Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Train Robbers Blu-ray Movie Review

Six Men and a Lady

Reviewed by Michael Reuben May 31, 2015

In the 1970s, John Wayne remained one of the planet's biggest movie stars, but the Duke and film culture fell increasingly out of sync as new voices emerged from the rubble of the old studio system. Wayne hated the explicit violence that became common on the screen after Bonnie and Clyde shocked audiences in 1967. He complained that Sam Peckinpah's bloody The Wild Bunch (1969) destroyed the myth of the Old West, and he criticized Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter (1973) for its brutality. The Duke was also repulsed by sexually explicit content, especially if the sex was in any way tawdry or "deviant". He was disappointed that Midnight Cowboy, which was then rated X, won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1969, and he disliked the language and nudity (not to mention the anti-establishment themes) in the countercultural hit, Easy Rider.

At his stage in the game, Wayne had the credibility, clout and wherewithal to continue making films any way he chose through his company, Batjac Productions. Two such Westerns were released by Warner in 1973, The Train Robbers and Cahill U.S. Marshall. Neither was successful, and neither is first-tier Wayne, but both have their appeal. These are the two films new to Blu-ray that Warner is releasing both separately and as part of the John Wayne Westerns Collection.

Written and directed by Burt Kennedy, who had previously directed Wayne in The War Wagon (1969), The Train Robbers has a misleading title, because it isn't about a train robbery. The robbery of the title occurred several years before the film opens. Wayne plays Lane, a Civil War veteran turned hired gun, whose current job is to recover the $500,000 in gold stolen by the gang of thieves and subsequently buried by their leader somewhere in Mexico. The client is Mrs. Lowe (Ann-Margret), wife of the gang leader, who is now deceased. A proper figure of a lady despite her poor choice in men, Mrs. Lowe doesn't want her son to grow up with the stigma of having a bank robber for a father. Her plan is to return the gold to the railroad. Lane and his men can keep the $50,000 reward as compensation. During the course of the adventure, she will confess to Lane that she is having second thoughts about returning the gold, which, as Lane remarks, is the natural effect that gold has on people, including himself.

The film's opening is an amusing riff on Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, as Lane's war buddy, Jesse (Ben Johnson), awaits his former commander's arrival at the railroad station of a rickety Texas border town named Liberty, accompanied by Ben Young (Bobby Vinton), whose last name defines him. They are joined by a third veteran from Lane's unit, Grady (Rod Taylor), who has brought new recruits, Calhoun (Christopher George) and Sam Turner (stuntman Jerry Gatlin, whom Wayne promoted to actor on this film).

When the train arrives, Lane disembarks with Mrs. Lowe. The job is explained, old animosities are rekindled (mostly between Jesse and Grady, who quarrel like an old married couple), and new ones are born, notably between Calhoun and Lane, who thinks the new guy is too brash for his own good. Only Mrs. Lowe knows where the gold is buried, and she won't trust anyone with that information. The next morning, the entire group rides out toward the border.

The Train Robbers is mostly an extended chase, because Lane's party is pursued all the way by a gang of ruffians anxious to seize the gold once it's been found. The gang is undifferentiated, and we never see the members up close, but it is presumably composed of whoever survived from the original robbers, plus others who have since learned of the hidden treasure. An additional pursuer is a mysterious figure who keeps his distance and discloses neither his presence nor his purpose; he is played by Ricardo Montalban with such elegant presence that you barely notice he hasn't said a word. When he finally speaks near the end of the film, the effect is startling.

Writer/director Kennedy invents a variety of distractions in an effort to keep the trip interesting, including arguments, reminiscences, a thunderstorm and an extended sequence in which Lane plies the lady with whiskey in the hope that she'll reveal the location of the gold. (To his credit, Wayne plays his character's age accurately; Lane scotches any prospect of romantic involvement by telling Mrs. Lowe: "I got a saddle that's older than you are.") By far the most visually striking sequence involves a derelict train abandoned in the desert, the skeletons of steel and timber half buried in the sand like alien architecture. The location, which was built specially for the film, becomes the site of a tense shootout with the gang pursuing Lane's party.

The Train Robbers concludes at the Liberty station where it opened, and the script slyly leaves open the possibility of a sequel, which might have been made if the film had been more successful. As the director of Return of the Seven , the sequel to The Magnificent Seven, Kennedy was certainly no stranger to the notion. But the lackluster box office closed that door permanently.

The Train Robbers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Train Robbers was the last feature film photographed by William H. Clothier, who was the cinematographer on many of Wayne's pictures, including The Alamo and his last major hit, Big Jake. Clothier had years of experience shooting the great outdoors in locations like Durango and Sonora, Mexico, which provide most of the scenic locations for The Train Robbers. Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is a respectable catalog effort, with enough fine detail to bring out both the landscape in long shots and the cowboys' dusty faces (as compared to Mrs. Lowe's daintier features) in closeups. The image is sharp without ringing or other evidence of artificial enhancement, and the film's grain pattern appears to be undisturbed. The color palette is that of the classical Western, with rich earth tones predominant under a blue sky. Blacks are deep and solid, which is essential for the many nighttime sequences.

Although Warner has placed the film on a BD-25, The Train Robbers runs a trim 92 minutes, and the extras are scant, resulting in an average bitrate of 24.95 Mbps. It isn't generous but it's adequate, and I saw no problems with artifacts.

The Train Robbers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Train Robbers was released in mono, which has been encoded here in lossless DTS-HD MA 1.0. The sound mix is sufficiently robust to make gun shots register forcefully, along with several major explosions that punctuate a key scene. The sounds of frontier transportation, both animal and mechanical, are vivid and varied. Dialogue is always clear and, for the most part, blends with the environment in which it is being spoken. The score by Dominic Frontiere (Chisum) both sounds good and contributes an important comic element to the film; Frontiere wrote calm, easygoing cues for Lane's group and fast-paced, frenetic cues for the criminal gang following them, so that cutting rapidly back and forth between them made the gang seem clownish.

The Train Robbers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The extras have been ported over from Warner's 2005 DVD of The Train Robbers, except that the DVD also contained trailers for other Wayne films.

• John Wayne: Working with a Western Legend (480i; 1.85:1; 10:35): Stuntmen Terry Leonard, Dean Smith and Jerry Gatlin (who played Sam Turner in The Train Robbers) recall working with Wayne on Westerns.



• Wayne Train (480i; 1.33:1; 4:09): A vintage promotional featurette.



• Theatrical Trailer (480i; 2.35:1, enhanced; 3:36): In the great tradition of putting the best bits in the trailer, this one makes The Train Robbers look like a non-strop gun battle with fire and explosions.

The Train Robbers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

By itself, the plot of The Train Robbers doesn't amount to much. It's largely an excuse to provide interesting character moments for the Duke and a colorful supporting cast. Ben Johnson, Ricardo Montalban and Ann-Margret are particularly memorable. While the film can't compete with Wayne's best, fans will want to add it to their collection, and Warner's Blu-ray should not disappoint.