The Texican
Wanted north of the border, Jess Carlin resides safely in Mexico. Then he hears his brother was killed in a gunfight with another man. Knowning his brother never carried a gun he heads north to find his brother's killer. After battling bounty hunters he arrives in Rimrock, a town controlled by Luke Starr. Starr is the man he wants but he unable to find any evidence until he is given an item found by his brother's body.
John Chard@John Chard
El Tejano.
The Texican is directed by Lesley Selander and written by John C. Champion and Jose Antonio de la Loma. It stars Audie Murphy, Broderick Crawford, Diana Lorys, Luz Marquez and Antonio Casas. A Technicolor/Techniscope production with music by Nico Fidenco and Robby Poitevin and cinematography by Francisco.
Murphy and Crawford find themselves in Spain making a Paella Western that quite frankly is for completists only. Plot essentially has Murphy as a man seeking the truth of what happened to his recently deceased brother. Crawford is the town bully, resplendent with scowls and henchmen, a collision course is inevitable.
It’s professionally enough mounted and has the requisite pasta flavourings; clumsy dubbing, parched vistas, catchy music, moral ambiguity and etc etc. it’s not a bad film by any stretch of the imagination, it’s just very lazy and not challenging, either narratively or for the named stars. In the traditional sense it’s a throwback to the American “B” Westerns of the 1950s, only it lacks zip for the action scenes and the stars are going through the motions. But fair credit to Murphy, he looks in great condition, as slick as ever, something which belies the problems he was having with his mental health off screen. Crawford on the other hand looks ill and fumbles through his dialogue with boredom evident.
Average fare here all told. 5/10