bkoganbing When I was a kid and watching B films like this on television because generally they were the first to be sold there, I used to love these westerns where a gang of famous outlaw names band together for a united force of banditry in the old west. Such a film is The Texas Rangers, not to be confused with the Paramount film that starred Fred MacMurray in the Thirties. Different studio, different plot.William Bishop plays the gentlemanly, but deadly Sam Bass and he's put together quite an all star lineup of outlaws in the old west. Such desperadoes as Dave Rudabaugh, John Wesley Hardin, King Fisher and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid all in one gang.The answer is for Texas to reform the Texas Rangers and John Litel the captain as gotten a release for outlaws George Montgomery and Noah Beery, Jr. to set a pair of outlaws to catch some outlaws.Here's where an otherwise good film gets colossally stupid. If you're going to do that, create a false escape from prison. But Litel doesn't do that and newspaper editor Gale Storm whose father was accidentally shot in shootout that Montgomery and Beery were involved in prints their names and mission in her paper. I mean, really.Still with that handicap Montgomery gets the job done. Did you think he wouldn't?I have to point out two standout performances the first being William Bishop as Sam Bass. One elegant and deadly killer and no one's fool. The second is that of Jerome Courtland playing Montgomery's younger brother who has an extremely touching death scene.If only they had given Montgomery and Beery a cover story.

Michael Morrison In so many ways, this is typical Hollywood.History is botched so thoroughly, this script becomes caricature.Despite a great cast, and a pretty good story, watching it was painful for me because of all the character names: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, John Wesley Hardin, and so many other real villains of history are thrown into the mix here.Naturally, being bad guys, most of them get bumped off -- and it is really infuriating to watch because all those people had real deaths at other places and times.Why? Why not just make up other names and present a nice fictional story? It would have been a much better movie.

alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) Phil Karlson knew how to make the most out of his movies, and The Texas Rangers proves the point. The only other Montgomery western that is just as good is "The Iroquois Trail" also directed by Karlson. In this film Montgomery is an outlaw who is betrayed together with his friend Noah Beery Jr., by the vicious Sundance Kid. William Bishop (Sam Bass) decides to unite a group of famous outlaws like Butch Cassidy, Sundance, John Wesley Hardin, and Dave Rudabaugh. At the beginning of the film they show each famous outlaw killing somebody, the idea is to show how cruel they are. Montgomery is freed from jail on condition he will help the rangers in their fight against the outlaws. Gale Storm(Helen), who writes in the newspaper hates him because her father died in a shootout between him and Sundance. If you like westerns with plenty of good action scenes, fast moving you, will enjoy this film. The last sequence, when they fight on the train is excellent.

Robert Kirkwood 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.