The Texican on DVD, Adventure, Audie Murphy, Broderick Crawford

Excellent western … and Audie Murphy too !!!

The Texican, I enjoyed this film. The atmosphere is effective, Audie Murphy gives a good performance and the script is none too bad. The action is well handled and the supporting cast glowers and/or simpers in all the right places. The loss of two stars is down to the dreadful performance of Broderick Crawford as the ‘heavy’. He sleepwalks through his role and appears to be ‘worse for wear’ at times. It’s a pity Audie died so young because he was lined up to play Scorpio in ‘Dirty Harry’. That could have taken his career into a new direction which, for fans like me, would have been exciting. Audie delivered some great performances, notably in ‘Red Badge of Courage’ and ‘No Name on the Bullet’, and carried numerous routine westerns on his back, lifting them to a level of enjoyment rarely seen in oaters. The only other actor able to do this regularly in low budget westerns was the great Randolph Scott. Audie held his own opposite acting giants like Jimmy Stewart, Michael Redgrave and Burt Lancaster …. it would have been interesting to see him up against Randolph.

Good ,but not great, Audie Murphy western.

Although this movie was made in Europe with a predominately Spanish cast, you can tell this movie was made with stateside distribution in mind.Especially when you have Audie Murphy and Broderick Crawford in the leading roles.Good story about a fugitive who crosses back into the United States from Mexico to avenge his brother’s death and clear his own name.This movie was directed by one of my favorite western directors, Lesley Selander.It has great widescreen photography. The dubbing of the supporting actors is better than usual.Far from original, but fast moving and well acted.Not as good as “No Name On The Bullet” or “Night Passage”, but worth a look.