Tex Rides with the Boy Scouts (1937) User Reviews (9)

Of Course Tex Was A Boy Scout

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 8 September 2006]

Tex Ritter is on the trail of a gang of outlaws who've been robbing mines in the area of a Boy Scout camp. When Tex and his two sidekicks. Horace Murphy and Snub Pollard, ride in they're in like flynn. Especially after Tex shows his beaver badge to young Tommy Bupp because back in the day Ritter was a Boy Scout. As every clean living cowboy hero was or ought to have been.

Things don't go as smooth for Tex with Tommy's sister Marjorie Reynolds, but with Tommy putting in a good word for him, it all works out in the end.

This film was done for short lived Grand National Studios and while it lasted Tex was their B picture western star. Ritter had a nice pleasant singing voice, too bad he wasn't at Republic like Roy and Gene were.

The film really was a big commercial for the Boy Scouts and I'll bet recruiting went up after Tex Ritter made use of the Scouts in nailing the bad guys. They were sure more help than his two dimwit sidekicks.

A Tex Ritter away from being a Z Grade Western

[CubsandCulture · 6/10 · 9 April 2022]

I'm sure formally this film is classified as a B movie. I also think the DVD copy I watched added to the crappy technical aspects-both because of a bad transfer and damage to the print they used wasn't fixed at all. But this film is so corny, so badly put together, so cheap looking and has such odd elements included-i.e. The 5 minutes of Scouting documentary, a really dark story beat in the climax involving a kid-that it plays out like a Western version of say Robot Monster and other psychotronic disasters. The film has hints of the sublime awfulness that unintentional camp is made from.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective, the acting is just competent enough that this is a just a bad film; it's entertaining enough in its schlocky aspects. Ritter has enough natural charm to make his character worth rooting for and alas prevent the sublime awfulness to fully flower in the film.

So I enjoyed it but it is lands in a middling spot where it is neither good nor bad enough to love.

Always specify King when you want a real bad guy!

[JohnHowardReid · 5/10 · 2 February 2018]

"Tex Rides with the Boy Scouts", alas, is another mixture of good and very bad.

Directed by Ray Taylor on a miniscule budget, it's further burdened by labored comic relief (Snub Pollard), a Chinese caricature (Philip Ahn), plus a lot of preachy stock footage and another big minus in minimal action.

As usual, the lovely heroine (super-attractive Lynn Reynolds) has naught to do than decorate a few shots here and there.

But fortunately, Charles King is on hand as a bad guy, so maybe this entry's not all that bad after all.

With a fair amount of judicious trimming, we could cut those pesky scouts right out of the action. Maybe?

(Available on a Mill Creek DVD).

Tex Sings, But This Film Doesn't

[Chance2000esl · 3/10 · 24 March 2008]

The film begins with stock footage of a National Scout Jamboree in Washington, D.C. as both a lengthy introduction to and promotion of the "Worldwide Boy Scout Movement" and the film's dedication.

Tex Collins (Tex Ritter) and his two side kicks Pee-Wee (Snub Pollard) and Stubby (Horace Murphy) are really agents from the Department of Justice on the trail of a million dollar gold heist from a train. There are clues throughout the film to help you guess their lawman identity-- it's not a 'surprise' at the end as it was in so many other early westerns of the decade.

The film has a large cast, and tries to integrate a Boy Scout troupe into the key action, but that attempt is a weak part of the film. In fact, not much is really distinctive in it. Despite the presence of Charles King (who has the best lines) and underused Forrest Taylor as the villains, and the glorious Texas accent of Tex, they all don't get enough screen time. Marjorie Reynolds, who was famous as Riley's wife Peg on the TV 'Life of Riley' (1953-1958) has only a couple of scenes with Tex as the 'love interest,' but their relationship never really gets anywhere.

The side kicks antics are not funny and time consuming. The best part of the movie is Tex singing "The Girl I Left Behind Me" with the 'Beverly Hill Billies' at a barn dance. Other than that, this one is not worth much. Tex's first film, 'Song of the Gringo' (1936), with a smaller cast and more character development, is better.

"From now on, I'll be the best behaved gent this side of Snake River".

