The Texas Rangers is a 1936 western film directed by King Vidor. The film stars Fred MacMurray, Jack Oakie, and Jean Parker. The Texas Rangers is loosely based on historical scenarios featured in Walter Prescott Webb’s book The Texas Rangers, A Century Of Frontier Defense (1935).
Director: King Vidor
Production Company: Paramount Pictures
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Cast: Fred MacMurray, Jack Oakie, Jean Parker, Lloyd Nolan, Edward Ellis, Benny Bartlett
US Box Office: Unknown
Film Format: Black & White
Genre: Western
Release Date: August 21, 1936 (premiere); August 28, 1936
Plot Summary: Jim Hawkins (Fred MacMurray), “Wahoo” Jones (Jack Oakie), and Sam McKee (Lloyd Nolan) are three western outlaws who rob stagecoaches. Jim and Wahoo become separated from Sam and join the Texas Rangers, at first to make easy money and serve as “inside men” for Sam’s criminal ventures. However, Wahoo soon reconsiders his criminal ambitions after he and Jim rescue a young boy named David (Bennie Bartlett) from an Indian attack and save their entire company from a massive Apache rampage. Jim also reconsiders his criminal past after he falls in love with Amanda Bailey (Jean Parker) and redeems himself by singlehandedly arresting corrupt town boss Jess Higgens (Fred Kohler).
Production: In late 1935 Paramount purchased the rights to Walter Prescott Webb’s history book The Texas Rangers, A Century Of Frontier Defense (1935) with the intention of turning it into a film. Director King Vidor was interested in the project because he wanted to make a film to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the founding of Texas. Vidor agreed to direct and produce the adaptation for Paramount, which was titled The Texas Rangers. The film’s script was written by Vidor, Elizabeth Hill, and Louis Stevens. The Texas Rangers featured a fictional story, but some scenes were inspired by historical events described in Webb’s book. Paramount considered changing the film’s name to Lone Star Rangers because Columbia Pictures had a film titled The Texas Ranger (1931), but ultimately kept the film’s original proposed title.
Vidor’s first choice for Jim Hawkins, the film’s main protagonist, was Gary Cooper. However, Paramount was already working with Cooper on Cecil B. DeMille’s western The Plainsman (1936), and the studio didn’t want to release two big-budget “outdoors” films with Cooper in the same year so they cast Fred MacMurray in the part instead. MacMurray was under contract with Paramount Pictures and had only recently began his career as a leading man in 1935. “Wahoo” Jones, Hawkin’s semi-comedic sidekick, was played by Jack Oakie. Oakie frequently appeared in comedies and musicals and recently appeared in adventure film The Call of the Wild (1935). Actress Jean Parker was cast as Amanda Bailey, Hawkin’s love interest. Parker recently starred in dram film Sequoia (1934) and comedy film Princess O’Hara (1935).
Vidor began filming The Texas Rangers in early 1936. The film was primarily shot on location in New Mexico. Sante Fe County (including the Diablo Canyon) and several other nearby counties were filming locations. A 125 year old building in Gallup, NM was used as an interior sound stage for the Ranger office building. The exterior shots of the Ranger office were taken at an old nearby Indian pueblo. Some of the interior scenes on The Texas Rangers were shot back at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. The battle scene between the Apache Indians and the Texas Rangers featured over 500 extras including members of the Navajo and Zuni tribes. Production was halted for a few days due to a severe dust storm near Gallup. The film’ opening scene, which features a narrated montage about the Texas Rangers, was supervised by then Texas Governor James V. Allred.
Fun Facts and Trivia: Frank Shannon (Captain Stafford) and Charles Middleton (Higgin’s lawyer) appeared together in a few films and were best known for playing Dr. Zarkov (Shannon) and Ming the Merciless (Middleton) in three Flash Gordon serial films, the first of which was also released in 1936. Fred MacMurray and Jack Oakie later starred together in the comedy film Champagne Waltz (1937). King Vidor later directed MacMurray in the ensemble comedy film On Our Merry Way (1948). Clyde Tingley, then Governor of New Mexico (where most of The Texas Rangers was shot), has an uncredited bit part as a criminal henchman. The Texas Rangers was originally going to contain a scene where MacMurray sang a love song, but this scene was cut from the final film.
Reception: The Texas Rangers had its premiere on August 21, 1936 in Dallas, Texas. The film was not exceptionally successful at the box office. Two of Paramount’s other westerns that year The Plainsman and The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (which also starred MacMurray) were both bigger hits than The Texas Rangers was.
Despite its somewhat poor box office results, The Texas Rangers received generally positive reviews from film critics. The critics at Time magazine gave The Texas Rangers a positive review. They praised the film for its story, entertainment value, and for cameraman Eddie Cronjager’s cinematography. The critics from the Australian magazine The Courier-Mail praised Vidor for successfully intertwining action, dramatic, romantic, and comedic elements together. Josephine O’Neil of The Daily Telegraph criticized the romance between MacMurray’s and Parker’s characters, and thought that the narrated “documentary” segments were too long, but still gave The Texas Rangers a positive review because she thought that it was “a winner” on the whole. Ann Ross of Maclean’s magazine and Chris Mathieson of The Washington Star praised The Texas Rangers for its action. Conversely, John T. McManus of The New York Times gave The Texas Rangers a negative review. He criticized the film for having an “archaic” formula. Herb Schoenfeld of Variety similarly criticized the film for being too formulaic.
Oscars: The Texas Rangers was nominated for one Oscar at the 9th Academy Awards: Best Sound Recording (Franklin Hansen). Hansen lost to Douglas Sherer who received the award for his sound recording on San Francisco.
Why You Should See It: The Texas Rangers is a good classic western film. King Vidor does an outstanding job as director and producer. Vidor gave the film an epic scope, and was assisted by Edward Cronjager’s expansive western cinematography. The Texas Rangers showcases plenty of beautiful New Mexico location shooting (that in my opinion certainly looks like it could be Texas). The film is packed with action and has many exciting scenes. Most of the actors give good performances, including Fred MacMurray and Jack Oakie. The Texas Rangers also features positive messages about redemption, heroism, and the importance of law and order.