4 for Texas

Theatrical poster
4 for Texas
Directed by	Robert Aldrich
Produced by	Robert Aldrich
Written by	Teddi Sherman Robert Aldrich
Starring	Frank Sinatra Dean Martin Anita Ekberg Ursula Andress Charles Bronson The Three Stooges
Music by	Nelson Riddle
Cinematography by	Ernest Laszlo
Editor(s)	Michael Luciano
Studio(s)	Warner Bros. Pictures
Distributor	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	December 25, 1963
Running time	114 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$4,520,000
Gross revenue	1,367,490 admissions (France)
External links
Official website
IMDb page

4 for Texas is a 1963 American Western comedy film starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Anita Ekberg, and Ursula Andress, and featuring screen thugs Charles Bronson and Mike Mazurki, with a cameo appearance by Arthur Godfrey and the Three Stooges (Larry Fine, Moe Howard, and Curly Joe DeRita). The film was written by Teddi Sherman and Robert Aldrich, who also directed.

Plot

In 1870, a shipment of $100,000 being transported by stagecoach to Galveston, Texas, is the object of a tug-of-war in the desert between Zack Thomas (Sinatra) and Joe Jarrett (Martin), who first must stave off an outlaw band led by Matson (Bronson).

Later, in Galveston, Thomas and Jarrett become rivals in a bid to open a waterfront casino. Each has a new romantic attachment, as well, with the beauties Elya (Anita Ekberg) and Maxine (Ursula Andress), respectively. They eventually must join forces to hold off the villainous Matson and a corrupt banker, Burden (Victor Buono), to keep their new gambling boat afloat.

Cast

• Frank Sinatra as Zack Thomas
• Dean Martin as Joe Jarrett
• Anita Ekberg as Elya Carlson
• Ursula Andress as Maxine Richter
• Charles Bronson as Matson
• Victor Buono as Harvey Burden (President, Galveston Savings & Trust)
• Edric Connor as Prince George (carriage driver)
• Nick Dennis as Angel
• Richard Jaeckel as Pete Mancini
• Mike Mazurki as Chad (Zack's bodyguard)
• Wesley Addy as Winthrop Trowbridge
• Marjorie Bennett as Miss Emmaline
• Virginia Christine as Elya Carlson's maid
• Ellen Corby as Widow
• Jack Elam as Dobie
• Joe DeRita as Painting deliveryman (billed as the Three Stooges)
• Larry Fine as Painting deliveryman (billed as the Three Stooges)
• Moe Howard as Painting deliveryman (billed as the Three Stooges)
• Jack Lambert as Monk

Production

Adlrich announced the film in November 1960 as Two for Texas, from a script by Teddy Sherman. The proposed stars were Lisa Kirk, Martine Carol and Aldo Ray.

In January 1963, Dean Martin signed to make the film. At that stage his female co-stars would be Anita Ekberg and (it was hoped) Gina Lollobrigida. Warners, who had just made Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? with Aldrich, agreed to finance.

In March, Frank Sinatra agreed to co star. This meant the film would be a co-production between Warners, Aldrich's company, the Associates and Aldrich, Martin's company, Claude Productions, and Sinatra's, Essex Productions.

At one stage the role of Elya was originally intended for Sophia Loren, who had already worked with Sinatra in The Pride and the Passion. Although she was offered $1,000,000 for four weeks of work, Loren turned the part down.

Lollobrigida decided not to do the film. In May, Ursula Andress joined the cast and the film was retitled Four for Texas.

Aldrich later said he wrote the first draft of the script but "you could change that over and over and it was still a disaster."

Shooting

Filming started in May 1963.

4 for Texas was filmed in 1.85:1 aspect ratio on 35-mm Technicolor film. Its promotional trailer features Ursula Andress in specially shot footage addressing the audience.

During production, the relationship between star Sinatra and director Aldrich became strained. Aldrich felt the film was not a success, and cited problems with his own script, as well as Sinatra's lack of enthusiasm for the project—Aldrich calculated that Sinatra worked a total of only 80 hours during 37 days of filming.

At one stage, Bette Davis was going to make a cameo.

Release

The film had its U.S. premiere on December 18, 1963. Forty-three years after its original premiere, 4 for Texas was presented at the Turin Film Festival on November 12, 2006.

Home media

Its first DVD release arrived on November 20, 2001, and the second release (as part of The Rat Pack collection of Ocean's 11 and Robin and the 7 Hoods) was on June 13, 2006.

Reception

Awards and nominations

It was nominated for the Golden Laurel as "Top Action Drama", ultimately coming in fourth.

External Links

• 4 for Texas at Wikipedia

• 4 for Texas on Warnerbros.com
• 4 for Texas at the Internet Movie Database
• 4 for Texas at Rotten Tomatoes
• 4 for Texas at AllMovie
• 4 for Texas at the TCM Movie Database

Wikipedia

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia page 4 for Texas. The revision history lists the authors. The text on Warner Bros. Entertainment Wiki and Wikipedia is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC BY-SA).

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