Wyoming-Bravados

The town is falling apart, so the decent people petition the governor to free Howard Keel so he can serve as their sheriff. He returns to find things changed: his girl, Jane Russell, is married to preacher Wendell Corey, and Brian Donleavy is leading one of the factions trying to own the town. What the town doesn't realize is that Keel has changed too.

THis is one of the Geezer Westerns produced by A.C. Lyles for Paramount, a chance to squeeze out the remaining juice from aging stars like John Agar and Richard Arlen. Its themes are very good, with the ideas of perception and aging brought squarely into focus. Keel is no longer the singing slab of beef he had been for MGM fifteen years earlier. Now he looks beefy and a bit worn around the edges. So does everyone, except for Wendell Corey, who seems to have been 50 when he first appeared on the big screen, and the same age when he last appeared on it.

Where the movie falls apart is in the mechanics of the western. There are no vistas, no beautiful landscape, and the fight that wraps up the plot looks random, with poor stuntwork. The result, despite a promising start, is just average.

If you decide to sit down and watch Waco, you'll probably think it belongs to the genre of western spoofs. I considered the possibility, but as the movie dragged on and didn't contain any actual jokes or banana peel pratfalls, I realized it was an actual western.

Jane Russell is married to Wendell Corey, a preacher, but her ex-sweetie-pie Howard Keel has just gotten released from prison and is travelling to their town to take over as sheriff. The only trouble is, he doesn't know Jane's married, and Jane still has feelings for him. Plus, the town is desperately in need of proper law and order, and when Howard shows up and causes a stir, it turns into a shooting free-for-all.

Yes, Waco is a ridiculously cheesy western, but it's the acting that really places it in terrible movie territory. Jane Russell was the main one who made me think the movie was a spoof, because almost all her lines were delivered like she thought the cameras were off and she wanted to make fun of the terrible lines she was given. Wendell Corey gives his best John Wayne impression, but it just doesn't work to see him as a preacher, since he's usually very unlikable bad guys. This movie just isn't worth watching, unless you're die-hard fans of the cast and insist on watching every movie your favorite actor or actress made.

This is another obscure western that I just watched on Netflix streaming. It stars Howard Keel as Waco, a formerly jailed gunman who's pardoned by the governor and sent to Emporia to tame that town. Unfortunately for him, his former lover Jane Russell is now married to preacher Wendell Corey who was a former gunman himself. I'll stop there and just say that while the triangle that I just described makes some of this oater dramatically compelling, it's not the only exciting part of this movie. There's also the Jenner family who holds a grudge against Waco for killing one of their members and then there's DeForest Kelley who's the bouncer at the local casino who's also anxious to eliminate him. Oh, and there's also a pretty good story-song about the title character as told by Lorne Greene. So on that note, I highly recommend Waco. P.S. Not long after Kelley made this, he would soon become a Sci-Fi icon when he began playing Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy on the original "Star Trek".

1966's "Waco" opens with the powerful voice of BONANZA's Lorne Greene intoning the lyrics to the title song, an excellent choice to set things up for Waco, not the setting but the gunman played by Howard Keel, the new sheriff of Emporia, a lawless town in Wyoming. The folks have grown tired of violence playing out in front of the saloon of Joe Gore (John Smith), resulting in the death of previous lawman Billy Kelly (Richard Arlen), so the Mayor (Robert Lowery) has reluctantly agreed with leading citizen George Gates (John Agar) to allow the governor to pardon outlaw Waco to replace Kelly, having spent five lonely years behind bars. Gore knows how much the Jenner clan want to kill Waco (he killed one of the brothers years ago), but their attempted ambush is easily foiled, and saloon bouncer Bill Rile (DeForest Kelley) isn't a good enough shot to take him out. The one person who might be able to figure out Waco is his former sweetheart (Jane Russell), now the bride of a preacher (Wendell Corey), who himself used to ride with Quantrill but believes that a man can change. It's Waco's unpredictable behavior that maintains a high interest level, and better character touches than most Lyles oaters, with the best performance from Gene Evans as the ineffectual deputy reformed from his drunken state by Waco. John Smith, on the side of good on CIMARRON CITY and LARAMIE, is cast as the main villain, simply lacking the kind of menace the part calls for. DeForest Kelley, in the last of four Lyles Westerns, had been paying his dues in roles like this for over a decade, soon to achieve a legendary status as Dr. McCoy on STAR TREK. Among the baddies are Jeff Richards, in his final film (Howard Keel's costar in SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS), Willard Parker, and Anne Seymour, pretty Terry Moore a delight as saloon girl Dolly, Brian Donlevy in a 'blink and you'll miss him' cameo for his third billing. Howard Keel would topline two more oaters for Lyles, "Red Tomahawk" and "Arizona Bushwhackers."

A.C. Lyles turned out another good geezer western with Waco starring Howard Keel a recently released outlaw from prison who's been hired to clean up a really bad town run by saloon owner John Smith and his hired gun DeForest Kelley. Keel is kind of hoping to take things up where they left off with Jane Russell, but turns out she's gone and married preacher Wendell Corey. That sort of disillusions him as he wavers back and forth between doing the job he was hired or resuming his old outlaw ways.

If it's action you want than Waco will not disappoint. Keel in the title role and we never do learn his real name because he probably was not born with that name, has a number of nasty fights and shootings. Besides Smith and Kelley, he's also got the Jenner family to contend with he killed one of them years ago. Willard Parker and Reg Parton are the remaining Jenner brothers and there's Anne Seymour, Ma Barker of the old west. In many ways, she's the one you'll remember from this film.

Waco's also a pretty adult western with such themes as infidelity lightly touched upon and rape of Tracy Olsen an integral part of the story. The final shootout in the town involves just about every member of the cast.

If you like western action you can't go wrong with Waco.