Load of rubbish!!

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

It's the late C18th and William Holden (Dan) and Glenn Ford (Tod) are buddies making it to Texas. They get into trouble in a town and flee, then rob some outlaws, then escape a sheriff's posse before splitting up and wishing each other luck. They know they will meet again. And they do. However, can they keep their friendship under the new circumstances? And who will get the girl – Claire Trevor (Mike)? First of all Claire Trevor has a ridiculous name - "Michael"! For a girl! Who writes this rubbish? Her role is confusing. She is funny and likable when we meet her in her actions and manners, but her behaviour is appalling. How can she get away with betraying Ford like that? He is clearly the "good guy" while Holden is more of a loose cannon. However, their friendship still holds till the end of the film and their loyalty to one another is to be admired. Even to the point of riding away together, just the two of them, and leaving the "loose" Claire Trevor behind. Do they go for it? Well, maybe…...maybe not…A lot of praise has been given to Edgar Buchanan (Doc) as the town dentist. Funnily enough, he was an actual dentist before he became an actor. However, I'm going against the grain on this. I couldn't stand him. From his look to his accent and voice. I found him wholly unappealing. Not the character he was playing but actually him. His voice is the same as "Droopy" in the "Droopy" cartoons, ie, annoying.The comedy is sometimes silly, the story takes a while to get going, the ending seems rushed and we needed some Indians. However, Holden and Ford are likable as the lead roles and the film is OK if a bit disappointing given the rave reviews I had previously read about it. As for Windy Miller, we all know that he lives in "Camberwick Green" these days. He owns a windmill and spends his days drinking homemade cider and falling asleep. For those who aren't in the know, Google him.

Two young cowpokes played by William Holden and Glenn Ford in their youth are trying to make their way to Texas. As former Confederates they're not treated so well in Yankee country. When they spot some outlaws holding up a stage they decide to rob the outlaws. Of course when the sheriff finds Ford with the loot, Holden has to rescue him from a lynching. In eluding the posse the two go their separate ways and thereby hangs a tale.This was the first of two films Holden and Ford made together, the second being The Man from Colorado after World War II. Both of them had the same unusual contract situation. Holden came up through Paramount ranks, but was spotted there by Harry Cohn at Columbia and given the lead as an unknown in Golden Boy. So confident was Cohn in Holden's success that he took the highly unusual step of purchasing half of his contract from Paramount. So Holden was under contract to two major studios at the same time.Ironically enough Glenn Ford in the late Forties had half of his contract purchased by MGM when Harry Cohn sold it. These are the only two stars whoever had such an unusual arrangement.It is also the first time Glenn Ford worked with Director George Marshall although it would take another 17 years for them to reunite in The Sheepman. After that the two of them did a whole string of successful comedies together.There's is some humor in Texas, but the accent here is on action which comes pretty fast and furious. Holden falls in with the outlaws he and Ford held up and Ford becomes a big mover and shaker with the cattlemen. Ford persuades them all to get a big herd together and drive them to the railroad terminus in Kansas. He's also trying to impress Claire Trevor the rancher's daughter who Holden also is interested in.Texas has a trio of villains in George Bancroft, Addison Richards and Edgar Buchanan. This was the film where Edgar Buchanan got his first attention. His folksy demeanor masks some serious scheming in this film, the first of many reprobates he played in the movies although most of them were not as seriously villainous as here.Glenn Ford and Edgar Buchanan hit it off very well. They worked in about a dozen films together and in Ford's television series Cade's County.Texas is a good western and it's a pleasure to watch two young screen immortals in their beginning days.

In the midst of all the wide screen, technicolor 1950s westerns, I saw this small screen B&W feature when I was ten, in 1957. Something about it just took hold.The simple but fast paced story is fun and entertaining. Glenn Ford and William Holden are in top form even at the start of their great careers. Claire Trevor is attractive and spunky. Edgar Buchanan is the consummate character actor in his usual role as a shady...fill in the blank...dentist. His constant reference to "a bad bicuspid" is typical of his almost absent minded approach to his part. His voice and facial expressions could make putting on his shoes look shady.Texas is great all around fun and has an ending with a moral. I give it 4 Stars.

It's a bit surprising that no one's commented on this movie till now. After all, it isn't some obscure B-western but rather an almost "A" production with two rising young stars, (William Holden and Glenn Ford, plus Claire Trevor), and a respected director, George Marshall. Perhaps the fact that it's in b&w has unjustly relegated it to near-obscurity.Those who seek it out, however, will be rewarded by an engaging plot which has some interesting twists and turns, by some snappy dialog -- particularly in the first meeting between Holden and Trevor -- and by a host of good supporting players, such as Edgar Buchanan who plays a devious dentist.For fans of "beefcake," there's an early prizefight sequence in which a shirtless Holden battles the local champ in a bare-knuckle marathon. Only about 22 or 23 years old at the time, Holden's physique hadn't yet reached the maturity displayed in his later films, (most notably "Picnic"), but his bare chest, (shaved of the hair displayed earlier in "Golden Boy"),is still quite pleasing to the eye. If only the scene could be re-written so that Holden would have been matched against a stripped-to-the-waist Glenn Ford. Now, that would have been a beefcake bonanza!