The Texas Rangers (1936)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

King Vidor

Writers:

King Vidor (story) and
Elizabeth Hill (story) ...

Release Date:

28 August 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Western

Plot:

Two down-on-their-luck former outlaws volunteer to be Texas Rangers and find themselves assigned to bring in an old friend, now a notorious outlaw.

Plot Keywords:

Texas Ranger | Outlaw | Stagecoach | Indian | Cattle Rustling

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Fred MacMurray	...	Jim Hawkins
Jack Oakie	...	Henry B. 'Wahoo' Jones
Jean Parker	...	Amanda Bailey
Lloyd Nolan	...	Sam 'Polka Dot' McGee
Edward Ellis	...	Major Bailey
Benny Bartlett	...	David (as Bennie Bartlett)
Frank Shannon	...	Capt. Stafford
Frank Cordell	...	Ranger Ditson
Richard Carle	...	Casper Johnson
Jed Prouty	...	District Attorney Twitchell
Fred Kohler	...	Jess Higgins (as Fred Kohler Sr.)
George 'Gabby' Hayes	...	Judge Snow (as George Hayes)

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

UK:U | Australia:PG | Norway:16 | USA:Approved (certificate #2391) | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Diablo Canyon, near, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

Goofs:

Continuity: After enlisting in the Texas Rangers, Jim puts his hat on twice.

Quotes:

Wahoo Jones: Looks like you got me, Sam, but I'll lay my cards on the table. I'll shoot straight.
Sam McGee: [shooting Wahoo under the table] So will I.

Movie Connections:

Remade as Streets of Laredo (1949)

Soundtrack:

I Can't Play the Banjo with Susanna on My Knee

Three outlaws, and what happens to their friendship.

King Vidor was quite a director, and he managed to make a western in 1936, that is still very entertaining today. The action scenes did not yet have the technical improvements that would come in the late forties and fifties, but that is a minor detail. The three main characters, MacMurray, Jack Oakie and LLoyd Nolan are outlaws and two of them (MacMurray and Oakie) end up becoming Texas Rangers with the intention of getting information for future robberies. Nolan starts becoming famous as the "Polkadot", because he uses a mask with a polkadot pattern. It is interesting that Nolan's real name in the film is Sam Mcgee, which was also the name of one of poet Robert Service's main characters. Jean Parker is excellent as Amanda, quite a woman, she is the one who chooses her man and makes the advances.