and annoying sound track. this western simply sucks big time. the dialog, my, is one of the worst. audie's small mouth still bothered me a lot, his acting still not quite up to the level as lot of the other greater western actors in that era. the screenplay also is just so pretentious that sometimes i just felt it might not know how to continue. the annoying sound track didn't matching the scenes, just moronically played on and on. don't even know why this movie got to be shot in spain. those locally recruited actors were just bad as those non-talented b-movie guys today. but the worst of the worst i think was still the sound track and audie's lousy acting. there's nothing great or even worth talking about. so actually, i'm wasting my time here.

Wanted for murder, a Texas fugitive (Audie Murphy) has been living in Mexico, returning to America to even a score: the murder of his gun-less newspaper editor brother at the hands of brutal killer, Lucas Starr (Broderick Crawford). In the opening minutes, we get a good taste of exactly what kind of bastard Starr is as he shoots an unarmed man in cold blood, having his gunman blast a rider (a witness to Starr's criminal behavior, the "man who knew too much") in the back as he was given permission to ride his horse out of a relay station near a town of Rimrock (Crawford allows the victim to get a little ahead just so he could think he was about safe!). Shot in Barcelona, Spain, it gives this western an exotic Spaghetti western flavor, with Murphy able to escape the usual stock B-movie studio film. Laconic and steely-eyed as always, Murphy, even as he is thin and short, is appealing to me for those very unique features—somehow, even though he doesn't necessarily "look the part", Murphy, because we know of his heroism on the battlefield in war, manages to rise above what many would conceive as weaknesses in stature on screen. While not a man one would perceive as scary to outlaws and cutthroats based on his looks alone, because we know of his courage in real life, it translates on screen. Still, I like how he often had characters who made mistakes, were flawed and had dabbled in crime, yet contained a humanity and acceptance of responsibility for their actions, willing to admit fault and wanting forgiveness, Murphy's gunslingers achieved a level of sympathy. But without a solid heel, a real nasty villain to oppose him, I'm not sure Murphy's B-oaters would have the same appeal to me. I hope to see one of those in the future to judge for myself. This film does follow the traditional western story and the shootouts (particularly at the end) lack the "Leone touch" other Italian directors had adopted rather effectively (the use of the zoom lens, the quick cut editing showing how quick the anti-heroes are on the draw, the coverage of setting). Director Selander, despite instances where the film feels like it wants to be a spaghetti western, directs "The Texican" as close to a standard Audie Murphy film as possible. You always see him clutch the shot glass of whiskey, never drinking it, Murphy confronts his foes without cowardice, there's the unfair, let-it-all-hang-out barroom brawl where Murphy must take on more than one man (and win), the oft-used "investigation" where Murphy's flawed hero looks for the man who shot his brother in cold blood (a concho from a leather gun belt the evidence tying the murder to Crawford), the love interest (Diana Lorys) that develops for the aggressive Murphy who goes out of his way to court her, etc. For some reason, the final gunfight lacks oomph even when Murphy guns down three men "Man with No Name" style and goes into Crawford's saloon waiting to get a piece of his adversary's hide…it just lacks that va va voom we have come to expect in a western that builds to what should be an epic showdown. It kind of whimpers out. In actuality, this film pads a pretty simple story out using the Lorys romance (and Murphy's scenes with his dead brother's leather-repairing, cattle selling fiancé); the film really could be a one hour western episode of "Have Gun Will Travel" to tell you the truth. While his methods are cruel and heartless, Crawford seems uninspired here, going through the motions, maybe it is because he is in a western that kind of disappears into the crowd of 60s westerns, not solid enough to stand out in any way.

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.

Call me chauvinistic, but I really don't think Europeans ought to be doing westerns. Clint Eastwood being the exception, spaghetti westerns are the place where all good western stars go to end their careers. The western is the American original film genre and it ought to stay here.I think that's what Audie Murphy probably felt after doing this one. Audie did so much better work over here in the states. The Texican has Audie as a fugitive down in Mexico who hears that his straight arrow brother has been killed in a gunfight. The brother was a newspaper editor who never even carried a gun, but was doing some journalistic exposes of town boss, Broderick Crawford.Of course Audie's out for blood and I don't think I have to say any more, I'm sure you know how this one will go.Broderick Crawford was the only other name player in this film from the USA and purportedly he was drunk most of the time making The Texican. Not that Crawford needed much excuse to drink, he was one of Hollywood's legendary tipplers. The story goes that Murphy watered down Crawford's liquor so that he could get through the day's shooting.Sounds like a W.C. Fields routine, but I'm not sure Fields could have done much with The Texican.