Dad, mom and their two attractive young daughters find themselves stranded in the middle of the desert; kicked off their stage coach because the obnoxious and argumentative father got into it with the coach driver. When a desiccated preacher returns, after going out for help, with word that help is on its way, the family’s mood lifts a little. It lifts even further, at least for the ladies, when that help arrives in the person of Herbert, a handsome cowboy with a provocative proposition. He’ll lead the family out of the blazing desert sun…IF the father will give him permission to marry one of his daughters.
Such is the set-up for Tom Roush’s simple but wryly clever “Cowboys & Angels.” Well cast and blessed with solid photography that takes good advantage of its desolate, rugged setting, the film unfolds at a casual pace which fits its stranded characters. Even more important, it carries its tongue-in-cheek premise through to an almost perfect conclusion. Apparently, love worked a little differently in the Wild Wild West. If you were a cowboy who found an angel who handled whisky shots and beef jerky — and who had a kid sister — word spread fast.
