The First Texan (1956) User Reviews

Passable Western inspired by historical events about Sam Houston and his fight for Texas independence

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 10 October 2013]

Historic events and great action as well as an acceptable cast . Sam left his mark across the West's thousand toughest miles to escape a scandal back east . From the Red River to the Rio Grande he was hunted and feared ; a restless giant in a violent land . Tall in the saddle, restless of heart , he ranged across a violent land, forging an era with cold steel . However , Houston nowadays justly wants to maintain a low profile . After arriving in Texas , advocate at law Sam Houston (Joel McCrea) wishes to stay out of any political turf . Later on , he gets together with notorious Texan leaders , his compatriots as Jim Bowie (Jeff Morrow) , Davy Crockett (James Griffith) , William Barrett Travis (William Hopper) , Stephen Austin (Dayton Lummis) , he then changes his opinion . After that , President Jackson (Carl Benton Reid) personally orders him to lead the battle for Texan independence, he overcomes his reluctance to become involved and leads his partners to a string of victories over the Mexican army . At the end takes place the famous battle of San Jacinto , in which was imprisoned General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana (David Silva) .

This exciting picture about Texas fights for independence contains action Western , drama , historical happenings , a love story and is quite entertaining . Interesting writing based on a story and screenplay by Daniel Ullman , a Western expert . Good main cast such as Joel McCrea and Felicia Farr who married Jack Lemmon . Ample support cast formed by notorious secondaries playing brief roles such as Jeff Morrow as Jim Bowie , Wallace Ford as Henry Delaney , Abraham Sofaer as magistrate , Chubby Johnson as Deaf Smith , William Hopper as William Barrett Travis and Jody McCrea , Joel Mcrea'son . Atmospheric as well as thrilling musical score by Roy Webb , RKO's usual . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Wilfred Cline . Medium budget film by Walter Mirisch , being professionally directed by Byron Haskin , though with no originality . Haskin was a good craftsman who worked in Warner Brothers Special Effects department . He returned to filmmaking , and was responsible for Walt Disney's first live-action film , the adventure cult-classic Treasure island (1950). In the mid-1950s Haskin began a rewarding association with producer George Pal, for whom he filmed what is probably his best-known film , the science fiction classic War of the worlds (1953) and a catastrophe movie , The naked jungle (1954). Haskin was expert on Sci-Fi genre , as he would collaborate with Pal on other films , such as Conquest of Space (1955) , Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) and The power (1968). He also directed some Western as Denver Rio Grande and Silver City .

The picture is partially based on historical deeds about Texas independence, these are the following : With Mexican permission Stephen Austin (Dayton Lummis) brought the first Anglo-American colonists to Texas, the first of many, their numbers grew and they wanted self-government and this desire led to the revolt of 1835, the Texas war for Independence . General Santa Anna (David Silva) , stormed the Alamo , being defended by Jim Bowie (Jeff Morrow) , Davy Crockett (James Griffith) and William Travis (William Hooper) , and wiped out the garrison on 6 March 1836 . But on 21 April 1836 General Santa Anna suffered a crushing defeat by Sam Houston (Joel McCrea) and was taken prisoner . Texas was declared a Republic in October 1836 and Houston became its first president. In 1845 Texas joined the US, this lead to war with Mexico and disastrous results for that country. Samuel Houston (1793-1863) well performed by Joel McCrea , was a frontiersman and politician , he went to live with the Cherokees and took a Cherokee wife . After the fall of the Alamo , he managed to keep together a small force and launched a furious surprise attack on the Mexican army of 1300 camped on the western bank of the San Jacinto River . With Texas free and independent republic , Houston was elected the first president . When Texas was admitted to the United States in 1845, Houston was a senator to Washington .

You are foolish Señor, but not lacking in courage.

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 8 June 2014]

The First Texan is directed by Byron Haskin and written by Daniel B. Ullman. It stars Joel McCrea, Felicia Farr, Jeff Morrow, Wallace Ford and Rodolfo Hoyos. A Technicolor/CinemaScope production, cinematography is by Wilfrid Cline and music by Roy Webb.

