Guns of the Pecos (1937)

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Featuring Dick Foran as the "Singing Cowboy" with his trusty horse Smoke "the Wonder Horse". Also appearing in the film is the prolific "B"-movie stock player Eddie Acuff.The setting begins with a placard describing the lawlessness of Texas before the advent of the Texas Ranger. We are then introduced to a small town judge, Blake, who is "The Law" of the community. He is also corrupt, involved in rustling horses. Under orders, his gang steals all the horses from Major Burton, who lives out on the range with his sister and daughter, Alice.During the rustling, Major Burton is killed and his wallet taken by one of the criminals. Dick Foran sings a couple of songs and runs across Judge Blake's gang out on the range. He is hired by them to help "bring in" the load of stolen, now re-branded, horses to Dodge City. When that's done, Foran notices Judge Blake's name written on the check given to his gang foreman, Wellman (Bill Elliot, who also appears in Trailin' West). Foran then fights Wellman and takes the wallet, with the check inside, back to Texas Ranger headquarters, where he is employed. Evidently, he was working undercover trying to find out who was in charge of the rustling.The "Singing Cowboy" goes back to the town intending to trick the judge into convicting himself. Once there, he meets Alice Burton and tells her what he's trying to do. Unfortunately, while Foran is accusing the judge, he reveals the wallet, which Alice quickly identifies as her father's. The judge then accuses Foran of being the murderer, and he is trapped. But, his Ranger partner (Acuff) helps him to escape, and they head for Major Burton's ranch to convince Alice, again, that he's a Ranger trying to catch Judge Blake.The final third (or more!) of the film is a shootout between the judge's gang and Burton's farm hands, led by Foran's partner. In the meantime, Foran has gone back to Ranger's HQ to get help. Will he arrive in time to save the day and marry Alice?

Guns Of The Pecos casts Dick Foran as a singing Texas Ranger who goes on an undercover assignment to nail a Judge Roy Bean like character who being both a judge and an outlaw has a nice little racket going in the town that he rules. As Foran notes to his captain "Rangers are as popular as rattlers" in that neck of the woods.Robert Middlemass plays the crooked judge who is Roy Bean in all but his groupie like devotion to Lily Langtry. Anne Nagel plays the daughter of a ranch owner who is killed when his herd of horses is rustled. She gets a nice taste of Foran's baritone and after that she's his.Middlemass is really something to see. Walter Brennan might have taken notes on what Middlemass does in Guns Of The Pecos before he played Roy Bean in The Westerner. Fans of the singing cowboy genre and Dick Foran in particular should be pleased with this one.

Dick Foran,(Steve Ainslee),"The Mummy's Hand",'40, was an under cover Texas Ranger who merrily sang his tunes and wound up joining a gang of outlaws who worked for a crooked Judge who seemed to have a run of the local town and held his court room in his Bar/Hotel. There were horse stealing which involved a sweet young gal named Anne Nigel,(Alice Burton),"Black Friday",'40, who was being run off her ranch after her father was murdered in Cold Blood. Alice Burton was not a very trusting young lady and gave Steve Ainslee a very hard time and almost had him hung by the neck.No matter how you feel about a singing Cowboy and this Corn Ball B Film, it is still a Classic Western and many people in 1937 were very entertained by this WESTERN, probably your Great Great Grandfathers & Mothers! Foran really sounded like Nelson Eddy!

Abuse of authority, corrupt lawmen, corrupt judge, bandits, shootouts, good guys, bad guys, damsels in distress, this movie has everything you'd look for in a western. Watched this movie on the late,late,late show on AMC hoping it would put me to sleep, but I ended up following the plot lines and staying up to watch the ending, even though I knew that the bad guys always lose in the end. Happily, not too much singing, enough gun play to keep it interesting.The only problem I had with this movie was the actor they chose for Judge Blake, his acting leaves much to be desired, and he fails to convey just how evil and corrupt a man his character is.All in all a pretty good movie for it's day. Compared to other movies of this era I've seen, I'd give it a 9/10, compared to all movies, it's a 7/10.