This is an amiable black & white, Paramount western about a trio of villains. Jim Hawkins (Fred MacMurray) and Sam McGee (Lloyd Nolan) hold up stagecoaches driven by their partner Wahoo (Jack Oakie) and make a good living at it. This is an interesting scheme, but eventually they are separated from each other. Sam goes on to become a notorious desperado, while Jim and Wahoo stop their stagecoach robbing scenario when Wahoo winds up driving a coach guarded by a humorless Texas Ranger. Indeed, the regular Rangers are a bunch of tough-looking, no-nonsense hombres, and "The Texas Rangers" is dedicated to them. "The Crowd" director King Vidor, who made several classics during his career, keeps thing moseying along in this outdoors drama. You can tell it's a morality play because our friends split up about half-way through with Wahoo turning goodie-two-shoes, while Sam rustles every steer in sight in south Texas. Actually, Jim and Sam are buddies up until the final quarter hour after Sam kills Wahoo in cold blood. Yes, there is a romance, but it is played more for laughs than love. MacMurray looks suitable for this kind of sagebrusher and Nolan is a dastard through and through as the Poka-Dot bandit. There is an interesting scene where the Rangers, out-numbered by Indians, take refuge on a mountain side and three braves start rolling boulders down on them.
Review of The Texas Rangers
