Trouble in Texas (1937) User Reviews

One of Ritter's Best!

[bsmith5552 · 6/10 · 13 March 2005]

"Trouble in Texas" is arguably the best of the 12 westerns that Tex Ritter turned out for Grand National in the late 1930s. It is notable for the appearance of Rita Hayworth (as Rita Cansino) and the showcasing the many talents (excluding acting) of Yakima Canutt.

The story has the bad guys headed by Earl Dwire and henchmen Canutt and Charlie King rigging rodeo results to favor them by eliminating competitors. Hayworth is a federal agent sent to infiltrate the gang. Along comes Ritter and his sidekick Horace Murphy. Tex plans to compete in the next rodeo. He enters and beats Canutt in every event despite the gang's efforts to eliminate him. Finally, Tex and sheriff Glenn Strange settle things with the gang.

This film is memorable for the stunts performed by the legendary Canutt. He performs several dangerous stunts on the backs of a team of runaway horses and on the speeding wagon. Having been a champion Rodeo rider in his youth, Canutt had no difficulty in the rodeo scenes in spite of the extensive usage of stock footage.

Hayworth was about to adopt that name and move over to Columbia as one of its greatest stars. She gets to perform a dance sequence in which her considerable talent is displayed. Ritter sings a few forgettable songs as well. And the casting of veterans Dwire, King and Strange didn't hurt either.

Not a bad little programmer.

"Well that makes it more interestin' when the competition's good."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 27 August 2005]

"Trouble in Texas" appears to be a re-working of the 1934 Lone Star Pictures film, "The Man From Utah", starring John Wayne; both were directed by Robert North Bradbury and both utilize the excellent stunt work of Yakima Canutt. In fact, Yak's character in both pictures is pretty much the same, he portrays a champion rodeo rider who's part of a gang of racketeers that insures their top man wins most of the top prize money. Serious challengers never get a chance, usually winding up dead under mysterious circumstances.

Tex Ritter acquits himself well in this film, his character is Tex Masters, and he rides the rodeo circuits in hopes of catching up with the gang responsible for his brother's murder five years earlier. But the real bright star of this film is a lovely young lady by the name of Rita Cansino, you might know her better as Rita Hayworth. It's stunning to see how lovely she looks, portraying undercover government agent Carmen Serano who tries to get the goods on the gang by working them from the inside. She's hired by rodeo racketeer Barker (perennial baddie Earl Dwire), and before it's over she gets to show some early singing and dancing talent in an entertaining saloon number.

Much of the movie's screen time is taken up by rodeo stock footage, with your standard roping and bulldogging, and a fair amount of native Indian parade and dance. When it comes time for the actual contests, Tex manages to out ride, out rope and outdo his main opponent for the prize money in every event, "Squint" Palmer (Canutt). The gang is unsuccessful in having Masters fall for the old poison needle in the halter trick, but coincidentally, that's how Tex's brother died, so now he's got the goods on all the bad boys, enough for the Middleton sheriff (Glenn Strange) to put them all away for good. Quite coincidentally, the same ruse was used in "The Man From Utah", only the poison needle was positioned in the saddle to do it's dirty work.

I get a kick out of the pre-1950 Westerns where the good guy, in this case Tex Ritter, can shoot a gun out of the hand of an opponent, and not have the bullet find it's mark in another person directly in the line of fire. The Lone Ranger would consistently do the same, finding his target and only his target, even when firing right into the middle of a crowd.

Horace Murphy offers up some comic relief in the movie as Tex's sidekick Lucky, his gimmick is talking up his non existent heroics in sort of a Gabby Hayes style, but he doesn't have the on screen charisma of a Gabby, or even a Smiley Burnette, kind of a poor man's "pardner".

I got "Trouble in Texas" as a double bill DVD along with Tex Ritter's "Arizona Days"; available for a buck in one of the dollar chain stores - definitely a bargain for Tex fans, or if you just want to sample Ritter's work without laying out major cash. Of the two, "Trouble" alone will be worth your trouble, especially for the surprising appearance of gorgeous Rita Hayworth.

Tex Sings, Rita Hayworth Dances and Yakima Canutt Amazes

[Chance2000esl · 4/10 · 26 April 2008]

This one is a 'remake' of the 1934 film 'The Man From Utah' with John Wayne, using even more of the same stock rodeo footage of the rodeo parade, steer roping, bronc riding and bull dogging, but adding Indian 'dances,' trick ropers, stage coach races, and 'Roman' races (a single rider atop two horses). Again, too much stock footage replaces live action, and the story within the movie (crooked promoters killing outside winners and stealing the rodeo receipts) gets even shorter shrift than it does in the first version.

