Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

FightingWesterner Wanted man Audie Murphy risks his life returning to Texas in order to avenge his newspaperman brother who was murdered by sleazy town boss Broderick Crawford and his number one hired killer Aldo Sambrell.Essentially American made, this is different than most U.S. helmed westerns shot in Spain in that it uses a primarily local crew and supporting cast, making it seem more like a real spaghetti western than other films Hollywood passed off in those days as Italian or Spanish made.Into the film's heavy atmosphere walks a strangely out of place Audie Murphy. Short, neat, clean-cut and all-American, he's the last person you'd expect to see in a dirty, gritty spaghetti western town. He's almost like a visitor from a parallel universe! That said, it is interesting to see him in something different.Fitting right in though is Crawford, playing the type of seedy character he built his Academy Award winning career upon and Aldo Sambrell, one of the most recognizable faces in European westerns, though virtually unknown by name.As a film, The Texican isn't the most memorable of the genre, but it's pretty good with a nice wind-swept finale.

revtg1-2 This is a good Audie Murphy western for one reason only; it is a spaghetti western. The writers didn't know Audie Murphy and did not write a western script FOR him. They wrote a western script. Unlike anything Hollywood ever did for Murphy,this script has a plot, a story, some depth and real characters. The only distractions, and they are not small, are the ridiculous whistleing sounds made by 45 Long Colt revolvers and the nagging, irritating background music. Where the Italians came up with the ridiculous idea that a 45 Long Colt revolver makes a whistling sound beats me. I know the sound of a 45 Long Colt. I own several. It is triple the sound of a Dodge 440 Magnum backfiring. They do not whistle. And the asinine, continuous, nagging, dragging music that is supposed to be dramatic but is just a pain in the butt. Whoever dreamed that up should have been sentenced to listening to railroad cars coupling and uncoupling continuously for twenty years and then forced to listen to their own "music" for another twenty. The only Audie Murphy western I think comes as close to being enjoyable as The Texican is Ride a Crooked Trail. And only because of the outstanding work done by Walter Matthau.

zardoz-13 A clean-cut Audie Murphy stars in veteran western director Lesley Selander's gritty shoot'em up "The Texican" as a man confined in exile in Mexico because the authorities have placed $500 dollars bounty on his head in Texas across the Rio Grande. In the first scene, Jess Carlin (Audie Murphy of "The Cimarron Kid") turns over a horse thief to an American lawman, U.S. Marshal Dick (Luis Induni of "The Mysterious Island of Captain Nemo"), who meets with him at a rendezvous point on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. Dick warns Carlin that as long as Carlin stays below the border that the law won't bother him. Initially, Carlin has no plans to cross over the border; he is cooling his heels in Mexico somewhat like Errol Flynn did in the 1945 Warner Brothers western "San Antonio." However, the idyllic paradise that Jess Carlin has grown accustomed to in the form of a pretty senorita, Elena (Marta May of "Seven Pistols for a Gringo") and a noisy little Mexican game of pitching stones at firecrackers on rocks to see who can set off the largest number retreats in his fond memories of the past after he learns from another American taking a siesta in Mexico that his upright, well-meaning brother Roy Carlin has been murdered.John C. Champion and Jose Antonio de La Loma never clearly indicate what our protagonist did to get himself exiled to old Mexico. Villainous Luke Starr framed him for something, but that something is left unspecified. One day a down-on-his-luck American tries to pay for his liquor with a double-headed coin and Pablo, an irate Mexican barkeep, nearly beats him to a pulp. Jess helps the cowboy recover. At this point, our peace-loving protagonist learns from the cowboy that his brother, crusading Clarion newspaper editor Roy Carlin (Victor Vilanova of "The Killer with a Thousand Eyes"), has died in a gunfight. In the previous scene, the thoroughly repugnant and unrepentant Luke Starr (Oscar winning actor Broderick Crawford of "All the King's Men") guns Jess Carlin's brother Roy down in cold-blood and then arranges things so that appears like Roy shot it out with another gunman. Actually, the other gunman could have cleared Jess of Luke's charges, but neither he nor Roy survive their secret rendezvous as a stagecoach station twelve miles out of Rimrock.Luke Starr's right-hand gunslinger Gil Rio (ubiquitous Spaghetti western star Aldo Sambrell of "Navajo Joe") guns down the other man. No sooner does Jess cross the border than a couple of bounty hunters descend on him. Jess wounds one, a bounty hunter who says he is after him because he needs money for his sick wife, and kills the other one outright. Later, that evening, three gunmen shoot up Jess' camp and he has to high-tail bare back on his horse to escape them. At an apparently deserted ranch, Jess leaves $40 for a saddle, but the owner Sandy Adams (Luz Marquez of "Three Sergeants of Bengal") catches him in the act. She relents when he explains his difficulty and then he rides into town. Since there is no law in the town run by Luke Starr, Jess doesn't have to concern himself with the authorities or bounty hunters. Jess and Luke circle each other for the remainder of this trim 81-minute horse opera lensed in Spain with a largely Hispanic cast. Eventually, Jess squares off with Luke's gunslingers on a main street shoot-out in a sandstorm and then he takes care of Luke.The sight of Audie Murphy riding across the arid plains of Spain to composer Nico Fidenco's first-rate orchestral western score in an above-average oater is enough of a reason to watch "The Texican." Selander directs in his usual style, letting the cast play out their roles in long shot so that we can see them in relation to one another. Selander takes advantage of the sprawling Spanish scenery and incorpoates it into the action, particularly when our hero displays his superb horsemanship skills by taking his animal down a steep ridge. The sets look authentic enough, and the wagons have the right size wheels on them. Were it not for some of the accents, you'd have no way of telling that this revenge western wasn't of the domestic variety. Some quotable dialogue enhances the action, and gravelly voiced Broderick Crawford is slimy villain who gets what he deserves in the end.