McCrea plays Sam Houston, who after travelling from Tennessee to San Antonio, Texas, starts to shape Texas history in spite of his initial reluctance.

OK! So it's no Sam Houston biography of considerable substance or big bucks production values, I mean how was it ever going to be so when it only runs at just over 82 minutes? Yet this is still a very colourful and engaging picture, with the core essence of the Sam Houston story firmly put forward. We are basically watching what Huston was doing as elsewhere The Alamo was playing its part in historical legend. This means that the narrative is given to mostly talky passages as political machinations and power hungry posturings come to the fore. Thankfully, in McCrea's hands Houston comes off as a fascinating and inspiring man, which in the grand scheme of things is objective achieved.

There is, perhaps inevitably, a romantic sub-plot, which explains why the gorgeous Felicia Farr is in the movie, sadly it's not only a token characterisation, but also historically suspect to say the least. But again, take it with a pinch of salt and buy into Houston the man and it never hurts the story. It all builds towards the battle of San Jacinto, where spurred on by famous chants about remembering The Alamo, Houston led his forces to victory over General Antonio López de Santa Anna's Mexican army. Financial restraints mean we don't get the big and bold battle that history deserves, but what is on offer is deftly staged regardless, as stunt-men flail about and cannons do roar.

Nothing approaching educational class standards here, but with McCrea a strong and rugged presence, and Haskin rising above budget limitations to tell a literary story, The First Texan is as solid as a San Antonio mission built with limestone that has been cemented by a stucco layer. 7/10

Goin' Back to Houston...Houston...Houston!

[bsmith5552 · 7/10 · 19 February 2019]

"The First Texan" is another of the Texas fight for independence tales, this time from the perspective of General Sam Houston (Joel McCrea). McCrea was an imposing figure and is perfectly cast in the lead.

In 1832 Sam Houston crosses into Texas from Tennessee and comes upon a group of revolutionaries planning for the independence of Texas from Mexico and its tyrannical president Generalissimo Santa Ana (David Silva). Jim Bowie (Jeff Morrow) is the leader of the group and asks Houston to Join them. The group includes Steven Austin (Dayton Lumis) Col. Travis (William Hopper), Col. Fannin (Lane Chandler) and others. Houston at first is reluctant to become involved.

Huston sets up a law practice and becomes attracted to Katherine Delaney (Felicia Farr) the niece of Henry Delaney (Wallace Ford), one of the revolutionaries. One day, an old friend from Tennessee, Davy Crockett (James Griffith) comes to Sam with a message from President Andrew Jackson (Carl Benton Reid). The President convinces Sam to take up the Texas cause and become its leader.

When he returns from Washington, Sam learns of the fate of Bowie, Crockett, Travis and the others at the Alamo. He then decides to form an army and gain revenge on Santa Ana. But not being ready to fight, Sam takes his makeshift army in retreat as Santa Ana and his army pursues him. His men question the fact that Sam is avoiding a fight. But Sam has a plan.

The battle of the Alamo takes place off screen but there is a dandy battle at the film's climax. I don't know whether the love story angle has any basis in fact but it wasn't hard to watch the lovely Felicia Farr (wife of Jack Lemmon).

Other notables in the cast include, Jody McCrea and William Phipps as the two soldiers who foil Myron Healey's attempt to desert Houston, Chubby Johnson as Deaf Smith the Scout, Rodolfo Hoyos as Mexican Col. Cos, Roy Roberts as Col. Sherman and Nelson Leigh as Col. Hockley Houston's commanders, and George J. Lewis as the Mexican Doctor attending Houston.

Joel McCrea makes a fine Sam Houston.

Enjoyable, amusing little film, but not very educational.

[lmulhare · 6 May 2006]

This is a short and entertaining piece of fluff that never bores. There is a funny, if unbelievable, court room scene and hilarious stunt work during a battle scene. Soldiers who have been shot or hit by shrapnel gracefully dive off carts and roll on the ground to break their falls! I thought the fullscreen version I was watching might be open matte, but this was filmed in Cinemascope, so the hilarious acrobatics should have been visible in the cinema.

