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"The Texas Rangers" tells the story of three pals (Fred MacMurray, Jack Oakie, Lloyd Nolan) who are living the lives of outlaws until they become separated when cornered by a posse. MacMurray and Oakie wind up joining the Texas Rangers while Nolan becomes the notorious "Polka Dot Bandit". Eventually you know that the two sides will have the inevitable showdown. Great action scenes involving an Indian attack highlight the film.

A very young clean-shaven MacMurray is good in the lead and Jack Oakie is..well Jack Oakie as MacMurray's trusty sidekick. Nolan is fittingly evil as the grinning villain of the piece. Heroine Jean Parker plays MacMurray's love interest who convinces him of the error of his ways.

In the courtroom scene, watch for "B" western favorites George "Gabby" Hayes as a judge, Fred Kohlor as the town boss and Charles (Ming the Merciless) Middleton as his lawyer.

If the story seems familiar, it was remade as "The Streets of Laredo" in 1949 with William Holden, William Bendix and Macdonald Carey in the MacMurray, Oakie and Nolan roles respectively.

I'm sure in casting The Texas Rangers Paramount had it in mind to broaden Fred MacMurray's appeal by putting him in a western. MacMurray had been a star at Paramount for two years and had appeared in mostly light comic parts as he did throughout his career. I mean Paramount could have cast Gary Cooper or Joel McCrea, both of whom were available at the studio. MacMurray did the film and gave a creditable performance, but as he remarked, "the horse and I were never as one." He never really did feel comfortable in westerns and ones he later appeared in were long after his Paramount studio days were over.

The Texas Rangers film is based on stories derived from Walter Presscott Webb's authoritative history of the legendary law enforcement outfit which was only published a few years back. Fred MacMurray, Jack Oakie and Lloyd Nolan play three outlaws who drift into Texas and become separated. MacMurray and Oakie join the Texas Rangers and Nolan continues his outlaw ways.

Lots of good action here folks. A really great Comanche Indian attack sequence is well staged by Director King Vidor. Lots of familiar western faces support the leads like Fred Kohler and Gabby Hayes. Edward Ellis as the commandant of the Texas Rangers comes off a lot like Lewis Stone and had MGM instead of Paramount had made this film, Lewis Stone definitely would have been cast in Ellis's role.

Despite MacMurray's misgivings about westerns, The Texas Rangers is a pretty good action western with great character development for the three leads.

On a whim, bandits Fred MacMurray and Jack Oakie enlist in the Texas Rangers. The two partner up with old pal Lloyd Nolan for some crooked schemes, but soon hear the call of duty, putting them at odds with their criminal lifestyle.

Like his most famous film, The Champ, director King Vidor imbues this with depression-era sensibilities and sentimentality, having lovable bums MacMurray and Oakie find self-respect, romance, and a sense of selflessness, all with a young orphan in tow.

Photography, direction, and action sequences are all first rate. The performances were a little dated, but adequate. Unlike others, I didn't find Oakie's good-old-boy character annoying or unrealistic.

Cameo appearances by George "Gabby" Hayes and Charles Middleton (Ming the Merciless) were a lot of fun too.

This to me is a magical western of the straightforward "goodies in white hats, baddies in black" genre. It has style, humour and excitement and should be compulsory viewing for every 12 year old and above.

The Texas Rangers is directed by King Vidor who also co-writes with Elizabeth Hill, Louis Stevens and Walter Prescott Webb. It stars Fred MacMurray, Jack Oakie, Jean Parker and Lloyd Nolan. Music is by Gerard Carbonara and cinematography by Edward Cronjager. Plot has MacMurray and Oakie as two outlaws who decide to become Texas Rangers, something which invariably brings them into conflict with another outlaw pal.

It showcases the good and bad of 1930s Westerns. The action is strong and vibrant, the landscapes appealing and the story as a premise is always interesting. But those good points are countered with weak scripting, goofs, logic holes and a mixed bag of acting performances. But all told, Vidor's movie comes through its problems to stay firmly on the good side of good for the Western fan.

