The Texas Rangers (1936)

 

THE TEXAS RANGERS (1936)

By Ralph Santini -***½ 

 

                   It's been said that in the 1930s nobody was making A-Movie Westerns before John Ford's classic Stagecoach was released. That's not true, there were occasionally Westerns that were made on budgets higher than the usual B-Western. There was Cecil B-Demille's big epic The Plainsman from 1936 starring Gary Cooper, Annie Oakley from 1935 with Barbara Stanwyck as the title role (yes, there was another film long before the Film adaptation of the popular Broadway show, Annie Get Your Gun from 1950) among others. 

                   King Vidor's 1936 film, The Texas Rangers, is among one of them, and a surprisingly enjoyable one too. It is fast-paced, well acted, and even unexpectedly funny. The movie stars Fred MacMurray and Jack Oakie as two outlaws that reluctantly join The Texas Rangers division to elude the law, while another outlaw (played brilliantly by fine character actor Lloyd Nolan) still operates on his heists.

                  During their manhunt for cattle rustlers, they meet up with each other and the Rangers and the ongoing bandit agree to use some inside information. They later save a brave kid from some savage Native Americans who kill his parents, and decide to give him new life at the Ranger's Major's (played by Edward Ellis from the 1936 film Fury) House.

The main problem with this situation, however, is that the Major's daughter (Jean Parker), wants to give the kid a more civilized life and this annoys the two outlaws making them argue with her sharply about it, that is until one of them (Oakie) begins to sympathize with her after he witnesses her make some Baked Virginia Ham. This however doesn't seem to convince MacMurray to like her enough, until much later on. 

                 Going back to the duties of the Rangers, the two Outlaws learn that the bloodthirsty Native Americans have begun to make more trouble for the white civilization in Texas and along with the rest of the rangers they go on to fight them. This is one fast-paced scene that makes this film recognize that King Vidor's type of action can be very memorable in terms of Western filmmaking. I know it's not politically correct today but i hope we haven't lost out sense of excitement for good action because that doesn't make this scene to be boring at all.

              Another fine scene in this film, is where MacMurray is assigned to patrol a corrupt town and oversee a trial of a ruthless crook for the murder of two innocent brothers where its presiding judge is played by the wonderful George "Gabby" Hayes. As far as I'm concerned he has always been fun to look at, even if he appears in a so-so or bad western, which this film isn't, far from it. It also has a hilarious moment where an old and senile witness doesn't remember the incident of the brothers' killing but then MacMurray insists on questioning him so that there are no screw-ups at the trial, when suddenly, two of the crook's accomplices come to kill the Ranger, but he is then saved by the vigilantist Lloyd Nolan.

            Then we cut to our next Ranger assignment, which is the manhunt for a "Polka Dot" bandit, who's alter ego happens to be Nolan, Fred MacMurray's close friend. At first MacMurray doesn't want to go out after Nolan but he is then taken prisoner after the Major finds out that he and Nolan were outlaws together. Fortunately, one of the outlaws, Jack Oakie, is willing to take Nolan down and he and the kid join forces together for the manhunt.

         I can't give away the ending of this film, but i will say the final showdown between MacMurray and Nolan is one brilliantly staged scene by King Vidor who made four more westerns including Northwest Passage, Man Without a Star and Duel In the Sun. Frankly i have not seen those other films on account on that two of them are not on DVD and the latter third is out of print. But i will say that this is one of the finest pre-1939 sound Westerns ever made.

         With it's memorable blend of action, humor, tragedy, this film remains to be a near-classic. MacMurray, Oakie and Nolan are all excellent and all convincing as the Three Outlaws with extremely different personalities. I also enjoyed Edward Ellis as the fearless major who will do anything to lead his Ranger Company to uphold the law from all of its terrible crimes from Texas.