starracer007 Audie Murphy, the highest decorated U. S. soldier of WWII, gives a subtle and likable performance as Jess Carlin in the 1966 Spain-made spaghetti western, "The Texican", one of Murphy's last films.Although Murphy was awarded every medal for valor available by the United States Army for his incredible bravery in combat (the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, three Purple Hearts, among others) and is credited with the elimination of over 240 enemy soldiers, he was lightly regarded as an actor in Hollywood circles. Many of his performances were dismissed as "wooden" or "stoic". But in "The Texican", Murphy uses his two decades of action acting experience (almost exclusively as a Universal International contract player were he was a dependable money machine) to make this film entertaining and interesting to watch.Performing all of his own stunts, Audie rides like the wind (bareback in a chase scene!), fights ferociously, and shoots (regarded as one of if not the fastest draw in Hollywood) his way to avenge the murder of his newspaper publishing brother, Roy Carlin. In some excellent casting concerning physical similarities to Murphy, Victor Vilanova gives a strong performance as Roy Carlin. He holds his own and then some opposite Best Actor Oscar Winner Brodrick Crawford, who delivers a rather pedestrian performance as the movie's antagonist, Luke Starr, the corrupt kingpin of the Texas town called Rimrock.The movie's diamond in the rough is Diana Lorys, who plays bookkeeper Kit O'Neal, looking after her deceased father's interest in Starr's Silver Ring Hotel. Her acting is in fine emotional range from scornful to alluring, and as a result comes off as quite attractive. She is a definite plus for the film, and together with Murphy they generate a nice romantic electricity.Notable acting comes from Aldo Sambrell as the hired gun, Luz Marquez as Sandy Adams, and Gerald Tichy as Boyd Thompson.The script by John C. Champion and Jose Antonio de la Lama is tight and usually doesn't lag. It is somewhat choppily directed by Lesley Selander in a hurried fashion (not enough close ups as used so effectively by Sergio Leone), but he captures some fine steely-eyed looks from Audie during confrontational moments. More focus on the avenging aspect concerning character development was needed here. The locations in Spain are adequate to good and lend to that authentic Old West feel that made spaghetti westerns such a world-wide phenomenon. The musical score by Nico Fidenco is fairly good and avoids the copycat tones of Ennio Morricone that have marred many westerns. Changes that could have enhanced concern Murphy's wardrobe that is off the Gene Autry rack, and the cinematography by Francisco Marin is competent, but should have been more creative. The editing by Teresa Alcocer is pretty smooth. So, pop some corn and pull up a chair for some vintage Audie in "The Texican" !