The Train Robbers

One of the good, though less talked about John Wayne films that sort of slipped between the cracks of True Grit and Rooster Cogburn, The Train Robbers is a bit light-weight most of the time, but a lot of fun, especially the exciting cat-and-mouse game played out in the final thirty minutes.

Writer/director Burt Kennedy wrote some of the best unsung westerns ever. Each of them are loaded with the nuances that almost every modern attempt at the genre seems to lack, things like hard decision making and the hazards of crossing the frontier, stuff that made this and other Kennedy-scripted movies really satisfying.

It's great to see the Duke here, riding alongside such great co-stars as Rod Taylor, Ben Johnson, and Christopher George, though Ann-Margaret seems a bit miscast. With her in the movie, you can pretty much guess the final scene way in advance!

From the fifties onward, Wayne made a point to cast young teen idols, singers, and up-and-comers in his pictures, like Tab Hunter, Fabian, Ricky Nelson, Glen Campbell, Jeffrey Hunter, and James Caan. With that in mind, the casting of Bobby Vinton still seems like an odd choice, as he was pretty old-school, even for 1973! He's alright though, in his limited role as Wayne's sidekick's sidekick's sidekick!