A.C. Lyles turned out another good geezer western with Waco starring Howard Keel a recently released outlaw from prison who's been hired to clean up a really bad town run by saloon owner John Smith and his hired gun DeForest Kelley. Keel is kind of hoping to take things up where they left off with Jane Russell, but turns out she's gone and married preacher Wendell Corey. That sort of disillusions him as he wavers back and forth between doing the job he was hired or resuming his old outlaw ways.If it's action you want than Waco will not disappoint. Keel in the title role and we never do learn his real name because he probably was not born with that name, has a number of nasty fights and shootings. Besides Smith and Kelley, he's also got the Jenner family to contend with he killed one of them years ago. Willard Parker and Reg Parton are the remaining Jenner brothers and there's Anne Seymour, Ma Barker of the old west. In many ways, she's the one you'll remember from this film.Waco's also a pretty adult western with such themes as infidelity lightly touched upon and rape of Tracy Olsen an integral part of the story. The final shootout in the town involves just about every member of the cast.If you like western action you can't go wrong with Waco.

This is another obscure western that I just watched on Netflix streaming. It stars Howard Keel as Waco, a formerly jailed gunman who's pardoned by the governor and sent to Emporia to tame that town. Unfortunately for him, his former lover Jane Russell is now married to preacher Wendell Corey who was a former gunman himself. I'll stop there and just say that while the triangle that I just described makes some of this oater dramatically compelling, it's not the only exciting part of this movie. There's also the Jenner family who holds a grudge against Waco for killing one of their members and then there's DeForest Kelley who's the bouncer at the local casino who's also anxious to eliminate him. Oh, and there's also a pretty good story-song about the title character as told by Lorne Greene. So on that note, I highly recommend Waco. P.S. Not long after Kelley made this, he would soon become a Sci-Fi icon when he began playing Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy on the original "Star Trek".

I think this is the best of Howards none musical films. I wish it was available to buy.He made a number of so called B westerns such as Arizona Bushwakers which I also enjoyed and Red Tomahawk. I think they were all by the same directors and producers.In Waco he plays a tough guy who has been a gunfighter and was in prison but is released to clean up a corrupt town.His ex-girlfriend now lives there with her husband but Waco doesn't know she is married until he gets there.This makes him revert to his old ways and decides to take over the town for himself.There is a shoot out with the towns bad men and the good people of the town decide to back him and help him to fight.When it is all over the girlfriends husband who is the preacher is dead. Waco intends to leave but the townspeople persuade him to stay and one assumes he gets the girl.I really like all Howards films and don't think he got the recognition he deserved.He had a beautiful voice as we all know but he could act as well.

I love this film because it shows that people can and do change for the better, and that's what Waco thought he hadn't changed after a long time in prison, but he had and for the good of the town and the people in it.