It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Blistering performances.

A fairly interesting horse opera about the reestablishment of the Teas Rangers, following the withdrawal of Union troops in 1874, and their assignment to break up an all-star gang of desperados. Major John B. Jones, who heads the rangers, is based on a real person of the same name, who is credited with capturing outlaw Sam Bass, the name of a real outlaw, as is John Westley Hardin, Duke(King, actually) Fisher, Dave Rudabaugh, Butch Cassidy, and the Sundance Kid. In contrast, bank robbers Buffy Smith(Noah Beery, Jr.) and Johnny Carver(George Montgomery)are purely fictitious names. They are the two who are immediately captured after the daytime robbery of a Waco bank. They were beaned or shot by their accomplice, The Sundance Kid, who escaped by horse, after also accidentally killing the publisher of the local newspaper: the father of Helen(Gale Storm): the editor. Carver and Smith are offered freedom if they will join the rangers as scouts, primarily, since they know the hideouts of most outlaws in the area. They accept this challenge, and their story is(amazingly)published in the newspaper by the editor, who thinks they will be up to no good. Bass's gang are intent on stealing $50,000. in bills just received by the bank. However, Carver escapes out the back door with the $50,000. while the gang is knocking the front door down(amazingly in daylight!) He figures it's safer in his hiding place than in the bank vault, although initially no one else thinks so. Carver pretends to abandon the rangers to join Bass's gang, acting as an undercover agent. The gang plays along with him, but don't trust him, especially from his reaction to their shooting of his buddy Buffy Smith, who didn't desert. Carver tells them that a train shipment of $1,000,000. in gold is due in, but he won't tell them which train, until it's time to make the heist. Bass changes the heist plans at the last minute, in case Carver told the rangers about it(he did). The climax consists of the takeover of the train on a slow section of track, and decoupling the car with the Pinkerton agents in it. Carver fights with his accomplice over control of the locomotive, which goes past the point where the gang is supposed to swoop down on the train. The gang rides after the train, as it approaches the station where the rangers are gathered. The few light moments are mostly supplied by Helen's small nephews and by one meeting of Carver with Helen, in which he keeps shoving her back in her chair, then slaps her, then grabs and kisses her, all to impress his gang buddies, who are watching through the window. The expected romance between Carver and Helen doesn't show until the last minute.

This movie starts off a bit slow but the story line captures you and before you know it you are caught up in a wonderful adventure, I was sorry to see it end. Wonderful location shots , snappy dialog, a really good cast , the villains are played to the hilt and the good guys start off a bit shaky but by the final reel they take control. In one scene Myron Healey an excellent actor, one of the perennial heavies in the fifties westerns forgets and leaves a modern day hearing aid on his right ear, it is clearly visible in the shot, I wonder how many people in the audience picked up on it. The movie ends up with a real good chase involving a train carrying a million dollars in gold and the band of outlaws and the Texas Rangers converging in the final shootout. Attention all western buffs, don't miss this one.

Beautifully filmed, SuperCineColor production from Columbia pictures, with a good cast. George Montgomery and Noah Berry are ex-outlaws-turned-Texas Rangers, sent out to help round up the gang they used to ride with. Gale Storm plays a feisty newspaper lady who don't cotton much to Montgomery on account of he was with the outlaws who gunned down her father, the Sheriff, before Montgomery turned into a good guy.Montgomery plays one of those a man-in-the-middle characters: he infiltrates the outlaw gang, but the Texas Rangers think he's gone bad again. Nobody believes he's a good guy except the lovely and faithful Miss Storm, after Montgomery works his charm on her. Meanwhile, the outlaw boss knows Montgomery is a spy, so they plan to kill him after he helps with a million-dollar train robberyAction? Dern tootin', pardner! After being shot several times and almost falling off the train, Montgomery slugs it out with an outlaw for control of the engine while the rest of the gang rides alongside, shooting at him. The outlaw tries to feed him into the boiler! Montgomery wins the fight when he sticks the outlaw's gun down the man's pants and pulls the trigger! Ouch .. . ('This is for shootin' my kid brother in the back, you low-down varmit!')Not exactly 'The Magnificent Seven', but good Western fun from the colorful 1950s.

This movie gets my vote as Gale Storm's best western film. She is outstanding in her scenes with her leading man, George Montgomery. The film begins with Johnny Carver (Montgomery), Buff Smith (Noah Beery Jr) and the Sundance Kid (Ian MacDonald) robbing the Waco bank. Sundance double-crosses Carver and Smith, shooting Carver in the back and killing the town sheriff. Fade to prison where Carver and Smith are being held. Major Jones of the Texas Rangers gets the men freed to become Rangers and track down the outlaws who are terrorizing the good folks in Texas. They are released and become Rangers over Helen Fenton's (Gale Storm's) objections. As a Ranger, Johnny meets up with his kid brother (played by DYNASTY director Jerome Courtland) who is killed by the Sam Bass gang. Johnny vows his revenge and gets it. George Montgomery's scenes with Gale are absolutely first rate. The cinematography by Ellis W. Carter is breathtaking! Gale told me that The TEXAS RANGERS was filmed "on location" but in Hollywood-not Texas. No matter, the scenery is beautiful and real...not projected. This is a four star picture in my book. Well worth seeing and owning!