Three Young Texans (1954) User Reviews

Average Western about three young Texas become involved into robbing , fights and shootouts

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 25 March 2020]

This one is a cheap Western mostly shot in Durango , Colorado , where during the 40s , 50s and 60s were filmed several oaters . There is action and shootouts but no too much , but the little action sequences are effective enough . Sizzling and exciting adventure Western with drama , frantic action , romance and moving ending shoot'em up . Two cowhands : Keefe Brasselle , Jeffrey Hunter as good friends to Mitzi Gaynor , and both of whom fall in love for her . But due to a gambling incident , Hunter's father is threatened ; after that, one of them gets involved with crooks in robbing a payroll train . Living! Loving! Fighting!

A Western drama about three young friends with dramatic moments , noisy action , shootouts , crosses, a love story , luxurious photography by Harold Lipstein and a highly commendable musical score . Simple and plain Western with no much interest about a Texan who robs a train in , his friend , and a young girl who attempts to help him after learning about the theft. Bursting with attractive characters , interesting sub-plots , and with a passable filmmaking , but mediocre . This was one of several movies , financed by 20th Century Fox , supported by Leonard Goldstein's Panoramic Productions , but made at the RKO-Pathé studio. This stirring and thrilling western with thrills , brawls , go riding and lots of gunfire , being starred by a very young trio : Mitzi Gaynor , Jeffrey Hunter , Keefe Brasselle . Stars the always sympathetic Mitzi Gaynor , leading lady of light musicals , the bright-eyed Gaynor is best remembered for ¨Les Girls¨,¨There's no business as show business¨, ¨Surprise Package¨ , and especially "South Pacific". She also hosted a string of successful annual musical TV specials in the late 1960s and early 1970s . Co-starred by the unknown Keefe Brasselle as a cowboy friend who demands a share of the money , along with Jeffrey Hunter as the young cowpoke who efforts to prevent his father from committing a crime . Hunter played starring roles in two more John Ford movies as the classic The Searchers , and The last Hurrah ; in 1960 , Hunter had one of his best roles in Hell to Eternity (1960) , the true story of World War II hero Guy Gabaldon . That same year, Hunter landed the role for which he is probably best known , when he played Jesus in producer Samuel Bronston's King of Kings (1961), which due to Hunter's still youthful looks at 33, was dubbed by irreverent Hollywood wags "I Was a Teenage Jesus." After the cancellation of his Western series Temple Houston (1963), and his decision not to continue in the lead role of the current series Star Trek (1966) , his career took a downturn , and Hunter eventually wound up in Europe working on cheap Westerns, at the time a sure sign of a career in trouble . In 1969, Hunter suffered a stroke (after just recovering from an earlier stroke), took a bad fall and underwent emergency surgery, but died from complications of both the fall and the surgery. They are well accompanied by a good cast , such as : Morris Ankrum , Michael Ansara , Frank Wilcox , Helen Wallace , some uncredited as Tex Driscoll , Jack Kenny, and special appearance by Aaron Spelling , subsequently a powerful TV producer , here playing a nasty gunfighter .

The motion picture shot in Colorado was regularly directed by Henry Levin , though I has some flaws and gaps . Levin began working as a director assistant and dialogue expert and subsequently graduated to direction features , and turned out movies in just about every genre over the next decades ; shooting entertaining pictures but more and less completely familiar and derivative stories . His heyday was in the 1960s , when he turned out several bright , fun and frothy sex comedies , notably : Come fly with me (1963) and Honeymoon hotel (1964) . He made several adventure movies as Genghis Khan , The wonderful world of Grimm Brothers , The bandit of Sherwood forest , The return of Montecristo and his greatest success : Journey to center of earth . Although Levin's forte was light comedies , one of his most interesting films were two dark , brooding westerns The Lonely Man (1957) and Desperados , both of of them played by Jack Palance . He also made two hit thrillers : Matt Helm and The Ambushers . He finished his career piloting made-for-television movies, and died on the final day of shooting Scout's Honor (1980) . Rating : 5/10 . Middling film , a regular Western for Western lovers only .

Rusty Rides the Range

[richardchatten · 6/10 · 18 March 2023]

Young Mitzi Gaynor was already firmly established as a rising musical star when Fox entrusted her to their resident Jack-of-all-trades Henry Levin to put her through her paces on horseback as a pert short-haired Texan tomboy packing a shotgun in this breezy Technicolor western.

As Mitzi's pappy Morris Ankrum takes a break from playing generals. You expect villainy from Michael Ansara (here wearing a huge sombrero) but as his partner in crime robbing a train you don't expect Aaron Spelling, soon to give up acting and later became much more familiar as a name on the credits of nonsense like 'Dallas'.

