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4 for Texas (1963)

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16 comments in total

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
The Far West has never been far out!, 16 agosto 2007

Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) da Mexico

Bronson—in this supposed comedy-western—as outlaw leader Matson who works for crooked banker Victor Buono, helps start the film off on a high note of action… He and his henchmen attack a stagecoach whose passengers include Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra…

After repulsing the bandits, Zack (Sinatra) discloses a bag containing $100,000, and Joe (Martin) unexpectedly relieves him of the money at gunpoint…

In Galveston, Joe deposits the money in a bank run by Harvey Burden (Buono), a thief who has supported Zack's efforts to become the town's gambling king…

When Zack arrives in town, Matson tries to kill him, but Joe interferes, saving Zack's life…Then Zack learns that Joe intends to compete with him by converting an abandoned riverboat into a gambling saloon… Outraged, he raises a gang, intending to take over the boat on opening night… But Burden has plans of his own…

Much of the plot, such as it is, is taken up with the comic rivalry between Martin and Sinatra, involving with womanizing and gambling… The three Stooges doing one of their ancient routines provide a gay moment… Anita Ekberg and Ursula Andress are an absolute pleasure to look at… And if you want to know the answer of Joe to Ursula's commentary: "You didn't notice what I'm wearing," don't miss this nice, civilized picture…

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6 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Two Rat Packers Out West, 2 aprile 1999

Author: Brian W. Fairbanks (brianwfairbanks@yahoo.com) da Cleveland, Ohio

What, I wonder, would a director do on the set of a movie starring Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin? Light their cigarettes? Mix their drinks? Laugh at their jokes? One thing he certainly does not do is play "auteur." The director is present to say "Cut" and "Print," not to pursue his "vision" or any of that arty stuff. "Four for Texas" gave Robert Aldrich a pair of stars who, in terms of popularity, may have been the male equivalent of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford whom he had directed the previous year in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" But whereas Davis and Crawford were passionate enemies, Ol' Blue Eyes and Ol' Dino were the best of buddies, and their movies treated as casually as any of their swingin' Vegas gigs. It was an opportunity to have some fun and get paid doing it. If that fun translated to the screen, fine, but in this movie the cast appears to be entertaining itself while putting the audience to sleep. If Aldrich had no control over Frank and Dino, he compensated by overdirecting Charles Bronson who is as animated--for him--as Bugs Bunny. The whole shebang is a comedy-western, but there are virtually no laughs, only snickers--from the cast, not the audience. In comparison, "Ocean's 11" is some kind of classic.

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6 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Testosterone Driven Men, 20 settembre 2006

Author: bkoganbing da Buffalo, New York

4 for Texas is a much reduced Rat Pack film with only Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin representing the swinging group. But they each got girls here and what girls with Anita Ekberg and Ursula Andress paired with Sinatra and Dino respectively.

The film opens up with an attempted stagecoach holdup with Frank Sinatra riding shotgun on top and Dean Martin as one sharp shooting passenger killing six bandits of Charles Bronson's gang. Of course they don't get off Scot free because the driver and another passenger were killed.

The stage is carrying $100,000.00 of Sinatra's money which Martin eventually winds up with. And when he gets to Galveston he invests it in the posh gambling establishment Sinatra was hoping to open.

You've got two other guys who are working their angles, conniving banker Victor Buono and Charles Bronson. Their scenes together remind me a whole lot of This Gun for Hire with Laird Cregar and Alan Ladd as the businessman and the killer he hired. At least Buono though he'd have liked to, had more sense than Cregar and wasn't about to pull a double-cross on Bronson.

Of course Ekberg and Andress realize their men should be allies instead of enemies. But testosterone keeps getting in the way until the two women kind of force an alliance.

4 for Texas is funny in many spots, not as good as the ultimate Rat Pack film Ocean's 11. Of the two of them Dino has the better performance, he's far funnier naturally which his former partner Jerry Lewis never tired of pointing out. And of course Dean gets to perform with the Three Stooges which is like working with three Jerrys.

There's a small cameo inside the gambling ship with Arthur Godfrey. He was one of the biggest names in television back in the Fifties, but anyone born after 1956 will not have the foggiest idea who that is or why we should be laughing there.

Though 4 for Texas is fine, maybe it would have been nice to have given Dino or Old Blue Eyes a song to sing. Even Ocean's 11 had both Dean and Sammy Davis, Jr. singing.

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6 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
A Must See for Ursula Andress fans., 27 novembre 2000

Author: nak15 da nyc

Though it starts off slow and at times is a bit cheesey, this Rat Packer film is actually a lot of fun and the story line is actually pretty good. This film is a must see for Ursula Andress fans. Her performance is great and she is wonderful at being sensual without appearing slutty. She also looks amazing; I have never wanted to be Dean Martin so much in my life.

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6 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Bloated star vehicle, 14 novembre 2003
Author: bob the moo da Birmingham, UK

Meeting each other on a stagecoach full of money where they both defend it from Matson's attack, Zack Thomas and Joe Jarrett immediately get off to a bad start when Jarrett steals the money. When the two later come up against each other in the town where Zack is in charge under the control of the corrupt banker Harvey Burden. However while they plot against each other, bigger forces in the town have a much darker conspiracy.

I watched this as a reasonable fan of the rat pack and their cocky, wise-cracking sense of humour that they usually bring to their films. However here that is almost totally lacking. With the exception of the opening 15 minutes, the film is almost totally devoid of fun. The film opens with Jarrett and Thomas against each other in a simple robbery, however it later meanders through cat and mouse games (which don't work) until it gets to the obvious conclusion (which is so lazy that it even ends with Martin saying `and, oh yeah, this is the end').

