Thunder Over the Plains

DVD review from The Movie Snob

Thunder Over the Plains (D+). This is the second in a three-movie collection of Westerns starring Randolph Scott (The Man Behind the Gun). I already reviewed and panned The Man Behind the Gun, and this is one is no better. A lengthy voice-over narration explains that our setting is Texas, 1869. The good citizens of Texas chafe under martial law and the greedy carpetbaggers. Randolph Scott plays Army Captain David Porter, whose duty to uphold the law conflicts with his natural sympathies with his fellow Texans. Nothing of much interest happens except when Army reinforcements arrive, including a fresh-faced young captain who wastes no time trying to make time with Porter's unhappy wife Nora. There are a couple of amusing scenes where Scott is either chasing someone or being chased, but the editing is so bad you never have any idea where the pursuer and the pursued are in relation to each other. Finally, a special shout out to Elisha Cook, Jr., who plays a tax agent in this movie but went on to win great acclaim in a guest spot on Star Trek as a crotchety old lawyer named Samuel T. Cogley.