From Hell to Texas

A peaceful cowboy (Don Murray) who kills a man in self-defense is stalked across Texas by the man’s father, a powerful cattle baron (R.G. Armstrong). He is sheltered along the way by a gentle rancher (Chill Wills) and his daughter (Diane Varsi). This unheralded film, one of Hathaway’s very best, has much in common with Peckinpah’s work, but it has a hard-edged relentlessness of its own. From Hell to Texas features a raw, emotional performance from Dennis Hopper as Armstrong’s younger son. The legend goes that Hopper and Hathaway had an “artistic disagreement” resulting in dozens of takes, but if so, they got over it: they would work together twice more in the next decade. A 20th Century-Fox release.