One reason for this is this film's pluses: Tex Ritter's singing and Rita Hayworth's dancing. Tex sings four good songs, 'Down the Colorado Trail,' 'The Rodeo Song,' 'The Cowboy Band,' and a typical traditional melancholy cowboy song, 'The Cowboy's Lament.' Rita Hayworth (here billed under her real name) is the female lead, and even though her face looks different, her unmistakable smile shines through during her cantina dance.

There isn't much tension or hard riding action and shooting as we were used to in Robert Bradbury's other 'Lone Star' films -- except for the spectacular stunt work of Yakima Canutt at the end when he leaps and fights Tex on the team of wagon horses, and later does his patented fall under the wagon, but this time pulling himself forward under it, climbing back up onto the top.

We get to hear Yak's sand papery voice, Charles King's badness, and Earl Dwire's villainy. Tex's accent and his sweet sincerity ("Aw shucks, ma'am, I didn't do nothing',") add to the charm of this thirties piece of history.

All of the above make the film watchable, but it still feels like it was thrown together by committee on the cheap ("Splice in some more rodeo footage here boys!"). It lacks the high emotional tension characteristic of better westerns (that is, the classic duel between the forces of good and evil, with a developed love triangle thrown in).

Because of Tex and Rita's artistic contributions, I'd give it a 4.

Lovely Rita

[wes-connors · 3/10 · 23 April 2008]

While Tex Ritter (as Tex Masters) sings "Down the Colorado Trail", accompanied by harmonica-playing sidekick Horace Murphy (as Lucky), pretty government agent Rita Hayworth (as Carmen Serano) is sent out to investigate a series of mysterious rodeo deaths. Ms. Hayworth and Mr. Ritter cross paths in Middletown Valley, where Ritter is looking for the gang that killed his brother.

Undercover girl Hayworth and singing cowboy Ritter are the main attractions. Hayworth and Hank Worden have a couple of smooth dance numbers. Ritter's "Down the Colorado Trail" and "I'm Bound to Leave Ol' Texas Now" are highlights; the latter ballad is especially nice. The "Trouble in Texas" is, most obviously, its poorly edited "rodeo footage". It might have, otherwise, been a better movie.

Tex vs. the terrible trio

[csteidler · 22 May 2011]

If you like your villains straightforward and straight-faced, then this is a fun little B western. Tex Ritter is given the unenviable task of taking on the baddie trio of Earl Dwire, Yakima Canutt and Charles King. (If you're familiar with these fellows, you will have no trouble guessing who is the brains of the gang and who is simply brawn.)

Luckily, Tex's character is not named "Tex Masters" for nothing. Besides competing for rodeo prizes and singing a handful of catchy tunes, he suspects that the crooks in town are indeed the villains who killed his brother years ago, and are thus the gang he has been seeking all this time on the rodeo circuit. He also annoys Yakima to the point of uttering a classic threat: "All right, you guitar-playin' songbird, if you got anything to say, say it fast!"

Rita Cansino (Hayworth) is fine as an undercover government agent also after the same gang. And Horace Murphy is mildly amusing as Lucky, Tex's sidekick. I am not familiar with his work, but if IMDb's filmography is to be believed, he was busy in 1937--this was one of over 30 movies he appeared in that year!

Rodeoin' with Rita

[jjnxn-1 · 4/10 · 22 September 2014]

If you've ever seen a Tex Ritter western you know what to expect from this one. Clunky situations broken up by a song or three from good ol' Tex. This one follows exactly to form.

The only reason to seek this out is the presence of a very young Rita Hayworth in the female lead. So early in fact that she is still billed by her given name, Rita Cansino. This was actually the last time she would be billed thus. It's painfully obvious she isn't completely at home before the cameras just yet since her line readings are still and lifeless. However there is one striking scene where she dances and suddenly there's the Rita Hayworth of legend, totally alive to the lens. As soon as the music stops though she's right back where she started, ill at ease and uncomfortable. She looks pretty, still brunette and slightly dowdy, the Columbia magic hasn't happened yet and she resembles a young Ann Sheridan more than herself. Ironic than that a few years after this she would get her big breakthrough stepping in to The Strawberry Blonde when Ann had a falling out with Warners.

