The Texican (1966)

Audie Murphy plays Jess Carlin, a former lawman now wanted in Texas who has settled down into a quiet life south of the border.

That quiet life ends when he gets news of his brother’s death.

That lures him north of the border, to the town of Rimrock, a town controlled by the iron fist of Luke Starr (Broderick Crawford).

Turns out his brother’s newspaper opposed Starr’s reign in Rimrock, leading Carlin to suspect Luke might have had something to do with his death.

But it’s only a suspicion, through Jess quickly finds himself at odds with Starr for an entirely different reason.

Both are quite taken with a fetching beauty named Kit O’Neal (Diana Lorys) — daughter of Starr’s late partner — and she obviously prefers Jess.

Review:

Straight-forward Spaghetti with none of the bizarre plot twists the genre was known for.

Check out the name of the director, and that’s not surprising. Lesley Selander made dozens of B Westerns in the states from the 1940s through 1960s, and this is more along the mold of his other mid-’60s Westerns like “Fort Courageous,” “Town Tamer” and “War Party.”

This marked the only Spaghetti for Murphy, one of only three for Crawford. On the other hand, Diana Lorys appeared in no fewer than 17. Filmed entirely in Spain.

Directed by:
Lesley Selander

Cast:
Audie Murphy … Jess Carlin
Broderick Crawford … Luke Starr
Diana Lorys … Kit O’Neal
Luz Marquez … Sandy Adams
Antonio Casas … Frank Brady
Antonio Molino … Harv
Aldo Sambrell … Gil Rio
Marta May … Elena
Helga Genth … Mrs. Maria Banta

Also with: Juan Antonio Peral, Carlos Hurtado, Víctor Israel, José María Pinillo, George Rigaud, Víctor Vilanova, Frank Brana, César Ojinaga, Vicente Soler, Emilio Rodriguez, Gaspar González, Carlos Miguel Solá, Ángel Lombarte, Manuel Quintana, Oscar Del Campo, Juan Carlos Torres

aka:
Texas Kid
Ringo il Texano

Score: Nico Fidenco
Song: “The Texican”

Runtime: 81 min.

Memorable lines:

Sandy to Jess: “Anyone who loses his saddle in open country is sure to lose his hide in Rimrock.”

Gil Rio: “You don’t like me much, do you?”
Jess: “I once stepped on a rattlesnake I liked better.”

Kit, after Jess has stopped her runaway carriage: “I made the mistake of telling the livery man I wanted spirited horses. His notion of spirited is quite different than mine.”

Roy Carlin, urging a man framed by Luke Starr to tell his story to the newspaper: “Once you’ve cut the head off a snake, you don’t worry about the rest of it. Do you?”
Framed man: “If you’re talking about Luke Starr, you’ve got a long way to go.”

Luke Starr to Jess Carlin: “You’re running on a streak of bad luck. Maybe you’d better get out of town before it gets worse.”

Kit O’Neal: “As far as I’m concerned, you’re nothing but a common gunman. And I shall thank you not to speak to me again.”
Jess Carlin: “That sounds reasonable.”
Whereupon he kisses her.

Gil Rio: “What are you doing Carlin, tryin’ to start trouble with me?”
Jess Carlin: “With you, that’d be no trouble at all.”

Luke Starr: “You know, we’ve all got our weaknesses. Mine is that I’m a bad loser.”
Jess Carlin: “You might have to get used to it.”
Starr: “I’ve got a better way. I fixed it so I always win.”

Trivia:

This marked the only Spaghetti Western for Audie Murphy, the former World War II hero who would die just five years later at age 47 in 1971 in a private plane crash.

Selander made just two more Westerns — “Fort Utah” (1967) and “Arizona Bushwackers” (1968) after this one before retiring with more than 100 films to his credit. He died in 1979 at age 79.

Crawford continued acting until the early 1980s. He died in 1986 at age 74. His other Euro Westerns were “Kid Rodelo” and “Mutiny at Fort Sharpe,” both released in 1966.

Diana Lorys as Kit O’Neal in a disagreement with Jess Carlin (Audie Murphy) in The Texican (1966)

Broderick Crawford as Luke Starr, defiant in the face of incriminating evidence in The Texican (1966)