Gold, Graves, & Gold Hunt Fever

I saw this John Wayne movie for the first time sometime around 1983. From several reviews posted here one can say it has received mixed reviews. All I know is that I enjoy the movie whenever I see it, and the movie seems to be one of his westerns that is seldom shown on TV.

His role here is not too dissimilar to many of his others, and his 'usual suspects and friends' bolster the starring list. But it is somewhat unusual that Ann Margaret Olsen appears in a western, and while I have always been counted among her fans, I don't find anything too exceptional in the role she fills. But the 'twist' in the ending involving her role is a dandy.

Among several items in this movie I like is the appearance of Rod Taylor, a sometimes underrated and overlooked actor. And I still have good memories of CHUKA, a western he made a long time back that is very good.

I like this western and will rewatch it, and have no problem recommending it to anyone who likes JW movies.

One of the worst of Wayne's

Although it is great to see Wayne seeing him is about the best in this film. I did not really care about these people riding left and right. It has to be something about the story, because the actors are a great bunch of people. I expect Wayne always to be real hero, but here it is not so. Take any other Wayne, even those of the 30's rather than this one.

Underrated western

I would considered Train Robbers to be one of John Wayne's underrated western movies he have made during his post True Grit era. While its not as good as some of his earlier ones, it probably the best one he made between True Grit and the Shootist (next to Rio Lobo). The Train Robbers seem to be a throw back to John Wayne's older westerns. The story developed slowly but with a purpose as the characters get ironed out. Ann-Margaret plays widow trying to restored family honor by getting the half million dollars worth of gold back to the train company from which her husband stole it from. John Wayne and his gang tries to helped but the usual bad guys, the late husband's gang gets into the way. Its an adventure all the way.

John Wayne does his usual entertaining self but he is superbly supported by Rod Taylor and especially Ben Johnson. It was also a pleasure to watch Christopher George as well before his illness took his life prematurely. Key element of any John Wayne movie was his interactions with his co-stars and they all blended in perfectly. The humor was good and some of the one liners proves to be classic. Ann-Margaret does quite well but she sounds little phoney from the beginning and that was bit of a give away as we reached to the end of the movie. At least for me, the ending didn't surprised me as much as it did for some people.

The movie weaknesses lies in the fact that John Wayne and his gang seem to be just too goody two shoes to be true. The bad guys were just props in the movie and their job was to get shot. They don't seem to be very smart bad guys either. Making banzai charges seem to be a trademark tactics to make the good guys victorious. Bobby Vinton and Jerry Gatlin were virtually wasted in their roles. In some ways, they seem to be no more then the bad guys although they don't get shot!

The DVD version of Train Robbers seem to be well presented. I owned a regular TV so I would say from that point that the picture is clear and the sound proves to be crisp on my Dolby system. The DVD movie come in its widescreen format. I have to admit that this was the first time I saw this movie in widescreen since 1973 when it first came out. There isn't much of a special features. One feature got several former stuntmen who worked with Wayne, singing their praises of him. Second feature is a promotional job for the movie. Then you got your trailers feature. That is just about it. Pretty slim pickings if you asked me.

Overall, a pretty entertaining and enjoyable film despite of its inherited flaws. I would give it a 3.5 stars if I had a choice. John Wayne fans should be highly please with this movie. It should please most western fans and might be mildly entertaining for causal viewers.