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The Texas Rangers

Grenzpolizei Texas
Retrospective 2020
Source: Deutsche Kinemathek, Courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing, LLC.
A tale of three desperadoes, two of whom join the Texas Rangers so they can get inside information to better plan their robberies. But once teamed up with Major Bailey and his daughter Amanda, the outlaws Jim Hawkins and Wahoo start to warm up to the Rangers’ values. Jim proves to be an able warrior in the fight against the Native Americans, as well as a stern lawman. He is dreaming of a new life as a husband and farmer when he gets orders to track down his old crony, now known as the “Polka Dot” bandit, and bring him in dead or alive … Made in the 100th anniversary year of the creation of the Texas Rangers, Texan native son Vidor delivered a very realistic portrayal of the brutal process of early state-building in the USA. But scenes of battles with Native Americans, armed insurrections against a corrupt system of justice, and against the “uncivilised” accumulation of capital by robbing stagecoaches are tempered with more sentimental passages. Grandiose location shots of the endlessly vast landscape, where civilisation and the savagery of nature collide, provide hints to the basic conflict Vidor would explore in later Westerns – and carry to a glorious extreme in Duel in the Sun.
by King Vidor
with Fred MacMurray, Jack Oakie, Jean Parker, Lloyd Nolan, Edward Ellis, Bennie Bartlett, Frank Shannon, Frank Cordell, Richard Carle, Jed Prouty USA 1936 English 98’ Black/White

With

  • Fred MacMurray
  • Jack Oakie
  • Jean Parker
  • Lloyd Nolan
  • Edward Ellis
  • Bennie Bartlett
  • Frank Shannon
  • Frank Cordell
  • Richard Carle
  • Jed Prouty

Crew

Director King Vidor
Screenplay Louis Stevens, Elizabeth Hill
Story Walter Prescott Webb The Texas Rangers (1935), Elizabeth Hill, King Vidor
Cinematography Edward Cronjager, Archie Stout
Editing Doane Harrison
Music Boris Morros
Sound Harold Lewis, John Cope
Art Director Hans Dreier, Bernard Herzbrun
Costumes Edith Head
Assistant Director Russell Matthews
Producers Adolph Zukor, King Vidor

Produced by

Paramount Pictures, Inc.

Additional information

Print: NBCUniversal, Universal City, CA

King Vidor

Filmography (selection)

1919 The Turn in the Road; Lost film 1925 The Big Parade (Die große Parade) 1928 The Crowd (Ein Mensch der Masse) 1929 Hallelujah 1934 Our Daily Bread (Der letzte Alarm) 1938 The Citadel 1940 Northwest Passage (Nordwest-Passage) 1947 Duel in the Sun (Duell in der Sonne) 1949 The Fountainhead (Ein Mann wie Sprengstoff) 1956 War and Peace (Krieg und Frieden) 1959 Solomon and Sheba (Salomon und die Königin von Saba)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2020