Compared to some of Gene's other pictures like "Carolina Moon" and "Heart of the Rio Grande", "Cow Town" isn't one of the more romantic sounding titles in the cowboy actor's prolific lineup. Probably just as well considering the subject matter. The story seems to tell the unofficial history of barbed wire and even though the theme has been used in other TV and movie Westerns, I don't think I've ever seen it given the emphasis it has here.
Specifically, Gene and his fellow ranchers have been irked by stolen cattle, so he brings in a load of this new fangled contraption that he intends to show everyone how it can be used to keep livestock in their place. Added benefits include keeping a firmer rein on breeding stock and preventing herds from mixing with each other on open range land. But there's always a fly in the ointment. This time, partners Reeves (Harry Shannon) and Hilliard (Steve Darrell) use the well tested plot device of buying up foreclosed ranches so they can move in with sheep in direct competition with the cattle ranchers. So they go about tearing down the fences and maiming cattle in an effort to prove that barbed wire isn't a solution to the cattlemen's problem
There's a scene in the movie that's positively a head scratcher. Remember when Reeves pins down the two henchmen Mike and Ed during the posse chase - he tells them to throw down their guns and come out in the open. So with their hands up in the air, they step out and Reeves shoots them both for reasons we find out about later. But when Gene arrives on the scene with the sheriff, both dead men are shown with a gun in their outstretched hand to support Reeves' claim that they were about to shoot him. There's just no way to rationalize that event, so I won't even try.
Very cool to see one of my favorites, Jock Mahoney here as a villain working for Reeves and Hilliard. At the time he was still using the name of O'Mahoney. I thought about his fist fight with Gene early in the picture, and in the real world, I don't think even a hero like Gene at forty three could have whipped up on the athletic Mahoney who was a decade younger at the time. But this was Gene's picture, so I don't have a problem with it. Mahoney of course would get his own 'Range Rider' TV series the following year while Gene would be filming his own show as well.
And boy, Autry regular Gail Davis sure takes her lumps in this story. I can't believe she had to fall in a mudhole three times over the course of the picture. Gene must have felt bad about it because in the final scene he joins her and they both have a good laugh about it. Besides that, the only other puzzler in the movie has to do with outlaw Hilliard - who in the world names their dog Nick?
Specifically, Gene and his fellow ranchers have been irked by stolen cattle, so he brings in a load of this new fangled contraption that he intends to show everyone how it can be used to keep livestock in their place. Added benefits include keeping a firmer rein on breeding stock and preventing herds from mixing with each other on open range land. But there's always a fly in the ointment. This time, partners Reeves (Harry Shannon) and Hilliard (Steve Darrell) use the well tested plot device of buying up foreclosed ranches so they can move in with sheep in direct competition with the cattle ranchers. So they go about tearing down the fences and maiming cattle in an effort to prove that barbed wire isn't a solution to the cattlemen's problem
There's a scene in the movie that's positively a head scratcher. Remember when Reeves pins down the two henchmen Mike and Ed during the posse chase - he tells them to throw down their guns and come out in the open. So with their hands up in the air, they step out and Reeves shoots them both for reasons we find out about later. But when Gene arrives on the scene with the sheriff, both dead men are shown with a gun in their outstretched hand to support Reeves' claim that they were about to shoot him. There's just no way to rationalize that event, so I won't even try.
Very cool to see one of my favorites, Jock Mahoney here as a villain working for Reeves and Hilliard. At the time he was still using the name of O'Mahoney. I thought about his fist fight with Gene early in the picture, and in the real world, I don't think even a hero like Gene at forty three could have whipped up on the athletic Mahoney who was a decade younger at the time. But this was Gene's picture, so I don't have a problem with it. Mahoney of course would get his own 'Range Rider' TV series the following year while Gene would be filming his own show as well.
And boy, Autry regular Gail Davis sure takes her lumps in this story. I can't believe she had to fall in a mudhole three times over the course of the picture. Gene must have felt bad about it because in the final scene he joins her and they both have a good laugh about it. Besides that, the only other puzzler in the movie has to do with outlaw Hilliard - who in the world names their dog Nick?
