FeistyUpper
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Voxitype
Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
Tayloriona
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
JohnHowardReid
Randolph Scott (Ned Britt), David Brian (Blair Lunsford), Phyllis Thaxter (Flora Talbot), Helena Carter (Amy Brooks), Dick Jones (Luther Wick), Ray Teal (Gabe Clevenger), Lawrence Tolan (Mort), Paul Picerni (Castro), Emerson Treacy (Ben Garvin), Bob Steele ("Shorty"), Walter Sande (Deputy Waller), Chubby Johnson (the sheriff), Don C. Harvey.Direction by EDWIN L. MARTIN. Written by John Twist. Photography by Sid Hickox. Art director: Stanley Fleischer. Film editor: Clarence Kolster. Sound by Oliver S. Garretson. Set decorator: G. W. Berntsen. Music by David Buttolph. Special effects by William McGann (director) and H.F. Koenekamp (photographer). Technicolor color consultant: Mitchell Kovaleski. Wardrobe by Marjorie Best. Make-up artist: Gordon Bau. Assistant director: Charles Hansen. R.C.A. Sound System. Produced by Anthony Veiller.Copyright 2 July 1951 by Warner Brothers Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Palace: 12 July 1951. U.S. release: 14 July 1951. U.K. release on the lower half of a double bill: 7 April 1952. Australian release: 26 December 1952. 7,232 feet. 80 minutes. Re-issue title: Texas EXPRESS.SYNOPSIS: Randolph Scott, once a famed gunfighter, decides to battle lawlessness as a frontier town newspaperman. Nearing Fort Worth, he meets Phyllis Thaxter, who is on her way to marry David Brian, a friend of Scott. In brawling Fort Worth, Scott learns that the town is menaced by the tactics of ruthless cattleman Ray Teal. Brian urges Scott to establish his newspaper there and fight Teal.COMMENT: Fleshed out with stock footage from "Dodge City" — all the railroad material, including the fire, and the cattle stampede — "Fort Worth" features Phyllis Kirk smiling inanely throughout. Unfortunately, the slow, talkative script actually provides little to smile about, even though it pegs in a fair amount of action, glumly perpetrated by Scott. David Brian grimaces suitably insanely, Helena Carter has a couple of brief scenes, Ray Teal appears properly villainous (with a very mild assist from Bob Steele).Marin is at his best in the action spots. The dialogue scenes are sometimes almost laughably composed of actors hitting the mark, rooted to the floor waiting for their cues. A fair amount of money was spent on the film all the same.The plot is easy to follow but makes little sense, thanks to one- dimensional characterizations and commonplace dialogue (with one or two bright lines: "Never pitch-fork the dead"; "Knew a woman worked on a newspaper once. Wrote the cookery column").Overall impression — routine.
dougdoepke
Newspaperman Ned meets up with old friend Blair in Fort Worth where their friendship wobbles over a girl and Blair's overriding ambitions. Complicating matters is outlaw Clevenger and his gang of thugs.Solid western, more complex than most, but with good production values. The ambivalent relationship between Ned (Scott) and Blair (Brian) is the story's core. Blair has got to be one of the most charming connivers in oater annals. So which is going to win out: Blair's liking for old friend Ned, or Blair's clever greed and scheming. I agree with another reviewer: Brian steals the film with a lively, nuanced performance. Scott, of course, is Scott, as we fans count on. That excellent actress, the rather plain Phyllis Thaxter, gets the big distaff role, while I suspect the luscious Helena Carter (Amy) was added for eye appeal. The effects may be borrowed, but the fire aboard the moving train is a real eye-catcher, along with the cattle stampede through the wagons. I'm not surprised that action studio Warner Bros. produced the slickly done 80-minutes. Then too, Director Marin keeps things moving without cheating the plot. Unfortunately, it looks like he died soon after the film's wrap. For fans of the Saturday matinée, that diminutive dynamo Bob Steele picks up a payday as a henchman. They should have tossed more baddie screen time his way since he proved what a good cold-blooded killer he could be in The Enforcer (1951).My one complaint is the general lack of eye-catching scenery. Nonetheless, it's solid Technicolor western of the sort they unfortunately don't make anymore.
JoeytheBrit
Randolph Scott plays a pacifist who has given up the gun for the pen – or the printing press – and he's not entirely convincing, perhaps simply because we're so used to seeing him blazing away at the bad guys in the seemingly endless succession of Westerns he made in the 1940s and 50s. He returns to Fort Worth with his business partner to start up a local newspaper with the prime objective of ridding the dying town of slimy bad guy Clavenger (Ray Teal) who is riding roughshod over the place and driving away the peace-loving residents. Scott's character also re-unites with Blair Lunsford, one of film history's more ambiguous villains in the reassuringly swaggering form of David Brian. Lunsford is capitalising on Clavenger's terrorising of the locals by buying their property cheap when they decide to move out.The story is fairly unusual and not without interest, but it's Brian's character who leaves the most lasting impression. Is he a bad guy, or just an ambitious man making the most of the misery of others without actually contributing to that misery? The film never really tells us, and doesn't really seem able to make up its mind. He genuinely likes Scott's ramrod-straight good guy, and only turns when he finds himself backed into a corner. Anyway, despite its rather unique storyline, the film's conclusion is fairly predictable.
clore_2
Warner Brothers had a thing for "city westerns" ever since the success of DODGE CITY in 1939. In its wake followed VIRGINIA CITY, SAN ANTONIO, DALLAS, Carson CITY and this 1951 tale, the last film of director Edwin L. Marin. Marin and star Randolph Scott had previously worked on many several films together, including some oaters for RKO as well as Christmas EVE, Scott's last non-western. Here they were doing a follow-up to their successful COLT 45 for Warners in 1950.In this one, Scott stars as a reformed gunman, now "shooting" lead type from a printing press rather than bullets from a six shooter. Not intending to set up shop in his old home town, when he comes across a nearly vanquished Ft. Worth, and spurred by the death of a child which was the result of a cattle stampede caused by the errant shot of of member of the Clevenger Gang, Scott opts to use the power of the press to bring settlers back to the city and achieve justice for the slain boy. The death of a child is a plot turn that goes back to the first in the series, DODGE CITY. In that film the child was played by Dickie Jones, here, twelve years later, Jones plays Scott's reporter Luther Wick, soon he'd be on his way into the hearts of millions of kids in the series THE RANGE RIDER, followed by BUFFALO BILL, JR.David Brian co-stars as a man banking his future on the future of Fort Worth by buying up options on properties abandoned by those terrorized by the Clevenger gang. But as Scott's mentor wonders, if Brian cares so much for the town, why is he letting its population dwindle from 5000 to less than 1000? Could it be to be able to secure more options, is he in cahoots with Clevenger? Plot twists cause he and Scott to take on an alliance at times, while at others, they're inches away from gunning each other down, and rivals for the hand of Phyllis Thaxter.Clevenger is played by Ray Teal, known to most as Sheriff Coffee from BONANZA. Often villainous in these things, he outdoes himself here by occasionally being quite charming in his delivery - perhaps his glee at being given more dialog than he usually gets and more screen time also. Another fine performance is given by Emerson Treacy as Ben Garvin, Scott's partner in the Fort Worth Star and his teacher in ways of the press. Usually uncredited in scores of films, he makes the most of his screen time.The DVD offers glorious Technicolor, the detail right down to Scott's pearl-handled pistols is a sight to behold. The film is packaged with two other Randolph Scott features, COLT 45 and TALL MAN RIDING. and at 15 bucks list price, they're one of the great bargains a Scott fan is likely to find.