I know little about Texan history, so I don't know how accurate the story is. The separatists state that they have good reasons for wanting the province of Texas to be independent of Mexico. We are told that these are the same reasons that Americans needed to fight for freedom from Britain. We never learn what their grievances are or what is so terrible about being a Mexican citizen. The only harassment we learn of is the break up of a secessionist meeting by the army and an attempt to have the conspirators tried for treason. One of their number is shot to try to provoke them, but no mention is made of bringing about democratic change. The republicans take action which contribute to the overthrow of the (presumably democratic) government by Santa Ana. The US President, Andrew Jackson, sides with the Republicans and says his plans for Texas go beyond independence. He wants Texas to become part of the US, a wish which is not expressed by any of the Texans. He is not prepared to provide military support for fear of starting a war with Mexico, but orders his friend Sam Houston to raise an Army in the province to lead what seems a futile fight against Santa Ana. Jackson comes across as a greedy land-grabber who is prepared to risk his friend's life and nothing else in return for some prime real estate and greater influence for himself. The republicans are fools who would be lost without Houston. When captured after a single defeat in battle, Santa Ana signs away the entire province of Texas in exchange for his freedom! None of the protagonists come across in a good light. I'm sure there is more to the history of the Lone Star State than is seen in this jingoistic, amusing time-passer of a flick.

Decent Texan Tale - The First Texan

[arthur_tafero · 6/10 · 8 January 2022]

The First Texan is about Sam Houston and his journey from the Governor's Office to the battlefield of Texas to defeat Santa Anna after the loss of the Alamo. Joel Mcrea is featured as Houston and Vic Morrow has a bit part as Jim Bowie. Not the greatest saga ever made, but watchable.

Generally true....but not exactly true!

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 7 December 2022]

The story of the life of Sam Houston certainly would make for a great picture. He was the only person to be governors of two different states (Texas and Tennessee), was the first president of Texas and was ultimately destroyed because he opposed Texas leaving the Union in 1861. A truly interesting man...and "The First Texan" manages to capture SOME of his greatness.

The film only covers the period after Houston quit the governorship of Tennessee to the independence of Texas...just a few years out of Houston's life. So if you're looking for anything before this or after, it's not in the movie. But what bothered me about the film is that it created a fiancee for Houston who simply never existed. In fact, Houston was married multiple times and such a romance with Katherine Delaney never existed. What did exist were some divorces and scandals...none of which are talked about much in the movie. In other words this is no 'warts and all' portrayal of the man.

Overall, the film is rousing and interesting if not 100% accurate. Worth seeing but Houston really deserved better...and probably something longer than just a 90 minute or so film.

Gang of malcontents plot the overthrow of a nation

[helpless_dancer · 6/10 · 29 February 2000]

A small group of men plan a coup on the government of Mexico and spoil for a good fight. They enlist a former politico as their unwilling leader and he proves to be a fine commander. The renegades suffer several setbacks before finally meeting the enemy at the crucial engagement of the insurrection. A too slow, unrealistic look at Texas independence.

Sam Houston Deserves A Broader More Expensive Production

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 27 March 2007]

One of my favorite characters in American history has always been Sam Houston. I've tried to read everything I could about the man and his life and work. It's a story that has its protagonist at the center of all kinds of events in our history from the Indian Wars of the South serving with Andrew Jackson even before The Battle of New Orleans right up to his heroic fight to keep Texas in the United States before the Civil War. His is the story of America during her growing years.

We've never really had an adequate biographical film of Houston. Sam Elliott did a very good job covering a period between his abrupt resignation as Governor of Tennessee right up to the events of San Jacinto in a made for TV film, J.D. Cannon in an acclaimed episode for the Profiles in Courage series did a wonderful job dramatizing those events as Governor of Texas as he led the losing battle for the union. Houston has been played on the screen by such people as Richard Dix, Richard Boone, Stacy Keach, and here by Joel McCrea.