Three Young Texans

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 14 April 2023]

When a routine poker game goes wrong, a card-sharp is killed and the man who did the shooting is coerced by the "witnesses" to take part in a train robbery else they will not corroborate his story and he will doubtlessly hang! Thing is, his son "Johnny" (Jeffrey Hunter) hears their plotting and decides the only thing he can do, is to rob the train himself! The plot only becomes more complicated when "Rusty" (Mitzi Gaynor) discovers the truth and his friend "Tony" (Keefe Brasselle) who has hidden the loot tries to double cross him with "Apache Joe" (Michael Ansara). Can "Johnny" and "Rusty" get the cash before it's all too late? It's a rather straightforward little western this. A bit too long, and certainly predictable but there are plenty of action scenes, horse chases and shoot outs. Michael Ansara is usually reliable as a baddie and together with an outing for Aaron Spelling before he knew Charlie or his Angels is worth keeping an eye out for. Hunter and Gaynor are easy enough on the eye and work just well enough to keep this running through to an ending that, actually, has a very slight twist to it. It's about family, loyalty and friendship - so never fear, a moral is never far away!

Mitzi Gaynor is a cowgirl in a western!

[weezeralfalfa · 6/10 · 10 June 2017]

Mitzi is OK, but not spectacular, as a cowgirl. Jeffery Hunter(as Johnny) is the lead male, working for Mitzi's rancher father, as is his friend Tony(Keefe Brasselle). They both have the hots for Mitzi(Rusty). They gamble in the saloon, losing, then winning. Then, Johnny's father, Jim, goes across the Mexican border to gamble at cards in the back room. of a saloon. He accuses one of the players(MacAdoo) of cheating, and wounds him. He claims it was self-defense, although it didn't look that way to me. Later, his partners claim that McAdoo died of his wound(not true), so they will tell the sheriff it was murder, unless he helps them with a train robbery. Johnny overhears this development, so decides to try to rob the train first, which he does. He hides it in an obscure place that Tony knows about. Tony then hides the money were no one else will guess. Apache Joe's gang then makes Tony promise to lead them to the money, which they will split with him. In contrast, Johnny wants to return all the money to the government, since he only did the robbery to prevent his father from being forced into a robbery. To distract the sheriff from trying to follow them, the gang starts a fire in town. Jim and Johnny follow Tony and the gang to the hiding place, then Mitzy and the sheriff follow them. A gun battle ensues. Tony plus Apache Joe's gang are all killed. Johnny gives the money to the sheriff, who tells him he's due for a monetary reward for killing Apache Joe, plus another reward for returning the money, which Johnny gives to the town.

It's a nice complicated plot, but there are too many contrived coincidences for me. Available in color at You Tube.

The color photography's the star.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 3 January 2021]

This odd little dark western (in color!) may have the 20th Century Fox logo but not the panoramic view that their color westerns normally have. It deals with the two cow hands (Keefe Brasselle and Jeffrey Hunter) who become involved in a payroll robbery when one of them becomes involved with Michael Ansara's gang. Mitzi Gaynor, not quite Calamity Jane, is the tomboyish daughter of the rancher they work for who risks everything for them, especially when the gang comes searching for them as well as the law.

The Technicolor might have been more vivid had this been in Cinemascope rather than the normal ratio. Unfortunately, it was only financed by Fox, not filmed there, but I'm sure on a big screen, like all Technicolor westerns, it looked really good. The future legendary TV producer Aaron Spelling has a memorably creepy role as one of Ansara's gang members, made up to look downright hideous.

This is a rare non singing and dancing role for 20th Century Fox contract player Gaynor who gets ridiculed by a saloon entertainer by looking like a man. Hunter and Brasselle are both handsome and virile, but it's difficult to root for either one. Not one of the better westerns with a psychological viewpoint, it could have easily been filmed at Republic with their contract players and been a lot tighter.

Worth the wait!

[wc1996-428-366101 · 9/10 · 1 January 2013]

This was a very hard film to find. It took me years to track down a copy. I'm a big Jeffrey Hunter fan. In this film, Jeff overhears that some card sharks ( Michael Ansara & Aaron Spelling) are trying to blackmail Jeff's father. The blackmailers plan to rob a train that has

a federal payroll & force Jeff's father to join them with the robbery. Jeff disrupts their plans by robbing the train himself & puts the money in a safe place. His girlfriend ( Mitzi Gaynor) and his buddy ( Keefe Brasselle) find out what Jeff did. Keefe decides that he wants to keep the payroll money for himself while Jeff wants to return the money to the feds. Keefe joins up with the villains ( bad move) and Jeff goes after them to clear his and his father's name & also to save Keefe from the bad guys.

Excellent western on a small size, but the better for its unpretentiousness

[clanciai · 9/10 · 15 October 2022]

The title doesn't sound very promising for a Wild West film, it rather suggests some youngsters going for some picnic adventure, but you are in for a pleasant surprise. This is a great drama of family loyalty and bonds brought to the test by getting mixed up in a train robbery, in which nothing works out as planned. Jeffrey Hunter didn't make many films before he died far too early, which makes those films he did make the mora valuable and watchable. The story is horribly complicated and constantly gets worse in the development, but like some monster equation it actually works out in the end, and with some obligatory casualties, not to disappoint the ordinary wild west audience. The acting is very good all around, so is the music and the settings, so the risk is that this western is highly underrated. As one reviewer observed, it is worth the wait.