Ride, Vaquero, 1953, Is Playing on TCM on October 19 (USA)

Ride Vaquero, 1953, is playing on Turner Classic Movies On October 29 at 9:00 a.m. est. Closed Captioned.

Ava Gardner and Robert Taylor

By keeping quiet, speaking only when necessary Robert Taylor as Rio gives one of his best performances. All through the film you try to guess what he is thinking. He was adopted by the mother of Esqueda (Anthony Quinn) and Quinn loves and respects him. The real surprise is Howard Keel, who only used to do musicals, coming out so well as King Cameron, a man who is obstinate about building a cattle empire. Cameron is married to Cordelia (Ava Gardner) and as soon as she arrives in a river boat, and they go to their ranch, trouble starts because it has been burnt by Esqueda. Why did Esqueda do it? Because he knows that if he allows anybody to do well in business in that area, others will come and eventually he, who is a bandit will have to run away or be hanged. Quinn is great as Esqueda, just that makes the film worth seeing. Taylor, who was the second man to Quinn in the gang, eventually leaves him to help Keel, because deep down he knows his brother is becoming a crazy monster and unconsciously he is in love with Ava. But when she kisses him, he slaps her because he knows it is wrong. He is a torn man, with all those feelings and not knowing exactly what to do about it. Excellent film, not to be missed. IMDB review by tmwest from Sao Paolo, Brazil.

Here are some more photos from the film:

About giraffe44

I became a Robert Taylor fan at the age of 15 when his TV show, "The Detectives" premiered. My mother wanted to watch it because she remembered Mr. Taylor from the thirties. I took one look and that was it. I spent the rest of my high school career watching Robert Taylor movies on late night TV, buying photos of him, making scrapbooks and being a typical teenager. College, marriage and career intervened. I remember being sad when Mr. Taylor died. I mailed two huge scrapbooks to Ursula Thiess. I hope she got them. Time passed, retirement, moving to Florida. Then in 2012 my husband Fred pointed that there were two Robert Taylor movies that evening on Turner Classic Movies--"Ivanhoe" and "Quentin Durward." I watched both and it happened all over again. I started this blog both for fans and for people who didn't know about Robert Taylor. As the blog passes 200,000 views I'm delighted that so many people have come by and hope it will help preserve the legacy of this fine actor and equally good man.

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2 Responses to Ride, Vaquero, 1953, Is Playing on TCM on October 19 (USA)

June says:

October 15, 2015 at 12:52 am

I was a teenager, but already smitten with Robert Taylor, and was so unhappy that he died in the movie and did not get the girl (Ava Gardner). However I did notice that he wore his gun on the left and wrote to our local movie guru to inquire if he was right or left handed. Some guru, he didn’t know. Found out years later RT utilized the skills he learnt playing Billy the Kid, some years earlier. Amazing he was still able to adapt years later. Enjoyed your blog, as usual.

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- giraffe44 says:
  
  October 15, 2015 at 3:26 pm
  
  Hi, June. He used his left hand in a third movie, but I’m darned if I can remember which one. The way Mr. Taylor controlled his body is tremendous–like a dancer. He plays a klutz in The Last Hunt and it’s very startling. Nice to hear from you again. Judith
  
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