The Rounders

As the movie opens it is early autumn; Ben and Howdy reluctantly accept work from Jim Ed Love, a rancher they both love to hate. Part of their duties includes attempting to tame a furious and ornery young mustang properly named "Ol' Fooler". The horse quickly becomes their arch nemesis as it continually defies their attempts at bronc-busting; wily old veterans they refuse to be done-in by the stubborn animal and will eventually talk Love into letting them keep it as part of their pay. Ben and Howdy brainstorm that they can make a mint and leave their hard-luck days behind at the annual rodeo in Sedona by betting that no one can ride their varmint of a horse for longer than eight seconds. The plan goes fairly well but they encounter an unexpected twist of events that threatens to ruin the guys' enterprise and sink their dreams fast.

It shouldn't amount to much - but it does. One of the very best supporting casts ever assembled helps out tremendously providing endless appeal and colorful characterizations. Chill Wills, Edgar Buchanan, and both Kathleen & Joan Freeman show up as the story progresses and have fairly expanded roles. Barton MacLane, Denver Pyle and Doodles Weaver appear in cameo roles that seem tailored perfectly to their talents. An uncredited Warren Oates plays a bumbling gun-crazy wrangler that runs afoul of Jones and Lewis. The best surprise of all though is Sue Ann Langdon and Hope Holiday as two attractive and voluptuous ladies that Ben and Howdy happen upon when they make the late spring journey into Sedona. This sequence of the film supplies us with it's funniest and most memorable moments.

Made at a time when films could be both sparse of activity and routinely but unabashedly sentimental 'The Rounders' is living proof that comedies don't have to be big, bold and brassy to be enjoyed. For a refreshing change of pace and an opportunity to see Ford and Fonda at their most likeable I heartily recommend you set aside some time for this flick.


A not much of a movie plot   July 12, 2001
John R. Bridell (Minneapolis, MN USA)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

THE ROUNDERS is a not much of a movie plot. It's just a good movie. Unlike those wonderful B Westerns from the 1930s, these cowboys--Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda--got to drink hard "hotch" and also kiss the girls as well as the horse. It is a film that defines great countryside, solid friendship, how dreams keep yuh going, how great a movie can be without much of a plot, and how yuh learn to love your enemy. In this case, the enemy is that cagey Roan roping, bucking horse that slo-witted Ford tried his dangdest to break and couldn't. He wants to run down the horse with a pickup, shoot it,send it to the glue factory [soap product in this case] or sell it to some sucker willing to buy it. In the end bronco-busters Ford and Fonda don't bust the cantankerous Roan, but they prove that you can make an endearing story into a movie without getting maudlin about it. Three CHEERS and a DOZEN YIPPEES for this film.


Charming cowboy comedy   May 11, 2003
Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com (...in Middle America)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

Henry Fonda and Glenn Ford co-star as a pair of almost-over-the-hill cowpunchers whose love of the free life, and plain lack of horse sense, have kept them pinned to the same lousy job year after years, and also from settling down with any of the gals that moon over them when they come down from the hills long enough to spend their dough. These guys are loveable foul-ups, roustabouts who haven't quite figured out how to get ahead, but sure like doing things the hard way. Plenty of light comedy (including some of the most charming early '60s sexist jokes you're ever likely to see) and a funny love-hate relationship between Ford and the one horse he simply cannot break. It's nice to see Ford and Fonda play characters who just ain't that bright, each in their own typical understated style. Cute film -- recommended!


'Whatever you want to do just tickles me to death'   August 17, 2004
Joseph H Pierre (Salem, OR USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

Director: Burt Kennedy
Format: Color
Studio: Warner Home Video
Video Release Date: June 30, 1993

Cast:

Glenn Ford
Henry Fonda
Chill Wills

This is a wonderful comedy about two old cowboys (Fonda and Ford) who whoop off their money in town, and then are forced by necessity to go back to work for the winter working for a niggardly rancher (Chill Wills), 'topping off' (breaking) wild cayuses and rounding up wild cattle. Then, in the Spring, the cycle is repeated with the same result.

On the ranch there is as a roan horse that is strongly reminiscent of the strawberry roan of Marty Robbins' song, which the boys view with a love/hate relationship. They end up owning him, in lieu of payment for some of their work.

The two meet two airheaded girls, with predictable results, and the story develops from there.

I found the movie entertaining, hilarious, and I hope you do too.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre
author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books



Totally Southwest Cowboy   May 21, 1999
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

I have sat and watched this movie several times and I've enjoyed it more each time. Ford and Fonda are a great cowboy team. With the spectacular scenery of Sedona and surrounding Arizona territory, this makes for a superb afternoon at the movies.