Il vendicatore del Texas

Guns of Wyoming (AKA: Cattle King) is directed by Tay Garnett and written by Thomas Thompson. It stars Robert Taylor, Robert Loggia, Joan Caulfield, Robert Middleton, Larry Gates and William Windom. Music is by Paul Sawtell and cinematography by William Snyder.

A range war looms large in Wyoming...

Fronted by the ever reliable Western presence that was Bobby Taylor, this pic follows a familiar and slight formula. Which ultimately is fine for those who love the prolific line of Westerns produced in the 50s and 60s.

Thematically it's strong, where we find Taylor's hard working and honest cattleman desperately trying to protect his land from the free grazing movement - something which brings into play nefarious characters. Sam Brassfield (Taylor) fences off his land and Clay Matthews (Middleton) - with henchmen in tow - cuts them down, simultaneously putting the word out that it's Brassfield who's doing the snipping! Naturally there's romance in the air, which causes friction from more than one quarter, and into the mix comes a visit to this part of Wyoming by President Chester A. Arthur. Who, as it happens, is a key player in spite of his limited screen time (Gates regally excellent).

There's a dark edge bubbling away in this one, which is capitalised upon with a genuinely shocking turn of events. If only the finale could have given us a barnstormer of the kind the story kind of demands. Elsewhere there's no problems in the cast, all perform goody/villain/pretty gal characters with measured form, the location photography in Kernville, California is most appealing, whilst the screenplay is without fuss and pointless filler. True enough to say it's hardly essential viewing for Western fans, and action junkies will be left hankering, but Taylor fans are appeased and it remains watchable from first frame to last. 6/10

"Cattle King" is the last film Robert Taylor made under his MGM contract. His full-time contract had ended in 1959 but he agreed to do three more pictures. "Cattle King" is the third. Mr. Taylor plays a large scale cattle rancher whose living is being threatened by a Texas cartel who want to build a cattle highway from Texas to Canada. This would bring thousands of undesirable cattle to Mr. Taylor's Wyoming home. It's a nice twist on the old cattle ranchers vs. sheep herders story. Instead of wanting to leave the range free for cattle to roam, Sam Brassfield (Mr. Taylor) wants to fence in land for the controlled breeding of high quality bovines. The only sheep herder in the picture ends up siding with Brassfield. The cinematography is outstanding with a palette that brings out the beauty of the area near Yellowstone Park. There are numerous scenes of groups of people riding which must have looked wonderful on the big screen.

The acting is done by seasoned professionals like Robert Middleton, Ray Teal and William Windom and a newcomer, Robert Loggia. They are all excellent. As usual in westerns, Joan Caulfield as the love interest for Sam isn't given enough to do. President Chester A. Arthur (Larry Gates) plays a pivotal role. In many ways Robert Taylor's colleagues at MGM made this a warm farewell. The name Robert Taylor fills the screen from top to bottom in the credits. He is photographed lovingly with numerous close-ups. There's a wonderful scene where Mr. Taylor stands proudly, legs apart in the western stance facing his enemy when the camera slides into a screen filling close-up. Robert Taylor was very good at playing characters who were larger than life, people who made a difference without losing their integrity. There's even a bit of humor as he spends a fair amount of time fussing with his various ties. "Cattle King" is a solid, well-acted, beautifully photographed western.

The only fault i can find is with the premise of the film ... to prevent the territory from becoming a cattle expressway to canada ... that makes no sense at all because the cattle market is in chicago ... i also find it damn near impossible to travel by horseback from the tetons or even lander for that matter to cheyenne in one day ... perhaps from laramie to cheyenne ... being a cattle baron is a risky business because you have to fight off the elements, rustlers, and the buyers that give low prices... not to mention the crooked cattleman's association ... the railroad is rarely used to ship cattle now because its done cheaper and faster by truckers ... the president is in wyoming to visit yellowstone national park which is at least 6 days travel from cheyenne ... its okay, hollywood can make anything happen overnight

Robert Taylor, Robert Middleton, Richard Devon, William Windom, and Ray Teal are just some of the actors who quite obviously had some say in the roles and films they were in during this period, and picked an action Western with actual credible motivation in the characters. This old fashioned "my kind of range will be corrupted if we allow..." is something that might not be recognized by people in the information age of computers, but it's something quite obvious for people in the nineteenth century, whose information came from telegraphs and newspapers and rumors and what they saw first hand. The fears of losing livelihood was quite real. The unusual part of this film is how the characters aren't treated as stereotypes, aside from the sadistic one played by Devon. They have credible motivations, and the one unmotivated sadist is par for a realistic course in human events. The somewhat sadistic character played by Middleton pairs up with Devon to form an evil alliance. In comparison to the evil alliance of Shane's Stark and Wilson, this one doesn't come out nearly as well. Stark and Wilson made one of the most credible evil alliances in Western film history. This one is in the next tier. The brother character played by Windom is a pivotal one, as are many others. It is the supporting characters that make a film great, and this one has great supporting characters.

This western uses plot #5 out of the usual 5 or 6 plots in practically every film of the genre. And because of this, it's not exactly a must-see film--even if there is an appearance by President Chester Arthur a couple times during the film.

So what is plot #5? It's the big boss who insists on keeping the range free for cattle--even if this means pitting ranchers and sheep herders and practically everyone against each other. What makes this a bit difference is that one of the cattle men (Robert Taylor) is actually set up by another cattle men--mostly because Taylor thinks everyone CAN peacefully coexist. The bottom line is that the entire film seems very, very , very familiar. The acting isn't bad but the overall effort is imminently skip-worthy.

Oh, and the guy who played Arthur really looked very little like the real Chester Arthur.