[classicsoncall · 5/10 · 3 November 2008]

As the title says, Tex Ritter and sidekicks Stubby and Pee Wee (Horace Murphy and Snub Pollard) hook up with a Boy Scout troop to take down a gang of train robbers in this somewhat offbeat singing Western. What gets the picture off to an interesting start is a brief clip of events from a 1936 Washington, D.C. jamboree. The story includes a couple of unusual elements like the appearance of a Chinese laundry man, and this might be the earliest film in which you'll hear that infamous tag line - "No tickee, no washee". But the real sit up and take notice moment occurs when the chief villain Dorman (Forrest Taylor) actually shoots young Scout Buzzy Willis (Tommy Bupp) in the back!!! Man, what kind of a heel would do that?

I always get a kick out of the logistics in these old films, when the laws of physical science were often held in complete disregard. Keep an eye on that early scene when the good guy trio stop to read the Private Property sign on the Black Hawk Mining property. A warning shot knocks Stubby's hat off from the direction in which he's facing, but all three turn left to see a couple of henchmen who were responsible. Had the bullet come from that direction, it might have hit Tex, who was right behind Stubby on horseback at the time.

Tex gets to show his stuff with a handful of singing numbers, including 'Girl of the Prairie' with which he serenades pretty Norma Willis (Marjorie Reynolds), but as far as romance, that didn't really go anywhere. As with many of these old oaters, their relationship starts out with a misunderstanding before they patch things up to wind up on the same side. Little brother Buzzy survives his near fatal gunshot to identify Dorman as the shooter, and pretty soon, Tex and his boys round up all the bad guys and the stolen gold.

Back in it's time, the picture probably served as a reliable recruiting vehicle for the Boy Scout organization, with it's emphasis on building character and good citizenship. Some of the scenes took me back to my own Scouting days, though that wasn't until a couple of decades later. It's the Boy Scout connection that warrants catching the picture, otherwise it's pretty much a run of the mill Western where the good guys come out on top.

Great Wipes

[richardchatten · 3/10 · 17 June 2018]

SPOILER WARNING: No such scene as described in the title appears in this movie (probably just as well considering the speculation it might have prompted!); which sums up the casual attitude the whole film takes to sustaining a plausible narrative.

A fresh-faced young Tex Ritter improbably claims to be a geologist while going undercover to track down dapper gang boss Forrest Stanley, who shocks even his henchman when he shoots a boy scout in the back, but otherwise does a pretty sloppy job as an arch-villain. Tex likewise carelessly drops a vital letter in the street enabling Stanley to pick it up and examine it.

Considering the zero budget this film must have had, it doesn't stint on frequent elegant optical wipes of the sort that I wish modern filmmakers would rediscover.

It is a Tex Ritter movie. 'Nuff said.

[chholleyman · 4/10 · 8 April 2012]

I loved it. Not as much as some other Tex Ritter movies, but because it had Tex Ritter in it with his singing, I loved it. (I do wish we had some of those times back, such as wanting to emulate the good character of the scouts again. Couldn't hurt society.) I miss those character building movies, when good was good and evil was definitely evil. The singing was better in some of the other Ritter movies, but his singing here was better than most other actors and singers in western movies. So I guess it boils down to this rule of thumb, if Ritter is in a movie and he is singing in that movie, you sure can't go wrong by watching it! I agree that his sidekicks were not up to par either.

The First Boy Scout

[FightingWesterner · 5/10 · 19 January 2010]

A fairly silly plot has Tex Ritter joining forces with a troop of apparently unchaperoned Boy Scouts who are looking for a dangerous gang of train robbers, something that I don't think would ever happen in real life!

Not really one of his best adventures, Tex Rides With The Boy Scouts is pretty inoffensive (unless you're Chinese) and mildly interesting, as long as you don't think about it too much.

There just wasn't enough action or memorable songs (with the exception of Tex's rendition of The Girl I Left Behind Me) this go-around, to satisfy.

However, Ritter is good as always, the leading lady is quite attractive, and the kiddie audiences of the day probably loved it, especially the real-life scouts.

Train Robbery

[StrictlyConfidential · 5/10 · 18 November 2021]

"Tex Rides With The Boy Scouts" was originally released back in 1937.

Anyway - As the story goes - G-Man, Tex Ritter is working on a case involving a train robbery and the gold shipment that was taken from it. When one of the henchmen cashes in some of the gold nuggets, Tex and his assistant are able to narrow their search of suspects. Tex recruits the local Boy Scout troop to assist him with tracking the suspects as they move the stolen gold shipment and aid in their capture.