The Rounders

So said the agreeable Henry Fonda to just about every suggestion Glenn Ford or other cast members made to him.

This the first of a series of very agreeable entertaining comic westerns that Burt Kennedy directed and/or wrote starring some of Hollywood's great but aging male stars. I think for the first and only time both Ford and Fonda play a pair of losers. They seem to forever be in financial bondage to their off-and-on employer Chill Wills. Wills just out-slickers Ford and Fonda just goes along with that line that must have been repeated about 8 times in The Rounders.

But their biggest problem comes from a white-faced roan horse that Wills has talked the gullible Ford into taking. The horse named "Old Fooler" has a streak of cunning malevolence that provides most of the laughs in this comedy. If there was a special award given to animals for performances Old Fooler should have won it in 1965. In fact that horse created his own acting genre, the animal anti-hero.

Burt Kennedy gave us a lot of good laughs starting in the mid60s with his films and this is one of the funniest.

This is truly the number 1, modern cowboy "cult" movie. The film captures the true life of a modern day working cowboy. All aspects of this film are the most realistic and true, day to day accounts of the REAL cowboy. The mundane, humor, drama, suspense and romance of the American Cowboy are captured in The Rounders. A must see!

Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda are pals that corral horses, or whatever cowboy/rustlers do with horses. Round them up. But they don't ever seem to get ahead. Chill Wills gives a memorable performance, and almost steals the show, in his white suit as a rich owner of horses and land, but who's notoriously cheap and who has a way of talking them into working for him again, despite the fact Glenn said, never again. They always complain, especially Glenn, about working and never getting anywhere, but after a while you get the feeling, he's been the way he is all his life and he's just one of those who like things as they are, despite all his talk to the contrary. With a good cast, including Denver Pyle and Edgar Buchanan as two characters they try to give a wild horse to, and Sue Ane Langdon and Kathleen Freeman, this is one laid-back film that's short on story but is long on good company. "Whatever suits you just tickles me plumb to death." For good old fun with Ford and Fonda, just yourself a horse and hold on, tight.

The Rounders is directed by Burt Kennedy and Kennedy adapts the screenplay from Max Evans' novel. Music is by Jeff Alexander and cinematography by Paul Vogel. It stars Glenn Ford, Henry Fonda, Sue Ane Langdon, Hope Holiday, Chill Wills and Edgar Buchanan.

Two ageing bronco-busting rounders get into (mis)adventures with a crafty old equine along for the ride...

It's one of those films that has amiable blood coursing through its veins. We are in very good company with Ford and Fonda, two likable and most reliable veterans of the silver screen, and crucially it looks like they are having fun - and it's infectious. Teamed up with a splendid comedy horse who gets up to mischief when ever possible, the boys also find some sexy lady love interests that puts a nice little risqué cheek on things, cheek actually being a very literal word at times.

Technically it's a very good production. Filmed in Metrocolor/Panavision, the vistas are superbly photographed by Vogel, with Arizona locations including Coconino National Forest, Red Rock Crossing, San Francisco Peaks and Village of Oak Creek. The stunt work is high quality, well shot by the wily Western movie veteran Kennedy, while Alexander's musical compositions have the desired jolification. Rounding off is a splendid and comforting support cast that sees Denver Pyle joining Buchanan and Wills for further Western genre reassurance. 7/10

You might think that with a film starring Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda, you can't lose ... and you'd be right. They could probably film those two men simply having an animated conversation for 90 minutes and you'd find it fascinating ... and that's almost what they did. :-)

Henry Fonda plays his character VERY much like Jimmy Stewart's pal in The Cheyenne Social Club. He's more than Glenn Ford's sidekick, but less than a partner in their decision making process.

Glenn Ford is an unlikely dreamer ... a man who can't keep a dollar in his pocket yet wants to break out of the cycle of his life and buy a boat.

In the midst of their cycle of life, the two men ... reliable bronco busters ... come across an ornery old horse that can't be broken and seems to delight in making life rough on the two ... particularly Glenn Ford.

The movie, whether or not it's true, drips with a realistic quality of life for two aging modern cowboys and their colorful set of friends, highlighted by wonderful scenes with Chill Wills.

Recommended.