None of the action or dialogue is even remotely funny or fun. The whole vehicle had the same kind of movement that Martin's steamer displays – heavy, sluggish and relentlessly moving forward no matter what, these things are not good qualities in a comedy western. I really wanted to like the film, but there was even too little of value for me. The two leads are OK but really have nothing to work with at all, they have one reasonable scene together at the start but from then they are just freewheeling along. Support from Charles Bronson, Jack Elam, Andrews, Buono and the Three Stooges is all pretty wasted and no one is really given very much to work with at all.

Overall this is an example of a poor film from the Rat Pack – lifeless, self indulgent and lacking in fun or wit, made solely on the basis of the two stars being famous and thus bringing an audience with them when the film plays. A bit more wit and sparky dialogue in the script and the loss of some running time could have vastly improved what is really a pretty poor film.

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6 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Annoyingly narcissistic, 16 novembre 1999

Author: Stefan Kahrs da Canterbury, England

What is so annoying about this film is that so much talent gets completely wasted. Frank and Dino play more or less variations of themselves and demand devoted admiration from anybody else, especially the chicks. Hints at self-irony are so understated that it gives the impression "we may poke fun at ourselves but we really do think that we are absolutely fabulous". In other words: this is a typically vain rat-pack effort.

Looking at the remaining cast: Charles Bronson plays his villain straight, but too straight: this is a comedy after all, and he appears to have entered the frame from a different picture. The only creditable performances belong to the reliable Victor Buono, and to Ursula Andress who is simply ravishing, easily out-shining Anita Ekberg.

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4 FOR Texas (Robert Aldrich, 1963) ***, 25 maggio 2008

Author: MARIO GAUCI (marrod@onvol.net) da Naxxar, Malta

Like SERGEANTS 3 (1962), the actual running time (115 minutes) of this 1963 Christmas attraction differs from the official one (124 minutes) – although, in this case, it could well be the result of the lopping off of the Prelude, Intermission, Entr’ Acte and Exit Music pieces. While still in essence an overblown and thinly-plotted ego-trip, it’s certainly more entertaining than the Rat Pack’s previous Western outing.

Frank Sinatra’s pampered tycoon character is annoyingly narcissistic at times and Anita Ekberg is just there to abet him and as an added scenery attraction; by contrast, Dean Martin and a sultry Ursula Andress (a role originally intended for Gina Lollobrigida!!) thoroughly enjoy themselves. Director Aldrich also allows two of his previous collaborators free rein: a constantly burping banker (Victor Buono) and Martin’s diminutive bodyguard (Nick Dennis) ham it up mercilessly but result in being definite assets to the proceedings; Charles Bronson is the straight villain and other familiar faces appearing here include Mike Mazurki (as Sinatra’s own dim-witted bodyguard), Richard Jaeckel, Abraham Sofaer, Grady Sutton, etc. The guest appearance by The Three Stooges is cute but hardly outstanding (though Martin does get to slap all three at once!), emerging as a sure sign of the film’s anything-goes attitude!

Again, Aldrich (who apparently intensely disliked Sinatra!) had tackled Westerns that were both terse and significant before – but, here, he seems to have purposely taken a back seat to the stars’ antics (albeit with the occasional inventive visual touch). By the way, none other than Bette Davis declined a part in the film in order to star in yet another horror piece (a phase in her career which, coincidentally, Aldrich himself had spearheaded) – DEAD RINGER (1964; which I own on DVD but have yet to watch) – though it’s hard to see now where she would have fitted in.

All things considered, the film is a colorful and easy-going romp – culminating in a fistfight between the stars, which is followed by them burying the hatchet in order to rout Bronson (whose riverboat demise is a highlight) and Buono, and ending with a double wedding. The Warners DVD contains a short ‘making of” featurette which shows the cast and crew doing their stuff on the set.

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1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Robert Aldrich joins the Rat Pack..., 29 giugno 2007

Author: moonspinner55 da redlands, ca

Frank Sinatra plays Texas big-shot who teams up with saloon-owner Dean Martin to thwart an evil banker; Anita Ekberg and Ursula Andress play--what else?--the bosomy love-interests. Comedic western directed and co-written by the uneven Robert Aldrich, who doesn't seem to notice that Sinatra and the gang are running precariously low on steam. Sammy Davis, Jr. and Peter Lawford aren't around this time, but the supporting cast does include Charles Bronson, Richard Jaekel, Mike Mazurki and Victor Buono, as well as a cameo by The Three Stooges (!). Star-vehicle is curiously talky and slow on adventure, not to mention laughs. *1/2 from ****

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3 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
With those four, any film would be worth seeing., 25 maggio 2003

Author: tmwest da S. Paulo, Brazil

Any film with Sinatra and Dean Martin is worth seeing, and if you add Anita Ekberg (not at her prime, but still o.k.) and the beautiful Ursula Andress it is quite a treat. The story flows quite well, the beginning is very good with Sinatra and Martin in a stagecoach being chased by Charles Bronson and his men. From that it goes to Sinatra and Martin fighting each other to stay with 100000 dollars, also a very good moment. Robert Aldrich, the director in an interview classified this film as a disaster. He also did not speak one word with Frank Sinatra while making the film. He always wanted to do a comedy, and there is a very funny moment when the Three Stooges appear. But when he tries to make fun of Charles Bronson, the bad guy, he does not succeed.

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4 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
I've had more laughs watching paint dry, 6 febbraio 2001

Author: helpless_dancer da Broken Bow, Oklahoma

This was one of the most pathetic attempts at comedy to ever come out of Hollywood. A more silly script has never been written and a performance has rarely been done so badly. I did enjoy the 3 Stooges, but I have to wonder why they lowered themselves to this level. And Charles Bronson! They made a mockery of one of the greatest bad guys ever. Dean and Frank are much better than this bunk.

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