At the close of the civil war Randy Scott plays an ex-Confederate soldier who wants to see the country come together, meanwhile carpetbaggers are kicking the South while they're down and unrealistic taxes are levied against cattle owners. Joan Bennett, a bleeding heart for the South, owns the largest ranch in Texas and has to decide on sending her cattle to Mexico to feed troops and continue fighting the North, or, sneak the cattle up north to Kansas, avoid paying taxes, risk fighting Indians and corrupt cavalry men in the hopes of feeding a new bustling town that will become a major stop in the ever expanding railroad ......
An epic Randy Scott western played with broad comedy and sweet romance. Filled to the brim with excellent character actors trying to survive a wagon train and pushing 10 THOUSAND cattle across the plains! Now I didn't count if there were actually 10 thousand cattle, a few shots look like there's maybe only five hundred or so. There's a wonderfully exciting scene that has the wagons and cattle rushing across the land to escape a brush fire set by Indians, and it looks so damn real I can't believe no one was killed during filming. Trees and wagons are set ablaze and cattle is running everywhere, probably scared for their lives and for good reason. Another scene has the wagons and cattle crossing a wide river, and again I just can't believe that no cattle were swept away. It's all terribly exciting. Robert Cummings plays a racist and uncomfortable racism abounds. Joan Bennett is lovely. In glorious black and white. (I think Randy has eye make-up on!)
Scott plays it fairly broad and the character actors bring alot of comedy to the roles. Randy Scott gets rid of his Dixie cavalry uniform post haste at the beginning of the pic, donning nice frontier clothes with leather fringe. The carpetbaggers are so ruthless they try to sell it to him for 60 dollars! (This is what, 1865-ish?) Without a penny to his name he signs over a deed for 10 square miles of land just so he can get some decent clothes (which will allow him to leave town without being harassed by the Yankee soldiers)! Could you imagine owning ten square miles of land?!
Randolph Scott On Set Of The Texans
Original caption: 03/28/1938. A Winner! Randolph Scott in movie makeup gets a big kick out of cabled news from his wife, the former Marion DuPont Somerville, that her horse "Battleship" has won the Grand National Steeplechase at Aintree, England. Sharing the actor's enthusiasm on "The Texans" set at Paramount where Scott is at work are left to right: Producer, Lucien Hubbard; Director, James Hogan; and Joan Bennett who appears opposite Scott in the picture and Bing Crosby.
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