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.

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.

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.

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.