As for this picture if you're a rodeo fan there are many, too many, scenes set in one but the acting is atrocious and the plot not very involving.

OK B Film

[arfdawg-1 · 5/10 · 2 May 2014]

B western with singing Tex Ritter and Rita Hayworth using her given last name.

The songs will kill you.

Glenn Strange -- who paid Frankenstein's monster in the Abbott and Costello film is in it too!

It's just an OK B picture.

Synopsis: Tex is on the rodeo circuit looking for the men that killed his brother and he finds them in Middleton.

Barker expects his man Squint to win the prize money but when Tex starts winning all the events, they put the poisoned needle in his halter rope, planning to have him mysteriously die just as the others did.

Rita Hayworth, Texas Style

[HarlowMGM · 7/10 · 4 February 2012]

TROUBLE IN Texas is an entertaining little B western with wider appeal than the norm due to the leading lady being the very young Rita Hayworth (billed under her real name, Cansino). The appealing Tex Ritter stars as a rodeo circuit cowboy/entertainer who remains on the circuit in hopes of tracking down the bad guys who killed his brother. As it happens, beautiful young government agent Carmen (Rita) is also after them although Tex suspects she may be part of their gang (she is, but is undercover for the government) though he also attempts to woo this gorgeous young woman, no fool he.

This little movie is clearly a quickie with is blatant stock footage (including quite a bit filmed at an actual rodeo which isn't exactly smoothly edited into the film and the scenes with the actors), threadbare sets, and the like but the cast is very appealing and 18-year-old Rita is stunningly beautiful and beams with unmistakable star quality (she has some absolutely gorgeous closeups in this low-budget effort that would rival those in an important studio film that are probably due more to her natural beauty than to the cinematography).

Tex Ritter is great as the always smiling, down-to-earth hero of the tale and while sidekick Horace Murphy (57 at the time, to modern eyes he seems a decade older) is fairly amusing in apparently one of the bigger roles of his career (according to IMDb, most of his parts were unbilled bits). Throw in some classic B western bad guys, excellent stunt work, a nice dance number by Rita, and some good western songs and you've got a pretty terrific if unambitious little B western.

Rita, a singing cowboy, and lots of stock rodeo footage

[gridoon2024 · 4/10 · 12 June 2016]

This dirt-cheap 1930s Western is of interest today solely for the presence of a young, beautiful Rita Hayworth as the female lead. She is not given much to do, but she does have one short dance scene; it's really nothing special, but her famous joy in dancing is already evident. Personally I was not at all familiar with Tex Ritter before watching this movie: he's agreeable, except for the parts where he's "singing". Except for a couple of sped-up fights and a sped-up chase at the end, 90% of the "action" in this movie is stock rodeo footage, which may be fascinating in itself if you're a fan, but not so much if you can't quite accept prolonged animal abuse as a sporting activity. Anyway, Rita's presence gives this film its only value. *1/2 out of 4.

Rodeo Racketeers!!

[kidboots · 6/10 · 9 February 2013]

Rita Hayworth once said of her westerns "those are the days I'd rather forget. I hate horses"!!! But as Margarita Cansino she was probably eager to take whatever role she was offered. "Trouble in Texas" was a Tex Ritter special which meant that there was always time for a song and as the setting was a rodeo, plenty of stock footage to pad out the movie. Hayworth had a more rounded role in this one and she even had a Latin dance. Critics noticed her and Variety noted "she was the best looker of any of the girls working in hoss pictures to date".

Beautiful Carmen is a federal agent who goes undercover as an entertainer on the rodeo circuit in an effort to expose a group of racketeer promoters. It doesn't take long for Tex Ritter to start his "rhythm roundup" with "Down the Colorado Trail". He is Tex Masters, a cowboy who follows the rodeos around hoping to find the gang that killed his brother. They are all part of the same outfit - if any rider looks as though he is going to win the money, he then becomes the victim of a nasty "accident". Just before Tex arrives at Middleton he foils a hold up that the robbers claim is staged but the grudge is carried into town and the Sheriff is so pleased with the way Tex handles the hooligans that he offers him a job to keep an eye on the rodeo proceedings. Tex even finds time to sing "The Rodeo Song".

Of course Tex wins all the prizes so the villains attempt to sabotage his big ride with the old "poisonous needle in the rope" trick - the same way his brother died, but he finds out just in time. Fortunately there is just as much action as songs with a climax involving a runaway waggon loaded with dynamite.

