Verdict
Summary
A fun and easy to watch and digest drive-in style action film with exploitation elements, Texas Detour is exactly my speed for a movie of this breed. With a simple plot, attractive characters, easy-to-spot villains, and just enough action and sex / nudity to keep the wheels greased, it’s a winner in my book. I enjoyed it from the first frames to the last, and I don’t see how any true fan of films from the ’70s and ’80s could pass this one up because it’s a really good time at the movies.
Plot:
A charming stuntman is waylaid in a backwoods town when he’s carjacked.
Review:
Handsome, happy-go-lucky stuntman Clay (Patrick Wayne) and his younger siblings Dale (Mitch Vogel) and Sugar (Lindsay Bloom) are carjacked by three escaped convicts who rob them at gunpoint. Clay’s souped-up van is stolen, and they walk a ways until they’re picked up by a pockmarked-faced lanky stranger named Beau (Anthony James) who gives them a ride to his father’s estate in the backwoods somewhere. Beau’s father is a rich man named John (Cameron Mitchell) who runs a tight ship, but offers Clay and his siblings a job of cleaning up after his horses until the complacent sheriff in town (played by R.G. Armstrong) can locate Clay’s van. Clay immediately locks eyes with John’s gorgeous daughter Claudia (Priscilla Barnes) who is also immediately attracted to him, but with Beau setting his sights on Clay’s younger sister Sugar for a quick conquest, things get complicated when Beau rapes her. Clay wants justice, but knowing he can’t rely on the sheriff to do the job, he goes after him his way, but shows the creep mercy. When Beau is killed in a bar fight with no witnesses, Clay is arrested because he had the motive, and only Claudia can prove his innocence, but with her spiteful father believing Clay is his son’s killer, Clay and his posse are going to have to get creative and dangerous with their big escape from their Texas detour!
A fun and easy to watch and digest drive-in style action film with exploitation elements, Texas Detour is exactly my speed for a movie of this breed. With a simple plot, attractive characters, easy-to-spot villains, and just enough action and sex / nudity to keep the wheels greased, it’s a winner in my book. I enjoyed it from the first frames to the last, and I don’t see how any true fan of films from the ’70s and ’80s could pass this one up because it’s a really good time at the movies. Director Howard (Hikmet) Avedis did a commendable job with all this grindhouse lunchmeat.
Dark Force Entertainment has just released a nice Blu-ray edition of Texas Detour, coming in a solid high definition transfer. It’s been newly scanned in 4K from the 35mm camera negative, and it looks great. There’s a new commentary by some film historians as well.
