More so than the movie itself, I was impressed with the impressive cast list for the picture. Besides lead cowboy Dennis Morgan, you had future 'Gunsmoke' regular Amanda Blake, multiple award winner Rita Moreno, 'Rawhide' regular and creator of the hit record 'Purple People Eater', Sheb Wooley, and can you believe it - Merv Griffin!, appearing as an aide to the governor of Texas! That was just so odd that I had to check his other acting credits. This was his very first film role, and he appeared in only one other Western a couple years later. I think they're still looking for him as the escaped elevator killer from "The Man With Two Brains"!
As for the story, it's a fairly standard Western with a slight twist. Instead of outright rustling ranchers' cattle, Northern carpetbagger Judd Hastings (Ray Teal) attempts to confiscate the cattle that's already on land he's purchased from the government of Texas. This is where Mike McGann (Morgan) steps in as the governor's envoy to broker a deal between Hastings and the ranchers, led by Ben Curran (Philip Carey). McGann's plan pretty much consists of distracting Hastings' henchmen, Robert J. Wilke (as Keeno) and Sheb Wooley (as Miller), long enough for the ranchers to make a getaway with their cattle.
With cowboy actors Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, you expected them to burst into song at least a couple times in their pictures, but in this one the musical numbers felt out of place and distracting from the main story. Dennis Morgan does the honors with at least a decent voice, and even joins a barbershop quarter at one point if you can believe it. At the high point of the picture, he broke into 'Dixie', causing a massive saloon brawl between native Texans and their Northern counterparts, part of the distracting influence mentioned earlier.
If you read the trivia notes for this film here on IMDb, you'll find that actor Morgan considered this Western a stinker, but I didn't think it was that bad. It's entertaining enough for its relatively short run time, and it does have a couple of pretty women in Amanda Blake and Rita Moreno, who in her role as a Mexican rancher's daughter is absolutely luminous.
As for the story, it's a fairly standard Western with a slight twist. Instead of outright rustling ranchers' cattle, Northern carpetbagger Judd Hastings (Ray Teal) attempts to confiscate the cattle that's already on land he's purchased from the government of Texas. This is where Mike McGann (Morgan) steps in as the governor's envoy to broker a deal between Hastings and the ranchers, led by Ben Curran (Philip Carey). McGann's plan pretty much consists of distracting Hastings' henchmen, Robert J. Wilke (as Keeno) and Sheb Wooley (as Miller), long enough for the ranchers to make a getaway with their cattle.
With cowboy actors Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, you expected them to burst into song at least a couple times in their pictures, but in this one the musical numbers felt out of place and distracting from the main story. Dennis Morgan does the honors with at least a decent voice, and even joins a barbershop quarter at one point if you can believe it. At the high point of the picture, he broke into 'Dixie', causing a massive saloon brawl between native Texans and their Northern counterparts, part of the distracting influence mentioned earlier.
If you read the trivia notes for this film here on IMDb, you'll find that actor Morgan considered this Western a stinker, but I didn't think it was that bad. It's entertaining enough for its relatively short run time, and it does have a couple of pretty women in Amanda Blake and Rita Moreno, who in her role as a Mexican rancher's daughter is absolutely luminous.