Film

Texas Across the River

Name: Texas Across the River
Genre: Comedy, Western
Released: 1966
Cast: Dean Martin, Alain Delon, Rosemary Forsyth, Joey Bishop, Tina Aumont

Comedy western
Action
Light-hearted

A 1966 comedy western that pairs Dean Martin's laid-back charm with Alain Delon's aristocratic Fish-Out-of-Water bit. It's broadly comic, doesn't take itself seriously for a moment, and trades in rapid-fire gags rather than plot. For fans of westerns who like their humour broad and their adventure silly.

TMDb rating

2.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like a loose, sun-faded western where the jokes come from the characters squaring off, with Dean Martin's lazy swagger and a Western that happily sends up its own cowboy myths.

Skip it if you want a western with grit and stakes; this one plays most scenes for easy laughs, and its comic brawls and flirtations can feel slack and repetitive over its hour and forty minutes.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a light, episodic ride with no real urgency, mostly chatty and shambling, asking you to enjoy the banter and scenery more than track any tension.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Rio Bravo1959

Hawks' masterpiece pairs Dean Martin with John Wayne in a siege western that's actually funny—Martin sings, drinks, and gets the best comic timing. A model for how a western can breathe and entertain without winking.

But At over two hours it's leisurely in a way modern audiences find testing. The politics around its heroes—and what that heroism means—won't sit well with everyone.

Cat Ballou1965

Jane Fonda leads a comedy western that winks constantly without losing its charm. It's about a woman fighting for her land with guts and humour, has a genuinely witty script, and proves the genre works brilliantly as comedy.

But The comic tone is broad and the plot is slight. If you want a western that feels earned rather than playful, this isn't it.

The Pink Panther1963

Peter Sellers bumbles through a heist with physical comedy so perfect it redefined the form. It's not a western, but it's the same DNA—chaos, charm, a star you'd follow anywhere, and comedy that hides sophistication.

But The best material belongs entirely to Sellers. Everything else around him feels lighter and thinner.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Texas Across the River

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Once Upon a Time in the West1968

Both are 1960s Westerns made by European directors, but Leone takes the form to near-mythic seriousness while Martin's film is pure entertainment. They show the range the genre could contain in that moment.

Sergio Leone's operatic masterpiece takes the western to the absolute opposite register—baroque, merciless, glacially paced. It shows what a western can be when it goes all the way in the other direction. Henry Fonda's first villain role is unforgettable.

But At nearly three hours, it moves at a funeral march tempo. Silence and landscape are characters; if you need constant action or dialogue, it will test you severely.

McLintock!1963

John Wayne in a western comedy that's surprisingly anarchic—falling through floors, broad slapstick, and a genuinely funny script that never condescends. It proves Wayne could handle humour and never gets enough credit for it.

But It's messy and chaotic by design. The plot barely holds together and it knows it doesn't care.

Support Your Local Sheriff!1969

James Garner runs rings around a small western town in a comedy that understands comic timing in a way most Westerns never did. Sharp, affectionate, endlessly quotable, and deeply funny.

But It's deliberately slight and could feel insubstantial if you're watching for anything beyond humour.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid1969

Paul Newman and Robert Redford play bank robbers with chemistry so electric you'd watch them read a phone book. It mixes comedy and western with a real plot underneath. Smart, funny, and genuinely moving.

But Some of its dated elements—the tone, the songs, parts of the script—haven't aged into charm yet for everyone.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid poster

Johnny Guitar1954

Nicholas Ray's fever dream of a western where Joan Crawford runs a saloon and the real conflict is between two women. It's weird, genuinely strange, and rewrites what a western can be tonally and thematically.

But It's very odd and doesn't telegraph its strangeness. You have to surrender to its logic or it feels broken.

The Ballad of Little Jo1993

Maggie Greenwald's true-story western about a woman passing as a man in the frontier, filmed with a restraint and intelligence that respects both its period and its character. Beautifully crafted and unexpectedly moving.

But It's quiet and contemplative in ways that can feel slow. It's not interested in entertainment in the conventional sense.

Johnny Reno1966

Contemporary with Texas Across the River, this one stars Dana Andrews in a straightforward sheriff's tale. Solid western craft—a real plot, stakes that matter, and a supporting cast that earns their time.

But It's entirely conventional and makes no attempt to surprise. If you want innovation, this trades in formula.

The Left Hand of God1955

Both films play culture clash for comedy and find humour in a protagonist displaced by circumstance. Martin's Don Andrea and Bogart's priest both navigate worlds not their own, but Left Hand of God makes that comedy much darker.

Humphrey Bogart, a defrocked priest, escapes a Chinese warlord and ends up leading a mission. It's a comedy-adventure that mines humour from moral compromise and culture clash. Tighter and stranger than you'd expect.

But The racial politics of the period show badly now. It's dated in ways that pull at you—not offensive exactly, but naive in a way that's hard to ignore.

Rancho Notorious1952

Both have European leads and sensibilities in American West settings, but Lang's west is psychological and corrupted, a landscape of shadow and consequence. Martin's is comic and liberated. They're inverses—same genre, opposite temperatures.

Fritz Lang's western is noir painted in gunsmoke—a revenge tale set in a criminal ranch, shot with expressionist shadow and moral complexity. Marlene Dietrich presides over it all like a fallen goddess. It's opera, not entertainment.

But It's bleak and European in sensibility, not the wide-open adventure Texas Across the River sells. The pacing is architectural, not playful.