From Hell to Texas (1958)

A standard western, in which Don Murray plays Tod, who is wandering around looking for his long lost father, who abandoned him and his mother. He has recently gotten into trouble with local cattle baron Hunter Boyd(R.G. Armstrong), being blamed for killing his son Shorty. Tod claims that Shorty fell on his own knife. Apparently, they were fighting over something, we are never told what.Hunter and a posse of some of his hands plus his 2 remaining sons have been trailing Tod, who has stopped at a stream to check on his horse's leg. Hunter decides to stampede a herd of wild horses toward Tod. But this backfires, when Tod shoots his rife in the air several times, making them turn around and stampede toward Hunter's bunch. Another of Hunter's sons: Otis(Ken Scott)is badly injured, maybe fatally, trampled by the horses. A little later, Tod faces another brother: Tom, alone. Tod gets the drop on Tom, and tells him how the death of Shorty happened. Tom doesn't particularly believe it. Tod tells Tom to get on his horse and vamoose. Very strangely, Tod didn't take Tom's gun, so Tom shoots Tod's horse before leaving. Tod has to walk over rocky and flat desert to who knows where. Fortunately, he comes upon an elderly man(Chill Wills, as Amos Bradley) and his adopted daughter Juanita(Diane Varsi), by a stream with a hot spring nearby. Surprisingly, they quickly warm up to Tod, although Tod and Juanita have a humorous argument about taking a bath in the hot springs or stream. When Tod refers to her as a lady, she denies being such. She presents herself as an all around cowgirl: the equal of any man. Later, while Tod is sleeping, she sneaks over and kisses him, before quickly disappearing under her blanket...Just then, Hunter shows up with his gang, with an extra horse, saying Boyds don't shoot men's horses. Then, Hunter gives him 4 hours to clear out of this area. before they come looking for him. Tod has a gun battle in the rocks with one of Hunter's men, then encounters a grizzled trader(Jay Flippen, as Jake), who invites him to ride inside his wagon, after hearing his story. Pretty soon, a couple of Hunter's men are trailing behind, then hostile Comanche show up. We have a three way gunfight, while on the run. Tod stops at several other places, looking for his father. Eventually, he happens on the Bradley's house, and is invited in for dinner. Juanita had told her father about her feeling for Tod, thus the idea is to have them get to know one another better. After beating around the bush for a while, they have a couple of impressive kisses. Amos suggests Tod might like to stay on and help run the ranch. Tod accepts provisionally, but says he has to keep running from Hunter's bunch in the meanwhile.... I leave the final portion for you to see. The film is currently on YouTube.Anyone familiar with the Alabama Hills, used extensively in westerns and adventure films, will recognize them and the Sierras in the background, for part of the film. Other parts were filmed in Death Valley. The segment with the hot spring and stream was filmed in Inyo National Forest, near Mammoth Hot Springs. The central cat and mouse game between Hunter's bunch and Tod doesn't make much sense to me. Sometimes they desperately want to kill him. At other times, they just want to talk, like a cat playing with a mouse before eating it. Diane Varsi, as Juanita, and Don Murray, as Tod, seem to have difficulty expressing their attraction verbally. Diane lacks one ounce of the natural charisma of Margo, who plays her mother, with gusto. It's the standard formula: boy meets girl, girl hates boy initially, girl gradually warms up to boy, girl madly in love with boy.It's usually a treat to have Chill Wills and Jay Flippen play major secondary characters, and this film is no exception.

From Hell To Texas as cattle baron R.G. Armstrong on a mission. His eldest son was killed in a bar brawl, he fell on his own knife. But R.G. doesn't want to hear that. Armstrong has all his men out hunting Don Murray the young cowboy who was brawling with his son.For a guy who says he has scruples about killing people Murray does a pretty good job of taking care of business. Murray starts a horse stampede to elude Armstrong's men and another of his sons Ken Scott is killed. Now with only Dennis Hopper of his brood left, Armstrong's mission intensifies.Armstrong is the local Ben Cartwright, but Ben Cartwright would have a lot more good will and public opinion behind him then Armstrong can muster. In fact all kinds of people help in Murray's flight including Indian trader Jay C. Flippen and rancher Chill Wills who has six daughters at home with oldest Diane Varsi giving Murray the once over.Henry Hathaway directed this and keeps action and the interest going. From Hell To Texas is a good A budget western even without any really big western names in the cast. A good one for western fans.

I've seen a lot of westerns and just discovered this gripping film packed with everything one would expect from the genre of a excellent western. We follow Tod Lohman ( Don Murray ) an innocent cowpoke trying to escape being hunted like a animal by the ruthless land baron, Hunter Boyd ( R. G. Armstrong ) who will not except the fact that his son died by accident and is bent on killing Tod for a crime he did not commit. Boyd is accompanied by his not so swift son Tom and his loyal ranch hands. I cannot give a synopsis for this film, as it would spoil it for the reader if they are able to have a chance to view this underrated western gem. I will say it is a story filled with an excellent cast which includes Dennis Hopper in the role of Tom Boyd, the clumsy son, Chills Wills with the beautiful Diane Varsi playing his daughter Juanita and eventual love interest of Don Murray who gives a superb performance playing the hunted Tod Lohman. Add in other great character actors and magnificent cinematography along with a perfectly paced story line, packed full of riveting action and you have an above average man on the run western film. I was lucky to come across this little known film and highly urge the reader to seek this one out if you are a fan of films made during the heyday of Hollywood's western ride.

If you have an all-region DVD player, which costs less than $100, you may order a very fine anamorphic widescreen copy of this film from Amazon Italy.Don Murray, on the run after an accidental killing, eludes R.G. Armstrong and a very young Dennis Hopper in this stark western from Henry Hathaway. Along the way he meets a rancher and falls in love with the man's daughter. A fiery confrontation with the dead man's family finally brings closure to this violent chase story. Well developed characters not usually found in this genre.Hard to find and well worth the effort.