4 For Texas
With Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Anita Ekberg.
US, 1963, 35mm, color, 124 min.
Print source: HFA
Money and sex form the bedrock of the Old West in this nonchalant lark starring Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra at the peak of their Rat Pack popularity as rival cowboy entrepreneurs. While headed to Texas by stagecoach, a dustup with Charles Bronson’s brutal outlaw serendipitously leaves them with a $100,000 wad, which they proceed to fight over. Eventually the funds go toward an extravagant riverboat casino in the small town of Galveston, where scantily clad Anita Ekberg and Ursula Andress lie in wait. Less a sculpted narrative than a free-flowing vehicle for various matinee idol configurations, including a Three Stooges cameo that devolves quickly into a slapstick vignette, 4 for Texas is more compelling as a testament to early 60s celebrity culture than as a tailored Aldrich effort, though the film does complicate its star indulgences with a bald critique of capitalism cut loose.
