Search - Headin' for the Rio Grande on DVD

RIDE WITH TEX TO THE RIO GRANDE!

Richard J. Oravitz | 07/17/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yep, that's where Tex & sidekick Chili (Syd Saylor) are headin' to clean up a cattle-rustlin' protection racket. There's lots of hard riding, blazing six-guns & of course, Tex singing. Tex's rough folksy vocals may take some getting used to. He's certainly not smooth like Gene or Roy but seems more authentic and truer to the Western spirit. A lot of Tex's songs seem depressing & sad, about drinking & dying and in this film is one (JAILHOUSE LAMENT) about being hanged that Tex sings as he and Chili sit in jail on a framed murder charge.
This is really a great little B-Western, one of Tex's first films. It's directed by vetern Bob Bradbury (Bob Steele's dad) and features lots of familiar cowpokes. Even William Desmond pops up for a brief scene. But it's evil Earl Dwire (who appears in quite a few of Bradbury's films) & scruffy Charlie King who really steal the show, and the cattle as well!
Syd Saylor makes a good sidekick here, able to throw a good punch and isn't too bumbling. He does get his standard bobbing adam's apple scene for fans of that kind of stuff.
So if you love Cowboy Movies and enjoy seeing Charlie King being whooped-on by Tex then this is your ticket!
HEADIN' FOR THE RIO GRANDE is a B-Western classic and a pretty good song too! Enjoy both.


"

No good cattlerustlers, Tex is a callin' you out

Daniel Jolley | Shelby, North Carolina USA | 10/02/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This time, it's a gang of no good, dirty rotten cattle rustlers that are stirring up trouble in the old west. We meet Tex Saunders (Tex Ritter) and his trusty sidekick (and comic relief) Chili (Syd Saylor) Headin' for the Rio Grande, but they are not the regular old cowpokes they appear to be at first glance. They rustle up some grub from Senator Black (Budd Buster), which is fortuitous for Black because the bad guys pick that time to show up and offer him "protection" for $1 a head. I don't know about you, but $1 a head seems more than a might steep, so it's no surprise when Black tells them to go spit in the river. Of course, the gang, having already given the guy fair warning and all about the dangers of cattle rustlers in the area, go ahead and try to steal the whole herd right then and there - never counting on Tex's dead-shot pistol-shooting prowess to be there to thwart their efforts. The hombres decide to go pick on another herd, this one led by Pop Hart (Charles K. French) and his lovely daughter Laura (Eleanor Stewart) - wouldn't it be funny if Tex showed up over there at the same time? Well, there you go. It turns out that Tex has come to Rio to help out the sheriff, who has been unable as of yet to round up the cattle rustlers.

You've just got to love Tex Ritter, even in early movies such as this 1936 classic. He could almost be a preacher with that voice and manner of speaking he has, and he really lays it on thick when he's outsmarting bad guys. Any villain worth his salt would have just despised good old Tex. This film features a whole heap of classic Tex Ritter cowboy songs, including the title track, A Campfire Love Song, and The Night Herding Song. Jailhouse Lament really steals the show, though, thanks to the comic genius of Syd Saylor, who doesn't particularly enjoy hearing a song about being hanged when he's sitting in jail on a murder charge. The ending of this particular film seems a tad rushed, but this is just your good old, entertaining Tex Ritter B-western."