Jim McWade (Bill Elliott) and John Wesley Barker (John Carroll) return home to Texas after the Civil War to find that the state police have taken over as part of the Reconstruction.
They censor what the newspapers write. They try to censor what the preachers preach. And they order Texans — Texans, mind you — to turn over their guns.
Gibson Hart (Albert Dekker) runs the state police. Among the most despotic of his lieutenants is a man named Jessup, who commands the state police in Barker’s hometown of Millsborough.
When Barker’s dad, an aging preacher, posts a sermon critical of the state police, Jessup has him killed.
Barker quickly rounds up his rowdy cousins — the Claytons — and avenges his father’s death by gunning down Jessup.
Hoping to quell the hostilities, McWade approaches Hart with a plan to have Barker surrender, if he’s promised a fair trial in front of a jury of his peers.
Barker agrees. But McWade quickly discovers that Hart has no intention of following through on his end of the bargain.
So he breaks Barker out of jail and joins his gang of ruffians. And it’s a growing gang. Because the state police might consider Barker an outlaw, but he’s becoming a hero to many Texans.
Still, McWade is looking for a way to restore peace, fearful that those ruffians will eventually put his old friend Barker on the wrong side of the law for good.
Bill Elliott as Jim McWade with Alice Sharp (Catherine McLeod), the girl he hopes to marry in The Fabulous Texan (1947)
Bill Elliott as Jim McWade in a tense moment with friend John Wesley Barker (John Carroll) in The Fabulous Texan (1947)
Review:
Bill Elliott is top-billed here, but the real star of the show is John Carroll. He turns in an intense performance as the man who defies the state police, finds himself on the run and finds it impossible to stop running because so many Texans want him to continue their fight.
While Barker is battling the state police and McWade is looking for a way out for his friend, Catherine McLeod plays the woman caught between the two.
She’s promised to marry McWade; she just could’t turn him down while he was off fighiting for the South. But it’s Barker she really loves.
Andy Devine and Ruth Donelly play the couple who run the Millsborough newspaper; Patricia Knight plays Gibson Hart’s lover, Josie.
Oddly, the very next year Elliott would star in “The Gallant Legion,” another film about Texans rallying against reconstruction rule and the possible revival of the state police.
Bill Elliott as Jim McWade, about to bust Barker out of jail while Gibson Hart (Albert Dekker, right) looks on in The Fabulous Texan (1947)
John Carroll as John Wesley Barker with Alice Sharp (Catherine McLeod), the woman he and his best friend love in The Fabulous Texan (1947)
Directed by:
Edward Ludwig
Cast:
Bill Elliott … Jim McWade
John Carroll … John Wesley Barker
Catherine McLeod … Alice Sharp
Albert Dekker … Gibson Hart
Andy Devine … Elihu Mills
Patricia Knight … Josie Allen
Ruth Donnelly … Utopia Mills
Johnny Sands … Bud Clayton
Robert Barrat … Dr. Sharp
Harry Davenport … Rev. Baker
Douglas Drumbrille … Luke Roland
Reed Hadley … Jessup
Roy Barcroft … Standifer
Russell Simpson … Wade Clayton
James Brown … Shep Clayton
Jim Davis … Sam Bass
George Beban Jr. … Dick Clayton
John Miles ,,, Sim Clayton
Runtime: 95 min.
Patricia Knight (right) as Josie Allen, begging Alice Sharp (Catherine McLeod) for information in The Fabulous Texan (1947)
Catherine McLeod as Alice Sharp tries to help a wounded John Wesley Barker (John Carroll) in The Fabulous Texan (1947)
Memorable lines:
Alice Sharp: “If no one else has told you, you haven’t changed a single bit. You’re the same old hybrid.”
John Wesley Barker: “What’s a hybrid?”
Alice: “In the case of someone I know, it’s half man and half mule.”
Jim McWade: “The people of Texas regard the shooting of a worm like Jessup as they would the destruction of a pest. At this moment, they declare Wes Barker a public benefactor.”
Standifer, as he and Hart are used as shields while Barker and his men escape jail: “Should I give the order to shoot?”
Gibson Hart: “What makes you think we’re bullet proof?”
John Wesley Barker, when Mrs. Renfro gives birth: “Sounds like another Texan. And we need Texans.”
John Wesley Barker, when he learns a Texas militia is coming after him: “Sorta makes a man wonder. Is he born to kill and steal? Or do things pile up and force him into it?”
Alice Sharp: “They piled up against you. One on top of the other.”
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