There's enough of a story line and quite enough action to lift this Western above the average B programmer, but as another reviewer on this board points out, this one's not going to make it as a main eventer. What you have is a broad outline of the arguments, pro and con, of Texas becoming a part of the United States. Set in 1945 with Texas facing annexation, elements arise to conspire against that eventuality, with power brokers, led by Tom Craden (Broderick Crawford), attempting to set up their own Republic - "Why should we give up an empire just for statehood"?

For purposes of history, Clark Gable's character Deveraux Burke winds up on the right side of the story, but it's made fairly clear he's in it for personal gain as much as Craden is for his side. Between the two frontiersmen stands Martha Ronda (Ava Gardner), a journalist who seems to take on the character of her newspaper as the Austin Blade.

History buffs will likely relate to the character of Andrew Jackson, portrayed here by Lionel Barrymore. Pro-Union as they come, I was left scratching my head trying to figure out how his housekeeper Minnie (Beulah Bondi) beat Dev Burke to Austin. And for all of the emphasis given to Sam Houston's (Moroni Olsen) importance in deciding which way Texas would go, the character has only a minor on-screen presence in the story.

With all that, the picture is fairly watchable with a good mix of action, adventure, and the inevitable romantic entanglement among the principals - Gable, Gardner and Crawford. Others on this board have expressed a necessary suspension of disbelief with the conclusion to the story, but what the heck, haven't we seen that before?

If you watch this movie anticipating a Western B-movie, you won't be disappointed. There's action and romance a-plenty. However, if you realize that this was an A-picture and you hold the film to a higher standard, then you will be disappointed. This film is at best an average Gable film, in that the plot is VERY tired--looking like so many characters Gable played before. In fact, he is a very close variation on Rhett Butler--a cynical Southerner who is only looking out for himself (so he says), but ends up doing the right thing when the chips are down. Yes, there certainly is nothing new here.

As far as other performances go, Ava Gardner is at her best. Broderick Crawford, though, does not come off nearly as well because his character is awfully stupid--especially at the end of the film. And, the utter stupidity of the end of the film is a major problem. One minute Crawford and his men are shooting up the town trying to kill everyone and the next all is forgiven and it's off too fight the Mexicans! Huh?! I truly hate clichéd, slapped on endings! There are many better Gable films out there. My advice is see them first and then give Lone Star a try.

This big budget Western deals with cattle baron Deveraux (Clark Gable) who his assigned by Andrew Jackson (Lionel Barrymore) to convince Sam Houston for union Texas to United States . A fiery newspaper editor (Ava Gardner) is the woman between Deveraux and the bad guy , Craden (Broderick Crawford) . Deveraux must fight state senators (Crawford , Ed Begley , Russell Simpson) for union to United States.

This exciting picture about Texas fights for independence contains Western action , drama , historical happenings , a love story and results to be quite entertaining . Based on a screenplay by Borden chase , a Western expert . Gorgeous Ava Gardner as an intrepid journalist as well as Clark Gable's love interest . Film debut for George Hamilton and secondary acting by William Conrad and Ed Begley . The motion picture was well directed by Vincent Sherman . Also available in horrible computer colorized version .

It's partially based on historical deeds about Texas independence, these are the followings : With Mexican permission Stephen Austin brought the first Anglo-American colonists to Texas, the first of many, their numbers grew and they wanted self-government and this desire led to the revolt of 1835, the Texas war for Independence. General Santa Anna, stormed the Alamo, and wiped out the garrison on 6 March 1836. But on 21 April 1836 General Santa Anna suffered a crushing defeat by Sam Houston and was taken prisoner. Texas was declared a Republic in October 1836 and Houston became its first president. In 1845 Texas joined the US, this lead to war with Mexico and disastrous results for that country. Samuel Houston(1793-1863)well performed by Moroni Olsen, was a frontiersman and politician , he went to live with the Cherokees and took a Cherokee wife. After the fall of the Alamo, he managed to keep together a small force and launched a furious surprise attack on the Mexican army of 1300 camped on the western bank of the San Jacinto River. With Texas free and independent republic, Houston was elected the first president. When Texas was admitted to the United States in 1845, Houston was a senator to Washington.