It's good guys versus bad guys on the home front, with the Indians lining up in numbers to be the common foe. It's here for the latter, where Vidor excels, constructing the action scenes with great skill as a ream of extras in Indian attire attack in their droves, arrows and bullets fly with murderous worth, bodies hurl and fall about, it's exciting stuff. The highlight coming as the Indians start flinging boulders off of a cliff face down onto the Rangers down below; the sound work here especially great, as is the stunt work in this whole segment of the film.

MacMurray and Oakie make a likable pair, but both seem a touch out of place in this portion of the Wild West. But Nolan cuts a nice snarly figure as chief villain Sam "Polka Dot" McGee, and he gets to deliver the film's best (nastiest) moment. Parker is pretty but pretty much a token, while secondary support slots are capably filled by the likes of Edward Ellis, Benny Bartlett and Frank Shannon. Cronjager's black and white photography is on the money, neatly utilising the New Mexico locations as wide open vistas that impose on the characters. While Carbonara scores it with standard Cowboys and Indian flavours for the attacks, and bombastic machismo for the Texas Rangers patrols.

Full of formula and mixed signals as to what it wants to be, The Texas Rangers is none the less an enjoyable picture and one of the better Oaters from the 30s. 7/10

Footnote: A sequel followed in 1940 called The Texas Rangers Ride Again. In 1949 The Texas Rangers was remade as Streets of Laredo, with William Holden starring.

This Paramount studio effort stars Fred MacMurray, who many folks today only remember as the Dad in My Three Songs or the Flubber films. But MacMurry could do almost anything and do it well, from his cunning performance as the weak insurance foil in the classic noir Double Indemnity to his brilliant turn as the amoral business executive in The Apartment.

Here early MacMurray is pared with Jack Oakie, the latter an endearing studio performer who brings some genuine warmth and humor to what in many ways is a typical studio Western, but much richer than the usual B oaters churned out by Republic or Monogram; this is essentially a tale of cowboy reformation, as three thieving get separated by circumstance and two of them choose community and goodness, while one--the notorious polka dot bandit (!), played by Lloyd Nolan, stays outside the law. Nolan, who usually played good second leads or endearing detectives, effortlessly engages in a wee bit of method acting, convincing in his greasy charm, oozing villainy and malice.

While not a landmark film in any way, this is a casual, amiable entertainment, good for a lazy afternoon (coupled with a bowl of popcorn and perhaps a Charlie Chan mystery).

The copy I watched courtesy of YouTube was clean and crisp, and the film itself was good by the standards of the mid-1930s.

Unlike some other reviewers here on IMDb, I've always thought Fred MacMurray an acceptable Western actor, and I found Jack Okie irritating in the first part of the film - especially as he rode along with MacMurray anticipating a romantic encounter with a señorita. The back projection was reasonable enough, certainly compared with that in "The Plainsman", issued in the same year.

With much of the film being set before Texas became a state (which happened in 1845), there were lots of anachronisms - relating to the Rangers' kit and weapons for example. And the telegraph system was very much in its infancy - I wonder if it had reached Texas?

One might also mention the unrealistic death following the shot under the table.

On the plus side, the fight between the Rangers and the Indians was excellent and Lloyd Nolan in his early scenes radiated charisma - before reverting to the sort of nasty character he was to portray in later films.

This Western from back in 1936. It doesn't have the fancy special effects, nor color, nor big budget, etc. But it will stand up to just about any Western made today. In glorious black and white, it is one to see when you get the opportunity. Fred MacMurray is the star and does one of his best jobs of acting (seemed more relaxed), Jack Oakie (a great character actor with just the right touch of humor), Lloyd Nolan (who played the bad guy so well) and Jean Parker (the pretty girl who tames MacMurray). The story starts out with three friends who rob stage coaches until a posse catches up to them and they have to split up. MacMurray and Oakie become Texas Rangers with the idea of getting inside info for more hold ups. But experience with the Rangers and a smart girl turn the boys toward the side of the law. Problem is that LLoyd Nolan is still on the opposite side of the law and causing problems. Not to give anything away, but you can guess the ultimate showdown arrives. In between is plenty of action and exciting Indian attacks. Don't miss this one if you like Cowboys and Indians.

