Who payed the critics

I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

This action-packed western grabs you from the moment of its 3-D credits. Even long before that gimmick took over the screen, movies were trying different ways of grabbing the audiences' attention, and something as simple as the rolling credits was a great way to get the audience's attention. Look at the Cecil B. De Mille epics of the mid-late 30's and even some of MGM's most lavish costume dramas. In the case of "Texas", what seems like just an ordinary western surrounding cattle rustlers ends up being something much more exciting.William Holden and Glenn Ford were rising young actors on the Columbia lot who were soon to be mega stars, both handsome and likable, and both who obviously took their crafts seriously. Their film legend is only enhanced by their longevity, and their pairing as best friends of very different personalities is as exciting as the pairings of such mega-stars as Gable and Tracy, Edward G. Robinson and Bogart, EGR and Cagney, Bogart and Cagney. Like the state of Texas itself, this film is huge, fast-moving and gloriously entertaining.There's a wonderful confrontation between Holden and Claire Trevor (fresh from "Stagecoach") where he tries to steal her horse and she gets the better of him momentarily. She briefly falls under the spell of the more noble Ford who had no idea that his pal was involved in the robbery of cattle rustlers posing as cattle owners. There's also a great performance by the wonderful character actor Edgar Buchannan ("Petticoat Junction") as a grizzled old dentist with several surprises up his drill. The mixed loyalties, unknown motivations and some great comedy interwoven make this a ton of fun. Buchannan even gets to do a musical number as Trevor plays the organ while Ford and Holden take turns pumping it from the back.To even give a little bit of some of the surprises here away would defeat the fun of discovering it. While Trevor gets plenty of chances to chew up the scenery, she does so subtly here, not like she would do in later films where she sometimes seemed as if she was going to swallow up the whole camera. Other than a few other female extras, she is the only woman character in the film, yet she is not some namby pamby love interest tossed in to cause friction between the two leading men. Her character here definitely has purpose, and she does a very good job in the part. This showed movie audiences that you didn't need to have John Wayne acting or John Ford directing to have a good "A" western. It deserves a bigger status among classic westerns than it has gotten. George Marshall, who has directed many westerns yet crossed over to practically every other genre as well, helms this production, and helps make it flow effortlessly.

Two close friends find themselves on opposite sides of the law in this 1941 western, which follows the aftermath of the American Civil War into the lucrative business of cattle drives and cattle rustling.Dan Thomas (William Holden) and Tod Ramsey (Glenn Ford) have recently been dismissed from the Confederate army after the recent period of unpleasantness, and are heading for a new life and to make a new fortune in Texas, the state of opportunity in the old west.Tod is looking forward to making an honest living whilst Dan is just looking forward to making any kind of living, not really caring on which which side of the legal and moral fence this living may happen to found.After retrieving a sack full of stolen stagecoach money which Tod plans to return to its rightful owners and Dan plans to pocket for himself, they are captured and nearly lynched by the local sheriff which results in the inevitable chase.It is during this chase that the two friends split to take two different paths, two paths that will ultimately differ morally as well as geographically.Tod Ramsey ends up a trusted and respected law abiding cattle hand in the local town whilst Dan falls in with a crooked Dentist, (Edgar Buchanan) a corrupt rancher (Addison Richards) in charge of a cattle rustling gang, and an equally corrupt 'friend' of the people (George Bancroft) who all set about their merry work, ambushing and rustling the large cattle drives attempting to reach Abilene.With all the cattle drives failing and all the local Cattle barons facing bankruptcy, Tod Ramsey, unaware that his friend is responsible for all the rustling, decides that he will attempt to take a combined herd; the largest herd ever to come out of Texas and defend it all the way to market.For the rustling syndicate this means that Tod will have to be 'taken care off' and quick, but is the seemingly ruthless and ambitious Dan now evil enough to kill his own best friend? Will his loyalty to Tod allow the herd to get through to Abiline, or does he now have an extra plan up his sleeve? Claire Trevor is the love interest for both men, just to give them something else to fight about, although her character I feel is rather dis likable as she seems to flit her affections between the two with each passing breath obviously content to be with whoever is left standing at the end....and the fool takes her. Doh!This was an early Western for both male leads and both were destined for great things. Although Bill Holden's likable but disreputable character is the main focus is this film, it is Glenn Ford who is the treat for me here.He was without doubt one of my favourite actors and certainly my favourite cowboy. No offence to The Duke and Clint, but neither was a patch on Glenn Ford when he put on a gun belt and tightened up his spurs, and its great to see him here just starting out.

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!