Cinema: Death and Texas

The War Wagon. Out of the West he jogs, the familiar bleached red shirt and wide-brimmed hat announcing the arrival of John Wayne in his 162nd film. As inevitable as death and Texas, Wayne again plays a hard-nosed, soft-spoken loner—a once-wealthy rancher whose gold-filled land has been stolen in a swindle. Back he comes, seeking revenge with four men foolhardy enough to join him in a scheme to restore his riches: a leathery gunfighter (Kirk Douglas); an outlaw Indian (Howard Keel); an alcoholic kid (Robert Walker) whose favorite mixture is whisky and nitroglycerin; and a wagon-driving double agent (Keenan Wynn)...