Jim, Wahoo and Polka Dot (Fred MacMurray, Jack Oakie, Lloyd Nolan) have a scam in this unusual western. Wahoo works as a stage coach driver and his pals rob his stage after he lets them know that they are coming! However, inexplicably, Jim and Wahoo do something you'd never expect...they join the Texas Rangers (the law enforcement group...not the baseball team). While the plan originally is to use this organization to do more crooked business, eventually something weird happens...Wahoo in particular likes being respectable and the pair decide to actually go straight. But what about Polka Dot? How's he going to react to this?

This film certainly did have an unusual plot and the casting of Oakie in particular was odd. This isn't to say it's bad...but very strange. It also is strange when it comes to names.... Wahoo and Polka Dot???!

So despite this, is the film any good? Yes. Now I am not saying it's great art or something that will change your life, but it is entertaining and the film is never dull.

The Western genre was at a low ebb in the 1930s. It did not die out completely as has sometimes been claimed, but for the most part it was relegated to B-movie status (in fact B-Westerns were what John Wayne spent most of the 30s doing). It's also untrue that the genre was suddenly revived in 1939 by the arrival of Stagecoach. A-budget Westerns had been appearing for a few years before then, but they were odd affairs for the most part, born of a generation who had lost touch with the Old West.

The Texas Rangers was perhaps the first of these bigger Westerns, and in many ways it plays like a recap of genre conventions, particularly the more farcical aspects. We have bandits who are good guys deep down, and Indians who might as well be hordes of zombies. Some of the more fun clichés, like an alcoholic judge, are briefly touched upon, but only briefly. The screenplay is on the whole a rather amateurish effort, riding roughshod over logic whenever a gap in the plot needs sewing up. I mean, are we really supposed to believe Jack Oakie is off in the hills counting out his loot by night, and yet is still consistently able to get his job as Stagecoach driver back each morning? Silly, even by the standards of the genre.

And yet producer-director King Vidor was the kind of man to take such projects seriously. And he at least has a feel for the form. Too many of these 30s Westerns fail to make proper use of the open plains, which after all is what it's all supposed to be about. Not Vidor though – for him the seemingly endless vistas are an almost continual backdrop. Vidor's outdoor shots give you a real feeling of the emptiness, which is essential. You can't have a character singing "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" unless the prairie looks appropriately lonesome. Vidor's direction of dialogue scenes is immaculate as always, generally holding the actors in long takes with occasional barely-perceptible camera shift, giving a real feeling of smoothness. His handling of action is the opposite, full of wild cuts and crazed angles to give a real feeling of frenzy. One of the most effective manoeuvres he pulls in The Texas Rangers is just before the heroes come face-to-face with the massive band of Indians. We begin with a tracking shot of them riding alongside a rock face, then the camera gradually turns, opening out the space, and eerily revealing the army of natives.

Unfortunately not everyone is so suited to the genre. I don't buy MacFred as a Westerner, let alone a bandit. He just doesn't have the demeanour of a two-baths-a-year man. Leading lady Jean Parker is simply bland here, as is her character. Fortunately we do get to see a lot of Jack Oakie, who still doesn't quite look the part but is entertaining nevertheless. Oakie may be a comic but he can really act, as you will see in the one or two scenes where he has to play it straight. Lloyd Nolan is great too – his face says things that aren't in the script. And any picture that has Edward Ellis in is bound to be a treat. He is also the only player with a real bit of Western grit about him.