When "Trouble in Texas" was released in England in 1943 it was advertised as "Lovely and Devastating Rita Hayworth and Tex Ritter in a musical western"!!!

Who Stole From Who

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 14 May 2014]

Trouble In Texas finds Tex Ritter and sidekick Horace Murphy on the trail of a gang that is killing rodeo champions. The mistake that this gang headed by Earl Dwire makes is in killing Ritter's brother. He and Murphy have been on the trail for five years.

Devotees of the B western will find that a lot of usual players like Glenn Strange and Yakima Canutt are there. But if Trouble In Texas has any reason to be saved it is because one Rita Cansino who was the leading lady. All of 19 Ms. Cansino was playing a government agent who was also on the trail of the outlaws.

Of course we all know her better as Rita Hayworth so fans of the eternal Cover Girl will have a great opportunity to see her cowgirl attire.

There was a John Wayne B film from the Thirties where the same gambit was used to kill the rodeo cowboys. I can't remember which one so I don't know who stole from who.

Always specify "Rita" when you say "Hayworth"!

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 2 February 2018]

One Tex Ritter movie that no critic would dare denigrate is the fourth of his 58 features, "Trouble in Texas" (1937), in which his leading lady was none other than Rita Hayworth.

Although I heartily subscribe to the notion that any movie with Rita Hayworth is a good movie, this is one of the best of her pre-Columbia escapades.

Normally a "B"-western heroine has little to than look pretty for five or ten minutes, but in this one, Rita handles a main part of the action.

Admittedly, she doesn't figure in the thrilling wagon-chase climax (given an added boost by breath-taking stuntwork by Yakima Canutt), but otherwise she's very much on hand. Dances too!

The movie was directed by Robert North Bradbury from a screenplay by Robert Emmett Tansey.

(Available on a very good Mill Creek DVD).

Tex Ritter Remakes John Wayne

[FightingWesterner · 7/10 · 16 December 2009]

Tex Ritter tours the rodeo circuit, looking for the murderous cowboys that he believed caused the death of his brother, killed by the gang for taking too much money from them by winning. Meanwhile, undercover agent Rita Hayworth (who's beautiful and very brunette) is also on the case.

A remake of the John Wayne vehicle The Man From Utah (with Yakima Canutt playing virtually the same role), this is actually the better of the two with the usual winning performance by Tex, some great songs to pass the time, and a load of exciting stock footage of the real rodeo.

There's also some good villainy by eternal heavies Earl Dwire and Charles King, while the usually villainous Glenn Strange (the future Frankenstein monster) gets to be a good guy.

An exciting climax features some excellent stunt work and an explosive finale.

For the Experts who can't remember 'who stole from who'

[horn-5 · 5 August 2017]

"Trouble in Texas (1937) with Tex Ritter was a virtual remake of "The Man from Utah (1934)" with John Wayne and used again for "Mesquite Buckaroo(1939) with Bob Steele and again in "The Utah Kid (1944)with Bob Steele and Hoot Gibson essaying the roles of John Wayne and George Hayes from the 1934 film...and yet again in 1951 as "Lawless Cowboys" starring Whip Wilson. And Tex Ritter's 1938 "Frontier Town"was more that just a version of the origin film. And all the "rodeo footage" in the remakes came from the 1934 film.

You are welcome.

Poisoned Needles

[StrictlyConfidential · 6/10 · 25 September 2021]

"Trouble In Texas" was originally released back in 1937.

Anyway - As the story goes - A rodeo circuit has been plagued with the mysterious deaths of some competitors and this brings the attention of the authorities. A female federal agent is sent undercover to infiltrate the gang and she is unexpectedly aided in her task with the arrival of a rodeo rider and his friend, who are trying to find the killer of the rider's brother.

Great Tex songs, Yak stunts and RITA HAYWORTH!

[hines-2000 · 10/10 · 15 March 2022]

The undercover Tex Ritter is on the rodeo circuit looking for the men that killed his brother. His sidekick Lucky (Horace Murphy) is perfect comic relief claiming his blunders are all heroic feats and Yakima Canutt was never better with his sensational stunt work. Yes, the leading lady is the one and only Rita Hayworth. She's an incredible actress but actually a well-trained dancer and we enjoyed both here. The cast was full of all-time western favorites including Glenn Strange, Earl Dwire, "Happy" Hal Price and Charles King. I can't forget the great music of the The Texas Tornadoes.