Had this film been given a really top production by a major studio like Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, etc. this could have been one epic film. Joel McCrea is superb casting in the role, Houston was a big man, well over six feet tall and McCrea certainly is impressive physically that way. The problem is that this was done by Allied Artists, Monogram Pictures dressed up so to speak. If The First Texan had a decent budget, someone like John Ford or Raoul Walsh to direct it, Houston might have had a biographical film worthy of the man.

The facts as to the Battle of San Jacinto are pretty accurately set down. The romance McCrea is given with Felicia Farr is something else. Houston was divorced from his first wife Eliza Allen and did not marry Margaret Lea until the middle of the 1840s after Eliza died. Divorce was mighty rare in those days.

Joel McCrea is always a favorite of mine as a cowboy hero, it's with great reluctance I give The First Texan a less than stellar review, but the subject deserves a lot better than a B western from Allied Artists.

Maybe Sam Houston will one day get either a film or a mini-series worthy of him. Until then I suggest one read Marquis James's biography of him. James is one great writer his prose is practically lyrical and you'll get a great feel for the subject in reading him.

Si, me General!

[rmax304823 · 5/10 · 5 July 2012]

Joel McCrea is Sam Houston in the 1840s, a tall fellow in buckskin, who comes to Texas to get away from all that political blather in his native Tennessee. He has no more interest in politics, he tells Jim Bowie after Bowie has invited him to join the movement for independence from Mexico. Of course he's swept up into it nonetheless.

We watch the assembly of the ragtag army of ill-disciplined Texans and the inexorable march of Santa Ana's colorful soldiers across the field to the final confrontation. The battle of the Alamo takes place off screen but the battle of San Jacincto (which Texas won) is presented for our enjoyment. Still, the emphasis is on politics rather than blood.

It's a relatively small-budget film and, although I'm no student of Texas history, it seems to me that it shines up those cowboy boots a little more than adherence to historical accuracy would demand. Everybody looks so NEAT. Felicia Farr is glamorized too, in the familiar role of the anti-war woman who overcomes her prejudice against violence to stick with her man.

More than once the comparison is drawn between Texas' independence from Mexico and America's independence from Great Britain. Not that the Mexican government or its representatives are treated as villainous. They're men of honor, and many Mexicans are in the movement for independence. The Texans just want their "freedom", and who can argue with such a platitude? But of course there were other, more mundane considerations involved. Slavery had been abolished in Mexico in 1829, whereas many of the immigrant Gringos in Texas had brought slaves with them. Jim Bowie's personal slave is never even brought up. At no point does the neatly dressed, polite, principled Jim Bowie ever say, "Snowflake, bring me a gin sling," and never does anyone bow and say, "Yazzuh, Mistuh Jim." The ambitions of the Confederacy went beyond secession and the absorption of Texas. There was talk of expanding into the Caribbean and Latin America and reintroducing slavery. Well -- sugar and cotton are labor intensive industries.

But issues like that can be disregarded because I don't think this was ever intended to be an accurate history of Texas but more of an Afterschool Special, trimmed down and made accessible. I don't mean that to sound too harsh. The film is like a quick charcoal sketch of a landscape and if details are left out and the final product looks a little unfinished, at least we have the general outline. It succeeds in what it set out to do. It will enlighten people who don't know why the capital of Texas is named "Austin."

A gem of a film!

[defroman11 · 10/10 · 13 October 2013]

"The First Texan" despite the obvious lack of a stellar supporting cast (aside from Wallace Ford who does not disappoint), a famous "name" director and a major studio resources and production values, however, this is nonetheless a great and highly entertaining film to watch solely because of the magnetic screen presence of its larger than life star, Joel McCrea. This is a movie after all, and not a documentary on the life and times of Sam Huston. As in virtually every film Hollywood has ever made, they do at times take "poetic license", which in my opinion does not detract one bit from the film or its stunning Technicolor cinematography. This is a gem of a film!