The Texas Rangers may be the Western genre's reunion with big budgets and big stars, but it is really little more than a souped-up B-Western. It is directed with class, but the overall feel is one of shoddiness, mainly because the studios at the time weren't used to the form. They didn't have the stockpile of authentic performers or the ready-made frontier-towns at their disposal. We get the wide-open plains alright, but it takes more than chaps and Stetsons to conjure up the spirit of the Old West.

In the mid-thirties the Western genre was very much in decline. After the introduction of sound in the movies the big studios and the stars of Hollywood almost showed no interest in the genre leaving it up to the independent companies and the B-stars. In 1939 this would change dramatically with the release of Stagecoach and a handful other classics and for many years the Western would feature the big stars of the screen and all the great directors of Hollywood. The Texas Rangers is shot a couple of years before the revival of the genre. King Vidor decided it was a good idea to make a movie to celebrate the centennial of the state of Texas. And what other way to celebrate this fact than to concentrate on the Texas Rangers, the mix of army and police force that became legendary during the formation years of the state.

The movie shows Texas as a modern Garden of Eden where hard working people tried to build up an ideal society and are impeded by the original residents (the Injuns) and villains. The solution is very simple: the Indians are tucked away in reservations (the least habitable regions) and the villains have the choice to became good citizens or been wiped out by the force of law. Sounds this a bit familiar? Wipe out all the undesirable elements in the society to create the ideal situation? Well it happened in a lot more countries in the period this movie was made. It wasn't till the seventies that another opinion on the treatment of the Indians penetrated Hollywood.

The story concentrates around three outlaws. Two of them, Jim and Wahoo, are looking for the third one (Sam) in Texas. They have difficulties finding him and because they are hungry and without any money sign in with the Texas Rangers. There is also the thought to make profit of their assignment to acquire information which can be used for their criminal efforts. But before any of that plans can be worked out they have to face an Indian revolt. Jim and Wahoo play a vital role in defeating the Indians and Wahoo plans to settle with the Rangers. Jim is less sure and when he gets the order to bring back Sam (who has become a notorious villain in the meantime) dead or alive he resigns only to be jailed immediately. In his place Wahoo gets after Sam and he is murdered brutally. Jim finally convinces the mayor that he is the right man to catch Sam.

The first half hour of the movie I found it very hard to enjoy it. There are a lot of scenes with studio backgrounds and a lot of wisecracks that belongs more in film noirs or screwball comedies. And there is Wahoo who rather plays a clown than an outlaw and is a very irritating character. Later there is the problem that the Indians are portrayed not as humans but as savage barbarians rather than as human beings. Their struggle for their rights and their suffering isn't mentioned and the only place they belong according to the heroic rangers is in their reservations. Also the struggle of Jim to become a good citizen isn't worked out well. He isn't a very believable outlaw in the first place. Furthermore he is put in jail because of his history after he played a heroic role in the battle with the Indians. And how are the "good citizens" beside the Rangers portrayed? As chicken-hearted cowards who don't dare to revolt against a villain who terrorize a county. So what's the reason for Jim to leave his past behind him? Love? Well, there is love story, but that is only a thin sideline in this movie.

There are some pluses to this movie. Sam is a convincing outlaw who with his good looks and smile is still believable in his role as villain. He is even more sympathetic than Jim. He only murders Wahoo after he is betrayed by him and he gives Jim the chance to reunite with him. Also the scenery is beautiful. Besides some studio shots the movie was made on location (although it was New Mexico instead of Texas). The murder of Wahoo is very brutal and unexpected (I thought the sympathetic clown would survive) and filmed in the later tradition of Hawks, Aldrich and Fuller.

So in the end I gave the film a meager six out of then because of the craftsmanship of King Vidor, the acting by Lloyd Nolan who plays Sam "Polka Dot' McGee and the scenery. Otherwise this movie is anything but a timeless masterpiece because of the one dimensional portrait of Indians, Rangers and most other roles.

The Texas Rangers (1936)

Routine. There are elements here of Westerns earlier (there were hundreds of obscure ones) and Westerns later (including some well known ones), with stagecoach holdups and cowboy and Indian battles (the Indians lose again) and with pioneer justice. All of the above, plus a man reluctant to see the love of a lonely and lovely woman out on the edge of nowhere.

