Texans Never Cry (1951)

Brilliant and touching

As Good As It Gets

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Pretty good Autry entry. Action highlights are a wagon chase through scenic Alabama Hills featuring a lot of hard riding, along with two real knock-down-drag-out brawls. The plot's none too persuasive, something about forged Mexican lottery tickets being used to scam people. Gene and Pat are Texas Rangers on forgers' trail. Actually, there's some good suspense as we wonder whether hired killer Russell Hayden will shoot Autry after the two have become accidentally friendly. Front row kids will recognize a more mature Hayden from his earlier days as Hopalong's sidekick 'Lucky'. Here he's older and heavier, but does well in the ambivalent role. And watch for Gene's real life sweetie Gail Davis as rancher's daughter, along with Rita Hayworth look-alike Mary Castle as the suggestively named 'Rita'-- could that be an accident. Two good Autry tunes that importantly don't interrupt the action. All in all, the 67- minutes amounts to a typically entertaining Autry production.A '7' on the matinée scale.

I didn't think much of the name for this picture going in, but was later surprised to see how they worked a title song around the theme. I was also surprised to find an element in a Western I had never seen before - the counterfeit Mexican Lottery gimmick. It gives Gene and his Texas Ranger sidekicks, including Pat Buttram as Pecos Bates, the opportunity to investigate a counterfeiting scam run by villain Tracy Wyatt (Tom Keane) and his band of henchmen.Interestingly, Gene himself winds up romancing two leading ladies in the story. Well, maybe romancing isn't the right word; he's sought after by Rita Bagley (Mary Castle) in order to feed information to her real partner Wyatt. For her part, Nancy Carter (Gail Davis) has a thing for Gene that plays out satisfactorily by the end of the story. However I was puzzled a bit by those daydream sequences in the second half of the picture where Gene imagines himself with both ladies after Steve Diamond (Russell Hayden) hits the scene.You know something that was odd? Check out that scene when an egg hits Pecos on the head from a chicken in the rafters of the barn. When the camera zooms in on the chicken, it turns out that it was a rooster! Why couldn't they just get a chicken?

Texas Ranger Gene Autry and his men arrive just in time to prevent the foreclosure of rancher Dan Carter (Harry Tyler) and his family after Carter finds himself unable to repay his loan to swindler Tracy Wyatt (Tom Keene). Gene and sidekick Pecos (Pat Buttram) soon find themselves in the middle of murder and a lottery counterfeiting scheme run by Wyatt and his henchmen Blackie Knight (Don Harvey) and Rip (Holly Bane). At a running time of 66 minutes Gene has time to become involved in a romantic triangle with Gail Davis and Mary Castle and Pat gets time to contribute his comedic antics in a surprisingly humorous skunk spraying incident. Ex Hopalong Cassidy Sidekick Russell "Lucky" Hayden also shows up in this one, cast off-type as Wyatt's out-of-town hired gun. While this is one of Gene's more action oriented westerns he does get in two nice, well placed tunes, including an opening sequence rework of Ride Ranger Ride from his earlier film of the same name.This is one of the movies that was filmed in what I think was the sweet spot of Gene's career. Wedged between his Automobile-Age Musicals and his later budget-restrained Horse Operas, it highlights Gene at his best.