning but it seems to want to be at least a bit more than that, and fails.
The Evil Aftermath of the War Between the States
vitaleralphlouis11 January 2008
Warning: Spoilers
An exceptionally good epic western starring Randolph Scott --- before he regularly got top billing. In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, the North (who quite incidentally had failed at that point to free their own slaves -- including those owned by General Grant) have sent the carpetbaggers into Texas to steal the land and cattle from the surviving Texans. But not all Texans will stand for it.......
While this film quite rightly sides with the ex-Confederates, not all the Union guys are portrayed as devils. The Union troops are pretty much cast as regular American guys who sometimes have to carry out ill advised orders from evil minded superiors.
The turmoil will lead to the first major cattle drive from Texas ranches to the new rail line in Abeline, Kansas. Even though the beef will be destined to feed undeserving people in the North, that's where they head --- fighting tough country, Indians, and a lot more.
Recently paired with California on a DVD, you get two good westerns for the rental price of one.
While this film quite rightly sides with the ex-Confederates, not all the Union guys are portrayed as devils. The Union troops are pretty much cast as regular American guys who sometimes have to carry out ill advised orders from evil minded superiors.
The turmoil will lead to the first major cattle drive from Texas ranches to the new rail line in Abeline, Kansas. Even though the beef will be destined to feed undeserving people in the North, that's where they head --- fighting tough country, Indians, and a lot more.
Recently paired with California on a DVD, you get two good westerns for the rental price of one.
Great Cattle Drive
januszlvii16 January 2022
The Texans is a very underrated movie. The cattle drive featuring 2500 Longhorns and the fire set by Comanches are outstanding, and the primary reasons to watch The Texans. As for the acting Walter Brennan (Chuckawalla) is certainly a highlight, as is Randolph Scott ( Kirk Jordan). Scott who is almost always excellent in westerns plays a Confederate soldier after the Civil War who is willing to forgive the North for the War ( just like he did in Santa Fe ( although that was a better movie)). His love interest was Joan Bennett ( Ivy) who is a much more hard core Confederate then he was. Joan is very beautiful, but not Southern in the least. The biggest problem was too many plot lines ( such as the even more radical Alan Sanford ( Robert Cummings), who is engaged to Ivy, but she drops him for Scott after he talks about joining the KKK and she realizes all he wants to do is play war. The KKK part took about 15 seconds of the movie, so it was unnecessary. They should have killed off Sanford on the cattle drive like they did with Carpetbagger Isaiah Middlebrack (Robert Barrat)). For those who are Scott and ( or) Western fans do not miss it. 8/10 stars mostly for the Cattle drive.
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