So many Historical Liberties taken

[tikal-67437 · 1/10 · 24 April 2022]

I am True Texan, born and lived all my life in Texas. There are always so many liberties taken with the History of Texas. Even John Wayne's Alamo did not have all the truths.

the first texan

[mossgrymk · 4/10 · 30 December 2022]

I'm fairly certain this is the dullest movie ever made about the origins of the Lone Star State. In the stolid, low budget hands of Byron Haskin the Texas Revolution holds less excitement than the Black Hawk War. In the first half hour (all I could take), aside from a rather desultory cantina fight, the viewer is treated to a boring trial scene, an even more enervating romance involving Joel McRae and Felicia Farr and lots of talk about hot headed Jim Bowie versus reasonable but cautious Steve Austin with Sam, of course, stuck in the middle, ready for war but hoping for peace. Are you still awake? Yeah, me too, which is why I pulled the plug right around the time Andy Jackson puts his arm on Sam's shoulder and speaks of destiny,(the manifest kind, of course). Give it a C minus.

marred by poor selection of filming location

[runtexas · 3/10 · 8 December 2022]

I recently saw "Texas Rising" on Netflixs. Outside of the historical and stylistic errors, the biggest problem I saw in that series was the location chosen for filming, Durango, Mexico. That area is a mountainous desert. Most of the action in the Texas revolution takes place in a triangle bounded by San Antonio, Houston, and Goliad. San Antonio is in the Texas hill country, Houston and Goliad are in the gulf coast plain. There are no mountains in this area and it is not a desert. This movie, besides a number of historical and stylistic errors (this is Texas in 1836, not the American West in 1870), makes the same mistake. The retreat of the Texas army, where Sam Houston is leading his army east towards San Jacinto was filmed in an area that looks nothing like the area around today's city of Houston (San Jacinto is on the east side of the city).

I live about 10 miles from San Jacinto, it is very green, very wet, and very flat (about 25 feet above sea level). Why do Hollywood film makers not check out the area where the action took place? San Jacinto is bounded on the north by Buffalo Bayou (now the Houston Ship Channel) and the San Jacinto river, which flows into Galveston Bay, only about 7 miles away. The scene of the Mexican army camp with a mountain in the background was ludicrous.

There are highly improbably meetings between Sam Houston and many famous names from the Texas revolution and although they saved a lot of money by not showing the Alamo or Goliad, they relied on descriptions that are incorrect.

That said, I am native Texan and was disappointed. If viewed as just a typical western, it was ok, but as a movie of Sam Houston and the Texas revolution, was marred by the geographical, historical, and stylistic errors.

Classic Western tale of the fight for Texas Independence

[wabatl · 9/10 · 8 July 1999]

While watching this movie, I can feel the drive behind these men and their fight for Texas independence.

Told from the perspective of Gen. Sam Houston, this movie begins as Houston has just moved to the Mexican territory which is now Texas. We then witness his growing thirst for Texas independence and his subsequent call to arms by President Andrew Jackson.

We see his genius as a military commander in the fight against Mexican General Santa Ana, in what at first appears to be a cowardly retreat against Santa Ana's superior forces.

A wonderful classic for those who like westerns or war movies and for film buffs in general.

Joel McCray

[kiheitown · 8/10 · 29 January 2020]

I like his movies especially with the delicious veronica lake, this was an entertaining movie, never saw a bad McCray movie

The least from Byron Haskin

[searchanddestroy-1 · 24 January 2023]

I honestly prefered the other westerns from Byron Haskin: SILVER CITY, DENVER AND RIO GRANDE, WARPATH, and Byron Haskin was not a western specialist, not at all, a science fiction film maker, but those previous ones were rather well done. Concerning this one, I don't say it's a bad western but it is too much patriotic oriented for my taste. Good Americans vs evil Mexican. And watching this movie in f...pan and scan doesnt help much to appreciate this so predictable topic. Byron Haskin was not really concerned by this feature, that's what I feel, and I was really bored during the viewing. There is some action, yes, but that doesn't justify to purchase this movie at all costs. I admit that I am French and not American, but biographies on movies have always annoyed, bored me. Even Charles De Gaulle's one...;So, if you want to watch every Byron Haskin's film, watch it.