The Train Robbers

Mrs. Lowe (Ann Margret) is the widow who enlists the help of Lane (John Wayne) in finding a gold shipment that had been stolen five years ago…

In that time ten men rode away with half a million in gold… The fellow that was running the show figured they better hide it until things cooled off… So he took the Fargo box and rode south into Mexico… He had the misfortune of getting shot… But before he died, he told his wife—the mother of his little boy— where the gold was…

But his widow decided to get the gold, return it to the train company for a $50,000 reward, and clear her husband's name… The reason: she doesn't want her kid growing up thinking his old man ran around robbing trains…

In mid way, and as 'gold has a way of bringing out the larceny in all of us,' Wayne, with his old-times pals and two young helpers, find themselves followed by mysterious riders who also want the buried loot…

"The Train Robbers" features plenty of gorgeous vistas, from rocky scrub to a sea of rippling sand dunes… Also Wayne delivers one of his most memorable lines addressing Margret, 'I've got a saddle that's older than you are, Mrs. Lowe.'

Late in his career, John Wayne made quite a few very leisurely films where he just kind of walked through the parts. Of course, considering he was pretty old and had been battling with cancer, it certainly isn't much of a surprise. What is a surprise is that he was, on occasion, able to play some of the roles he played--such as in BRANNIGAN and his final film, THE SHOOTIST. THE TRAIN ROBBERS is such a leisurely romp. Sure, they ride their horses a lot (probably too much, if you ask me), but the action scenes were pretty subdued other than a gunfight here and there and a couple punches--sort of a kinder, gentler sort of John Wayne.

This film is about a widow who wants Wayne and his friends to cross into Mexico to rescue some stolen gold and return it for the reward. Along the way, there are a lot of good moments of dialog between those in the party and, not surprisingly, the old professional Ben Johnson came off best in these scenes.

While the overall film offered few big surprises, the ending was pretty exciting and for Wayne fans this is a must-see. For others, it's a pleasant enough Western--you could certainly do a lot worse!

By the way--Two final comments. Bobby Vinton was in the movie but you'd hardly notice. Also, in one scene, a mule knocks one of them into a huge mud puddle. Only seconds later, the same guy is barely wet at all--an interesting continuity problem.

The picture talks about a widow (Anne Margret , though Wayne felt she had stolen too many scenes) who contracts as employer to a motley group of cowboys (Jon Wayne , Rod Taylor , Ben Johnson, Christopher George , Vinton and Jerry Gatlin replacing Jack Elam) to help her retrieve the robbed gold of the Well Fargo in order to delete her late husband's bad name who had previously stolen it . The gold is located on a far desert and they'll have to cross various places until achieve their objective and being pursued by some cutthroats and a detective of Pinkerton agency (Ricardo Montalban) .

The highlights of the film are the imposing attack by the bunch of baddies on the train remains where the protagonists are sheltered and , of course , the final confrontation results to be pretty exciting . In the motion picture there is western action , continuous riding , emotion , tension , adventures , relaxed acting and results to be quite entertaining as well as fun . John Wayne's and Ann-Margret's character names , "Lane" and "Mrs. Lowe," are the same as Wayne's and Geraldine Page's characters' names in ¨Hondo¨ by John Farrow . The storyline is simple and plain but the final plot line has an astounding surprise that turns out to be the best part of the movie . Good support cast , such as : Ricardo Montalban , Ben Johnson , Jerry Gatlin , and Christopher George who played along with Wayne in "El Dorado" (1967) and "Chisum" (1970) . Excellent musical score by Dominic Frontiere , author of various enjoyable western soundtracks , thus : ''Barquero'', ''Chisum'' and ''Hang high'' . Glittering and impressive cinematography by William H. Clothier at his last film , habitual photographer of John Wayne films , it is colourfully shown on the numerous outdoors that are stunning location shots . This low-key pic was produced by John Wayne and his son Michael G. Wayne , proprietaries of the Batjac Productions . The movie was professionally directed by Burt Kennedy , author and screenwriter of a few classic Western mostly performed by Randolph Scott and directed by Budd Boetticher . The flick will appeal to John Wayne fans and western moviegoers . Rating: Nice and good . It's worthwhile seeing.

The film western had already been beaten dead for US audiences by the endless stream of television westerns. The vicious surrealism of the spaghetti western had essentially overwhelmed the clichés of Hollywood. What's a film maker to do? Clint Eastwood successfully made post-westerns by following the cynical, mysterious world-weary character he originated in the Leone films. What did everyone else do? Here's an example.

The film starts with a modest imitation of the masterful opening sequence of Leone's "Once upon a Time in the West" while some characters wait for Wayne to arrive on a train. When Wayne finally appears the film switches back into Hollywood style. The dialog is largely by the book and the characters are about as interesting as any you would find in an average TV western. The photography is very good but it can't make up for the fact that at least 20 minutes of the film are long boring scenes of John Wayne and his pals riding around on horses against spectacular vistas. Sometimes they are being followed by a mysterious group of hooligans who pass the same vistas, same camera shot!

The first 20 minutes of the film has no music but when Mr. Frontiere's orchestra kicks in (during those boring horse riding sequences), we are treated to bombastic western cliché music. Frontiere did some really good soundtracks elsewhere but this pales against much of Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western soundtracks.

To the film's credit there are some good sequences and dialog. The scene with a crashed train that's half buried in the desert is neat. And the last scene in the film is funny, almost makes up for the rest of the film. This could have been good but it would have had to be done in the 1950's when the western wasn't so pickled.

Whilst the Western genre for movies has died out since the sixties, most, if not all, John Wayne films are good and enjoyable today. However, with that said, this film (to the seasoned Western viewer) feels like nothing new and exciting. And again, with that said, it is not a bad film by any means. John Wayne puts up, yet again, a stellar performance with the backdrop being a decent adventure film with enough action to entice you for its duration.

Whilst nothing brilliant, The Train Robbers is just an easy film to watch and make time fly. If you are not a Western fan, then give this one a miss because it will not promote you to watch another one, but for the more fans of the genre, this will not be so hit and miss for you.