The Texas Rangers Ride Again (1940)

Director:

James P. Hogan

Writers:

William R. Lipman (writer) and
Horace McCoy (writer)

Release Date:

13 December 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

Straight into a hail of lead...to find range renegades---and romance!

Plot:

With thousands of cattle being rustled from White Sage ranch the 1930's Texas Rangers are called in. They manage to get one of their agents into the gang by making them think he is the Pecos Kid on the lam. |

Plot Keywords:

Texas Ranger | Cattle | Murder

Cast

Ellen Drew	...	Ellen 'Slats' Dangerfield
John Howard	...	Jim Kingston aka Pecos Kid
Akim Tamiroff	...	Mio Pio
May Robson	...	Cecilia Dangerfield
Broderick Crawford	...	Mace Townsley
Charley Grapewin	...	Ben Caldwalder
John Miljan	...	Carter Dangerfield
William Duncan	...	Captain Inglis
Anthony Quinn	...	Joe Yuma
Harvey Stephens	...	Ranger Blair
Eva Puig	...	Maria
Harold Goodwin	...	Ranger Comstock
Edward Pawley	...	Palo Pete
Eddie Foy Jr.	...	Mandolin
Joseph Crehan	...	Johnson

Also Known As:

Texas! (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

68 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Finland:S | USA:Approved (PCA #6260)

Filming Locations:

Mesa, Arizona, 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.

Movie Connections:

Follows The Texas Rangers (1936)

By any other name it's rustling

I'm sure Paramount could not possibly have released what the end would be in the careers in the cast of Texas Rangers Ride Again. You've got the unusual situation where the nominal leads, John Howard and Ellen Drew, are overshadowed by the incredible supporting cast. Two of them, Anthony Quinn and Broderick Crawford went on to win Oscars. The rest of the cast included such worthies as May Robson, Akim Tamiroff, Eddie Foy, Jr., and Charley Grapewin probably all better known to the average movie buff than the leads.

The leads deem it a B film. But Paramount in shooting on location in Arizona gave it some A production values. Ellen Drew was best known as Hugette in If I Were King and John Howard's career role was as George Kittridge in The Philadelphia Story. Drew is the granddaughter of May Robson who is essentially reprising her role from The Texans. Howard and Crawford are Texas Rangers working undercover a cattle hijacking operation.

Well by any other name, it's rustling. And this is a modern day western so the Rangers are equipped with shortwave radios to aid in crime fighting and automobiles to supplement the horses.

One line really disturbed me though. From the gitgo it's clear that Anthony Quinn playing Indian cowboy Joe Yuma who's involved with the rustlers. But he's dismissed as the possible big boss with the line, "no Indian could possibly be clever enough to be behind this operation." I'm sure Anthony Quinn with his mestizo heritage got a real charge out of that. Actually his character is quite shrewd and that line doesn't gibe with the plot at all.

The supporting cast is classic, but this nothing to stay home on Saturday afternoon for.