THE FIRST TEXAN—-boring 82 minutes of nonsense about Sam Houston (Joel McCrea) and the Texan Revolution of 1835-36.  One historical mistake after another, and no fun, either (the greatest sin).  With Felicia Farr, Jeff Morrow, Wallace Ford, Abraham Sofaer, Jody McCrea, William Hopper, Rodopho Hoyos, Roy Roberts, James Griffith.

The earlier Sam Houston biopic, 1939s  Man Of Conquest, with Richard Dix, is a bit better, whereas this 1956 slog takes the drama out of the desperate contest waged for the northernmost province of Old Mexico, and dulls the can’t-lose personalities of Houston, Bowie, Travis, Crockett, Santa Anna and “Andy ‘by-God’ Jackson“. Directed by Byron Haskin, who had done much better work.

If you want error-riddled movies on the events, stick with The Last Command and The Alamo: at least you’ll get some big bangs for your bucks. This one did gross $2,900,000.