TEXAS ACROSS THE RIVER
US, 1966, 101 minutes, Colour.
Dean Martin, Alain Delon, Rosemary Forsyth, Joey Biship, Tina Marquand, Peter Graves, Michael Ansara, Andrew Prine.
Directed by Michael Gordon.
Texas Across the River is based on the John Wayne vehicle, The Comancheros. This time it is all tongue-in-cheek – an opportunity for Dean Martin to fool around in a western and French star Alain Delon to try himself internationally (but in farce). Joey Bishop is an Indian. The film is tongue-in-cheek, has all the ingredients of a western – played for broad comedy. Direction is by Michael Gordon who directed much better films in his day including Cyrano de Bergerac and Pillow Talk.
1. How enjoyable was this film as a spoof of western conventions, heroes, the west, the gunfighters, the army, Southern gentry, heroines? How clever was it, how funny?
2. How does this kind of film pay homage to the popularity of the western? Did this film support the western? How critical of the west and its standards was it? Affectionate criticism?
3. The importance of colour, scenery, music? Dean Martin's easy-going heroism? Alain Delon's exotic touch?
4. How conventional was the plot? Relying on audience expectations of standard situations and characrters? How were these ridiculed? How were audience expectations thwarted? For
amusement?
5. The importance of the heroes? Alain Delon and his European chivalry? Spanish nobility? Heroism with the sword etc.? How engaging a character? The contrast with Dean Martin's style? The Indian warfighter? The conman?
6. How attractive was the heroine? Her marriage and its interruption, the death, her pursuing her loved one, the dangers of the west etc.? A typical western heroine? being poked fun at? Her contrast with the Indian girl who also becomes a heroine?
7. The satire on the Indians, Joey Bishop's style, appropriate? The Comanches and their pursuit? The Chief and his observation of things?
8. The importance of the fights, the dangers, the style of
the heroics?
9. How important was the atmosphere of stupidity, for example the end and 'Here come the Cavalry'?
10. The build-up to the climax as a typical western? What is the value of this kind of western humour, the perspective of parody on the western genre?
