Texas (1941)

William Holden is Dan Thomas, Glenn Ford is Tod Ramsey in this tale of two good friends bound for Texas and brighter prospects.

They witness a stage holdup, then decide to rob the robbers.

That works fine. Until a posses shows up and finds them with the stolen loot.

Naturally, they’re accused of being the original bandits, and the sheriff is in a hanging mood.

Dan’s tall tale about an Indian attack gives them a chance to make an escape, but the friends decide it’d be best to part ways so the posse has two sets of tracks to chase.

They wind up meeting again in a town rich in cattle but where the ranchers are struggling because getting their beef to market is nearly impossible thanks to outlaws and Indians.

Tod lands a job on the ranch owned by Dusty King, who just happens to have a pretty daughter named Mike (Claire Trevor).

Dan hires on with Matt Lashan’s outfit. And soon learns that his bunkmates include rustlers and the very same men who held up that aforementioned stage.

But if the good friends wind up on opposite sides of the law, they have one thing in common. Both would like Mike to be his bride.

Glenn Ford as Tod Ramsey, who finds a promising job and love on a ranch in Texas (1941)

William Holden as Dan Thomas, arriving in Abilene and looking for a meal in Texas (1941)

Review:

Once you get past a long and rather silly prize fight early in the film, this turns into a fun 1940s Western with broad dashes of humor throughout.

Among the best scenes: Dan trying to take a horse from Mike and both of them winding up in a runaway buckboard, with Mike bouncing around in the back.

In another scene, the friends are assigned the job of pumping an organ Mike is playing. Dan lets Tod do the work as he spends his time peeking at Mike, flirting with her through a curtain. Until a jealous Tod accidentally pulls off the handle and they have to scramble to keep the music playing.

This marked the first Western for Ford and was just the second for Holden, who had appeared alongside Jean Arthur in “Arizona” (1940).

Edgar Buchanan gets a bigger role than normal as a dentist who’s really behind the cattle rustling. George Bancroft is Windy Miller, the man who wants to buy all the cattle around at $2 per head.

Claire Trevor as Mike King, startled when a stranger shows up demanding one of the horses pulling her buckboard in Texas (1941)

Edgar Buchanan as Doc Thorpe, watching trouble approach with a stampeding herd in Texas (1941)

Directed by:
George Marshall

Cast:
William Holden … Dan Thomas
Glenn Ford … Tod Ramsey
Claire Trevor … “Mike” King
George Bancroft … Windy Miller
Edgar Buchanan … Doc Thorpe
Don Beddoe … Sheriff
Andrew Tombes … Tennessee
Addison Richards … Matt Lashan
Edmund MacDonald … Comstock
Joseph Crehan … Dusty King
Willard Robertson … Wilson
Pat Moriarity … Matthews
Edmund Cobb … Blaire

Runtime: 93 min.

George Bancroft as Windy Miller, one of the men behind all the Texas trouble in Texas (1941)

Addison Richards as Matt Lashan, owner of the crooked ranch where Dan lands a job in Texas (1941)

Memorable lines:

Windy Miller: “You boys still hungry?”
Dan Thomas: “I got the same appetite I brought to town with me three days ago.”

Sheriff: “Where’s a tree?”
Tod Ramsey: “Now, look, I was going to bring the money back.”
Sheriff: “Every time I wanna hang a fella, there ain’t no trees.”
Deputy: “There’s a big oak about a mile back, sheriff.”
Tod: “Hey, you can’t do that without a trial.”
Sheriff: “As sheriff and justice of the peace, I hereby find you guilty and sentence you to be hanged.”

Sheriff: “We’ve been horn-swaggled. Git after ’em.”

Dan Thomas, trying to flee in Mike King’s buckboard: “I can’t stop here. Listen, lady …”
Mike King: “Get out!”
Dan Thomas: “But if they catch me, they’ll kill me for something I didn’t do.”
Mike King: “Well, I could kill you for what you’ve done. Now, get out!”

Dan Thomas to Mike King: “I’ve never seen someone do so many things wrong in such a short time.”

Tennessee: “Openly speaking, we’re what you call cattle separaters.”
Dan Thomas: “What?”
Tennessee: “Don’t you savvy? We separate the cattle from the owners.”

Doc Thorpe: “We’ll hit ’em so hard, a year from now not a man in this state will move a steer out of his own backyard.”

Joseph Crehan as Dusty King, Mike’s dad, encouraging his fellow ranchers to hire guns in Texas (1941)

Andrew Tombes as Tennessee, a flute-playing bandit about to be robbed in Texas (1941)

Claire Trevor as Mike King, pointing out the man who hijacked her buckboard to Tod Ramsey (Glenn Ford) in Texas (1941)

William Holden as Dan Thomas and Glenn Ford as Tod Ramsey, two young troublemakers facing a judge in Texas (1941)