O Adorado Impostor

The Texan as a title is so bland, that you'd think that John Wayne starred in this film in the early 30s before he became a big star.

But what you've got instead is a little self redemption story that can only happen before the Hayes Code, or decades after it's implemented. Our intrepid villain, discovers good and decency, and a little old woman he never wishes to hurt.

Gary Cooper plays his hilarious stone cold charm. Man of few words, has little to say, but his expressions as he acts both being uncomfortable with new surroundings, and gradually becoming accustomed, says all.

This early Gary Cooper film, is fun, well handled for a simple plot, is great for any fan of old movies, or Gary Cooper.

Worth the watch, 9/10

The casting of this film left a bit to be desired. Gary Cooper as a con man? I don't think so. Dunn and Wray are fine in their roles. But an Italian nightclub singer (Russ Columbo) as a singing cowboy? Please. This is Hollywood gone off the deep end. The llano Kid (Cooper) is trying to con Dunn into thinking he is her long lost son. Meanwhile, the inevitable romantic interest (Fay Wray) starts to monkey around with his affections. Will he do the right thing? I think the answer is readily obvious. Fun to see Cooper as a con man and Columbo as a Westerner. I think Johnny Mack Brown would have been much better casting for this story, though.

THE TEXAN (Paramount, 1930), directed by John Cromwell, from the story "A Double-Dyed Deceiver" by O. Henry, is a worthy follow-up to Gary Cooper's first talkie and previous western outing of THE VIRGINIAN (1929). Now as a Texan known as The Llano Kid, Cooper brightens his acting range in another character, that of a likable good-badman type.

Opening with a wanted sign for The Llano Kid with a $500 reward on his head, The Llano Kid (Gary Cooper) rides his horse to the nearest blacksmith where John Brown (James Marcus), who also happens to be the town sheriff, works on the stranger's horse for its horseshoe replacement. During his wait, the Llano Kid heads for a bar for a drink and a game of cards with other cowboys, with one cardsharp getting gunned down for cheating. The Llano Kid returns to the blacksmith, who recognizes him, to reclaim his horse. He throws the blacksmith's gun into a bucket of water and makes his escape. Heading towards the next train out of town, the Llano kid steals a ticket belonging to fellow passenger, Abner J. Thacker (Oscar Apfel). Because the cowboy happens to resemble a man of 25, Thacker, a lawyer representing a rich widow who's son ran away from home 15 years ago, to locate him in Texas and bring him back to her. He not only hires the cowboy to accompany him to South America for the impersonation, but schemes in obtaining Senora Ibarra's (Emma Dunn) bags of gold on top of her $1,000 reward to him. During his two month stay before leaving on the next boat back to the states, The Llano Kid, now known as Enrique, lovingly called "Quico" by his "mother," becomes acquainted with his "cousin", Consuelo (Fay Wray), and new lifestyle until something occurs to change all that. Others in the cast include: Donald Reed, Soledad Jimenez, Ed Brady and Enrique Acosta.

Unlike Cooper's first talkie, THE VIRGINIAN, THE TEXAN (title not to be confused with THE TEXANS (Paramount, 1938) starring Randolph Scott), was never sold to commercial television, becoming unavailable for viewing for many decades. It's one of those movies one hears about but something that will never see the light of day again. After many years in obscurity. THE TEXAN finally resurrected on the Encore Western Channel in March 2020, and a worthy rediscovery and welcome addition to the cable network.

Regardless of its age and lack of musical scoring in the plot, THE TEXAN is leisurely paced and recommended viewing. Fay Wray (best known for KING KONG (1933)), gets by physically as a Spanish senorita, and makes due with her accented way of talking. It would not be the first nor last time she would assume a Spanish character. Also commendable in their roles are Oscar Apfel as the crooked lawyer and James Marcus as the sheriff/blacksmith who happens to be a religious man. THE TEXAN was remade by Paramount as THE LLANO KID (1939) featuring Tito Guizar in the title role with Gale Sondergaard and Emma Dunn reprising her original role of the mother. As with THE TEXAN, to date, THE LLANO KID is unavailable for viewing.

While Gary Cooper appeared in other, yet better westerns in later years, winning an Academy Award for HIGH NOON (1952), THE TEXAN (at 79 minutes) is worthy viewing. (***)

Some old movies are true classics. They seem to keep on living despite technical disadvantages of the time they were made. Some others, simply need to be remade. The Texan is one of the latter category. It screams to be remade. It suffers terribly from the painfully limited post-silent Hollywood technology.

What does not mask that disadvantages is the primitive sound, no theme music, and the awful direction. The director simply fails to get a better performance from the obviously inexperienced future star, Gary Cooper. Coop is too tall and lanky to be believable in his role as a Mexican-American bandit slowly turning good, and the director fails to minimize it with good camera angles. He is also too stiff (even by Coop's standards) and boring to be likable as the leading character. On the other hand, the director allows Emma Dunn to be annoyingly suffocating in her overacting as the doting mother. One would almost like to throw a brick at the screen every time she is in a scene.

So why am I asking for a remake of this movie? Because it does have a great premise, and a very smart ending. In the hands of a capable director, and with the advantage of good music and today's technology, this story could actually turn into at least a minor classic. As it is for now, the original is good for a one-time watching and no more.

Gary Cooper is a bad man who hooks up with crooked lawyer Oscar Apfel to swindle Emma Dunn by convincing her that Coop is her long-lost son. Yet Cooper seems increasingly uncomfortable with the deception.

After a lifetime of looking at the previous year's Battered THE VIRGINIAN, the fact that this print is in pretty good shape allows longtime Paramount cameraman Victor Milner to strut his stuff. The dialogue direction tends to have everyone sound overly emphatic, but perhaps that's in reaction to the buzzy tone of the soundtrack. The story, based on O Henry's "The Double-Dyed Deceiver" has a good deal of humor in it, perhaps an attempt to emulate the Oscar-winning IN OLD ARIZONA. Oscar Apfel excels as the crooked lawyer, and Fay Wray is an adorable Consuelo.