Trouble in Texas: Tex Ritter and some very weird murder weapons

If you have an hour to kill and a very specific craving for black-and-white cowboy songs mixed with a mystery plot that makes almost no sense, Trouble in Texas might be for you. If you are looking for anything remotely grounded or logically sound, you should probably skip this one. It is a movie that feels like it was written on the back of a napkin during a lunch break.

Tex Ritter is the guy in charge here, and he spends a lot of the movie looking concerned while singing songs that seem to stop the plot dead in its tracks. The whole premise is that rodeo stars are being taken out by poisoned needles. You heard that right. It is a very strange, almost spy-movie gimmick for a film that otherwise wants to be a gritty horse-riding adventure. It feels like someone watched Man Hunters of the Caribbean and thought, 'Yeah, let's put that in a corral.'

The pacing is all over the place. One minute we are watching a rodeo, and the next, a guy is dying in a tent. The transitions are non-existent. It is like the editor just dropped the reels on the floor and put them back together in a random order. Sometimes you see a scene and think, 'Wait, did I miss something?' No, you didn't. The movie just doesn't care if you keep up.

There is a scene where a character is supposed to be sneaking around, but he is walking with the subtlety of a freight train. It is genuinely funny. I caught myself wondering if the director just said 'go' and hoped for the best. 🤠

Small things that caught my eye:

• The way they handle the 'poisoned needle' props is almost laughable. You can clearly see they aren't even trying to hide the plastic.
• Rita Hayworth is in this, which is a nice surprise if you like catching stars before they were huge. She has this look on her face like she knows the movie is a bit of a mess.
• The horses probably had the best performances in the whole thing. They seem the most focused on the job.

It definitely lacks the tension found in something like Professional Soldier. It is just too lightweight to take the stakes seriously. The villains are about as threatening as a wet sponge, and Tex Ritter keeps singing through the danger like he is on a lounge stage instead of a dusty trail.

It is not a good movie by any stretch. But it is weird enough to be watchable if you are in the right mood. Don't expect to have your mind blown. Expect to wonder why everyone in this town is so bad at keeping rodeo stars alive. 🐎