In John Cromwell’s Western “The Texan,” set in 1885, Gary Cooper plays Enrique (“Quico”), the Llano Kid, a swaggering bandit with a price on his head, who rides into the town of scripture-quoting sheriff, John Brown (James Marcus). Playing poker with a young gambler, he catches him cheating and shoots him in self-defense.
On a train heading for Galveston, the Kid meets a Thacker, a strange man who offers him a proposition, based on his knowledge of Spanish. He tells the Kid of a wealthy aristocrat, Señora Ibarra, whose only son ran away when he was ten. She has offered Thacker a handsome reward if he can find her boy; the only hint offered is a strange design tattooed on the boy’s wrist.
Thacker persuades the Llano Kid to pose as her son and coaches him. He easily deceives the old woman, and also captures the heart of “cousin” Consuelo (Fay Wray of “King Kong” fame).
But when he discovers that the woman’s real son was the man he had killed in the saloon brawl, he calls the deal off, and Thacker hires some desperadoes to do his bidding.
At the ranch, the Kid discovers Sheriff Brown, who has been trailing him. He asks the lawman to wait until night before arresting him. But when Thacker’s men attack the ranch, the Kid is wounded and Thacker killed. The sheriff, realizing that the Kid has gone straight, agrees to let the dead Thacker assume the identity of the Llano Kid.
Henry Hathaway, who would become a major director, served as assistant director on this second-rate Western.
Cast
Gary Cooper (Enrique “Quico” The Llano Kid
Fay Wray (Consuelo)
Emma Dunn (Señora Ibarra)
Oscar Apfel (Thacker)
James Marcus (John Brown)
Donald Reed (Nick Ibarra)
Soledad Jiminez (The Duenna)
Veda Buckland (Mary, the nurse)
Cesar Vanoni (Pasquale)
Edwin J. Brady (Henry)
Enrique Acosta (Sixto)
Romualdo Tirado (Cabman)
Russell (Russ) Columbo (Singing cowboy at campfire)
Credits
Paramount Picture.
Director: John Cromwell.
Scenarist: Daniel N. Rubin.
Adaptation: Oliver H.P. Garrett from “A Double-Dyed Deceiver” by O. Henry.
Camera: Victor Milner.
Editor: Verna Willis.
Assistant Director: Henry Hathaway.
Associate Producer: Hector Turnbull.
Sound Recorder: Harry M. Lindgren.
