The Sunday Afternoon Western: The Texican (Region 1)
Two years after Clint Eastwood made A Fistful of Dollars in Italy Audie Murphy went to Spain to make this revenge western but while Clint helped to reinvent the genre for the modern era Murphy was still playing the conventional cowboy hero complete with white hat.
It’s a simple story - Jess Carlin (Murphy) returns to the town he was driven out of by Luke Starr (a past his prime Broderick Crawford) when he hears that his brother has been killed in a gunfight, I bet you already guessed that Crawford’s the man who killed him, right? Throw in a little romance with Kit O’Neal (Spanish actress Diana Lorys) a lady Crawford also has his eye on (the dirty old man) and that’s about it for the plot.
I’ve always liked Audie Murphy but he was never the greatest actor in the world and rarely got the chance to break out of the western hero stereotype, The Quiet American and No Name on the Bullet being rare exceptions. Here, with just two films left before his untimely death, he seems to have accepted his lot and gives a workmanlike performance as Jess Carlin.
Crawford on the other hand was an Oscar nominated actor but by this stage of his career (he was in his mid 50’s) he couldn’t convince as a fast gun let alone as a romantic rival to Murphy. He’s clearly only there for the money and possibly some Spanish sunshine and sleepwalks through most of the film.
Director Lesley Selander was a western B movie veteran who’d been churning out oaters since the late 30’s. He probably enjoyed the change of scenery shooting in Spain provided and makes the most of the location but this is just one in a long line of by-the-numbers westerns with nothing to make it stand out from the crowd.
The film is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio but the picture lacks clarity, although some of the blame may be down to the low budget nature of the film. The sound is mono and presents the terrible dubbing clearly enough.
There are no extras.