In a sense, it isn't worth watching if you have other Westerns up your sleeve. But--there has to be a but--the plot is interesting because it turns upside down more times than a tumbleweed, the filming (with Cronjager behind the camera) is straight up and strong, and we get an early look at unlikely Wild West hero, Fred MacMurray. For those who like Westerns, this is a decent mid-30s example, before the explosion of greater examples in 1939.

The title is exactly what the movie is about on the surface--the ragtag but well supported Texas lawmen known as the Texas Rangers (legendary enough to not only have a more recent widely panned movie about them made starring Ashton Kushner but also a Baseball Team). It almost is a promo piece for the group, with a voice-over in the beginning like those FBI films of the 1950s. MacMurray is actually a bandit, teamed up with a kind of goofy second lead, Jack Oakey. In fact, it seems like a comedy at first, and the lightweight air never quite lets up.

It does get more serious, though, not only about love (briefly) but about the honor and ability of the Rangers to fight not only Indians but outlaws. MacMurray gets in the middle of a major mess because he plays both sides of the game, as outlaw and newbie Texas Ranger. Lloyd Nolan enters the plot after awhile and is a great outlaw of his own. It's hard to take MacMurray seriously in this rough rough world, but the music pumps it up and the scenery is dramatic and he holds his own well enough for a middling movie.

And it's a bit long. Even if the plot seems to demand two hours with more and more twists, it loses something of velocity as it goes. King Vidor directed a number of notable silents in the 20s, and a few great 30s films (including the black and white parts of the Wizard of Oz). This one shows the solidity of a great director, and the wobbly backbone of a so-so script.

If you like old fashioned westerns speaking of friendship, vengeance, action, this film is made for you. King Vidor brings here a classic without any surprise, where everything is predictable, but it is a movie that is worth watching if you are a moviegoer in love with oldies; great acting and directing too.

Petty robbers "Jim" (Fred McMurray) and his pal "Wahoo" (Jack Oakie) have quite politely robbed the stage, but are running out of cash so they head into a nearby town where they end up joining the Texas Rangers. Unlikely? Well yes, but in no time they hook up with their pal "Sam" (Lloyd Nolan) and conclude that they can make a fortune by passing on the Rangers' secrets to him! Their first task doesn't prove so lucrative though as the pair end up part of a small group taking on a band of marauding Indians who've had enough of the reservation. It's during this assignment that "Jim" begins to see the merits of being a legitimate lawman, especially as his boss's daughter "Amanda" (Jean Parker) starts to take a bit of a shine to him. Their next job is much closer to home. They must apprehend their friend and see him delivered for what is certainly going to be a trial and the noose. Now the conflicted "Jim" has to decide whether it is his past or his future that matters most. It's an episodic, but competently delivered western all around this with McMurray providing a characterful performance as the bullets, knives, arrows and (some polystyrene) boulders fly around his ears. He works well with both Oakie and Nolan and the romance is kept on a low simmer so as not to get in the way of the culminating adventure. There's also an hint of a moral, here, too and augmented by the rousing opening and closing narrative, it leaves us in no doubt about the dangers faced by the pioneers in establishing and maintaining the rule of law once success became something financially tangible to the violent and the venal.

This is my first recollection of Lloyd Nolan. He played "Polkadot Sam", the buddy who went wrong while Fred MacMurray and Jack Oakie became lawmen. Jack Oakie was the wise-crackin' comedy relief. Nolan's nickname came from the polka-dotted neckerchief he always wore. Wouldn't ya know it, Fred MacMurray had to gun him down at the end, and as he cradled his fallen former buddy in his arms we were treated to one of the tear-jerkinest death scenes ever in a western, on a par with Gary Cooper and Richard Arlen in "The Virginian". A lot of ridin' and shootin' made it a Saturday afternoon well spent.