This sometimes lively comedy western , though frankly tiring , contains a great but wasted cast . It starts with the opening credits: The characters and events depicted in this photoplay are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or events is purely coincidental . ¨4 for Texas¨ is set in the old west where outlaws and powerful people fight for a stash of gold . It packs a motley group of roles : A swindler insurance agent (Frank Sinatra) , an adventurer (Dean Martin) who winds up with a bag of someones else's cash , a banker (Victor Buono) is up to no good in Galveston and he hires a hired gun (Charles Bronson making the most impression) . As starring duo : Sinatra , Martin , play a couple of lovable rogues who make a last-ditch alliance to defeat even bigger crooks themselves . As Sinatra attempts to get the better of both of them . Later on ,there appears two beautiful girls (Anita Ekberg , Úrsula Andress , though one of the roles was originally intented for Gina Lollobrigida) to conquer them . The far out story of the far west. How the West Was Lost! They're Busting Up The West Like It's Never Been Busted Up Before! It's a daisy!
A lousy blend of comedy , Western , thrills , excessive dialogue with no sense and far too dependant on the femine charisma of two Euro-stars . All this unfolds with a runaway cruise control male that leads to mayhem and confusion . Embarring , absurding , ridiculous screenplay full of silliness and non-sense from Teddi Sherman and Robert Aldrich himself . The whole affair is slowly coloured chuckle from beginning to end with a briefly satisfactory , if somewhat obvious climax . The opening scenes are magnificent , as a stagecoach manned by Sinatra beats off attackers before crashing breathtakingly on the dust . Unfortunately , only the final at the ¨La Maison Rouge¨ , an overloaded Mississippi riverboat side-wheeler , comes up to this standard comic western movie . Co-stars two gorgeous ladies , Anita Ekberg , Úrsula Andress , more exposed by their silly dialogue than their low-cut costumes . Both of them give statuesque immovility to their interpretations . Here only stands out Charles Bronson at the liveliest presence in the movie. There are some bright guest appearances , especially that by Victor Buono , Nick Dennis , Richard Jaeckel , Mike Mazurki , Virginia Christine , Ellen Corby , Abraham Sofaer , final film of Jack Lambert, and Jack Elam .
Sharply filmed in Technicolor by prestigious cameramen as Ernest Laszlo , Joseph Biroc , Brunet Guffey , Alan Rudolph . Catching and lively musical score by Nelson Riddle . The picture was lousily directed by Aldrich . Perhap's Aldrich's later hit with ¨Dirty Dozen¨ can be attributed , in part , to this exercice in how not to make a comic western . Here Aldrich directs the slight story at tortoise pace and receives awful performances . This is Aldrich's absurd contribution to Sinatra clan , following hard on the heels of ¨Ocean's eleven¨ , ¨Robin and the 7 Hoods¨ and ¨Sergeant 3¨ . After a surprising payday for ¨What ever happened to Baby Jane ?¨ , Robert assembled a nice cast and sizeable budget and 2 Euro hotties for what proved one of his dullest films . Aldrich's first feature film was in 1953 (Big Leaguer ,1953). Soon thereafter he established his own production company and produced most of his own films , collaborating in the writing of many of them . Directed a considerable plethora of genres but almost all of his films contained a subversive undertone . He was an expert on warlike genre (Dirty Dozen , The Angry Hills , Ten seconds to hell) and Western (The Frisko kid , Ulzana's raid, Apache , Veracruz , The last sunset) . Rating : below average . Rating 3.5/10 .
