A Small Town in Texas

Even within its own and secluded subgenre (that genre being the good ol' boy hixploitation), "A Small Town in Texas" is a largely unremarkable and utmost derivative effort. The film has all the mandatory ingredients, like corrupt sheriffs, bluegrass music and virulent car chases, but the plot is overly simplistic, and the three lead characters are weak and unmemorable. Timothy Bottoms has zero charisma as the ex-con on the run for the corrupt Sheriff who wants to frame him for murder. The Sheriff, as played by Bo Hopkins, is alright, but not nearly as grim and menacing as the rotten lawmen in other contemporary semi-classics. Susan George is a lovely woman and a more than decent actress, but she one major handicap for starring in this film. She's far too British to depict a Texan local gal and can't really hide her accent. The makers must have noticed this as well, since she doesn't have many significant lines. The undisputed highlight of the film is a random but outrageous appearance by George 'Buck' Flower - who else - as the sneering Uncle Bull. "A Small Town in Texas" certainly isn't a total waste of your precious time, but there are much better and equally obscure hixploitation classics out there to discover (notably "Moving Violation", "Jackson County Jail", "Poor Pretty Eddy", "....tick...tick...tick", "Nightmare in Badham County", etc")

I would be lying through my teeth if I said I knew anything about Director Jack Starret. Never heard of him, but must admit that he does not do a bad job of A SMALL TOWN IN TEXAS.

To that end he is helped by a strong cast including Timothy Bottoms - then riding the tail end of his six-year stardom flash beginning with LAST PICTURE SHOW and JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN in 1971, and continuing with THE PAPER CHASE in 1973 - the stunningly sexy British actress Susan George entering her own decline, and Bo Hopkins with yet another striking support part, after THE WILD BUNCH seven years earlier. This time he is not loud, he is just a quietly corrupt copper.

The script by William Norton is this film's weakness. The characters fall well shy of fleshed, dialogue is uneven.

Strong, competent cinematography and editing, by Jessup and Horger respectively.

This movie was a cross between BILLY JACK, DUKES OF HAZZARD and that's it. It was a fun movie. Tim Bottoms is always a good person to watch act. The ending was sudden and typical of that decade of movies.

If it's on, see it.

This obscure (to me anyway) film has a lot of problems. All the characters are either one dimensional, annoying, or cliched. It's overlong, boring, and has a script that spends the first half meandering around endlessly, then gets hopelessly predictable.

In its defence I will say that it is less dated than many films from the 1970s, and is occasionally entertaining or amusing (mainly me laughing at the dolts who populate this film). And its handful of action scenes are decent...though I suspect they may seem better than they really are because even the most inept stunts would seem exciting compared to the generally mundane tone of the film.

You could do worse, but you could do much better too.

Haven't seen this movie for well over 20 years, when I was only about 12. Even at such a young age, I picked up on the fact that the realism of the town depicted is extremely far-fetched; the police department in a town of this size (remember, this is a "Small" Town in Texas) would have a fleet of 6 or 8 vehicles at the most, yet in the big chase scene there are local police cars by the score, probably a hundred plus. That is my #1 memory of the film. A much better flick is "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" with Dennis Quaid. Although the protagonist in "Georgia" is not a native of the town in which the story takes place, the basic plot of "bad-guy lawman tries to bully damsel away from our hero" is very similar to "Small Town in Texas." I recall the Dennis Quaid movie as the better of the two, and that doesn't say much!*!