Le Rendez-vous de 4 heures

This was Claudette Colbert's second to last theatrical feature and if this was the quality of scripts she was being offered at that time it's no wonder she stayed away six years between this and Parrish. First of all she belongs in some urbane urban setting not the Old West and try though she might she is out of place there. Additionally she and Barry Sullivan, always a dull leading man no matter his costar, go together like oil and water sharing zero romantic chemistry. The script is ordinary and the direction not terribly exciting plus the film is soft and fuzzy with over-bright color. If you like Claudette or westerns it's okay but don't expect anything above the routine.

A rare opportunity to savour Ms Colbert in colour, that beautiful profile as usual shot throughout from the left; she still had what it took in her fifties to play an alpha female with a leading man nearly ten years her junior.

Prudence (Claudette Colbert) travels to an isolated Texas town where she has inherited the local paper. She finds the place ruled over by the two men who wrested the area from the Indians twenty-five years before, and it is clear they do not welcome her free-spirited intervention. Upon arriving there, the manager refuses to give up control of the newspaper, claiming that he has no rights to it. To recover what is hers, Prudence must ally herself with the least expected person, her support comes in the unexpected shape (Barry Sullivan) of the a card player whom she previously met in New Orleans, and whom she hates because he blames him for her father's death. Womanly Wiles New Her Weapons !. A Lady...till the fighting started...then...what a woman!. The pulse-beat of a great state pounds in each lusty scene!. When the cold-blooded cattle barons moved in...she taught the whole town how to fight...Texas style! They were giants until a soft-spoken lady cut them down to size!

Texas Lady went to the American director Tim Whelan (nightmare night) the last work in a big screen he directed. Likewise, it was also the last film for prestigious screenwriter and western expert Horace McCoy, who died after being released in the cinemas. Stars the French actress Claudette Colbert that was Oscarized in 1935 for¨It happened one night¨by Frank Capra . Colbert gives a nice acting as a strong-headed woman from the East inherits a newspaper in a small Texas town where the local cattle barons, who control the region, want her out of their hair. Next to her are two known actors in the genre Western: Barry Sullivan (The Last Straw) gambler she has just bested in New Orleans for her own family reasons.and Ray Collins who can be remembered as James W Gettys in the famous Orson Welles film Citizen Kane. Claudette Collbert is not the only one that has the famous Statue of Oscars, so that the artistic director Ray Rennahan also got the prize a double award with the films: ¨Gone with the wind¨and ¨Blood and sand¨. There's also a lot of familliar secondaries from the Forties and Fifities, such as: James Bell, Horace McMahon, Gregory Walcott , John Litel, Douglas Fowley, Don Haggerty, Walter Sande, among others.

The motion picture was professionally directed by Tim Whelan, but nothing special. His career began as a writer in Hollywood where he began working with Harold Lloyd. It was while living in England that he made his mark as a director. Directed more films in Britain than in his native country, often for BIP, Gainsborough and (most of his best output in the 1930s) Alexander Korda's London Films. He is best remembered for the colorful fantasy classic The Thief of Bagdad (1940). His career spans from silent films to the 1950s with several films such as Rage at dawn (1955) , Utopia (1951), This Was a Woman (1948) , Badman Territory (1946), Higher and Higher (1943) , The perfect gentleman (1935), The Murder Man (1935) , Safety Last! (1923), among others. Rating: 5.5/10. The motion picture will appeal to Claudette Colbert fans.

My how the mighty have fallen. Roles must have gotten mighty hard to come by for an actress of Miss Colbert's caliber. This movie is very typical of 1950's oaters. The one unusal aspect is that Prudence (Miss Colbert) is initially a strong, independent woman, kind of unusual for a western. But in the end Gene Barry Sullivan Fitzgerald becomes her "protector". This is a very cornball movie and Gregory Walcott who plays Jess Foley has got to be one of the most wooden actors ever to grace the silver screen. One can almost see the pain on Miss Colbert's face as she delivers some of the corniest lines in movie history. It is such a can of corn it is worth watching for the unintentional humor it delivers.

She was 51 when she made this turkey, though she still tried the best she could to make it work. NO CLOSEUPS of her AT ALL in the film, and everything is shot from her LEFT SIDE, or straight on. A few glimpses of her right profile when she danced and the such, but 95% from her left side. Incredibly hokey film, the color is faded, Barry Sullivan looks bored to tears, Ray Collins spends half the movie sitting down. Gets interesting when the mean sheriff gets involved, and his resolution caught me off guard. But all in all, lame and dull and not up to snuff. Watch CLEOPATRA instead for a solid Claudette Colbert fix. Or better yet, catch the milk bath scene from THE SIGN OF THE CROSS or any scene from IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT for a good dose. This movie just doesn't work.