I'd never even heard of this case until seeing this film, and from viewing the Wikipedia article they pretty much got the facts straight, down to the name of the legendary Texas Ranger who came in to head the investigation after the local Texarkana police realized they had a serial killer with no motive on their hands.
I like how the film in the beginning takes the time to set up the atmosphere in Texarkana - heck, all across America - immediately postwar. There were plenty of jobs, people were optimistic, there was great growth in the need for houses and a marriage boom following the men coming back from overseas, yet Texarkana retained its small town charm.
The killer escalates in violence and bravado with each attack until he is almost caught, and then disappears as suddenly as he appeared. When the killer is attacking, you just see a homemade mask made from a sack over his head, and he never speaks, but his heavy breathing is scarier than anything he could say. When the film is insinuating that the killer is around town, hiding in plain sight, just a pair of shoes are shown. He carried a blunt instrument because he seemed to enjoy the act of bludgeoning and causing pain, but he also carried a gun in case he had to kill quickly.
Ben Johnson does a great job of portraying legendary Texas Ranger J.D. Morales, but I imagine law enforcement even in a big city would be hard pressed to solve what at that time was such an uncommon crime - a man who killed complete strangers just for the joy of inflicting pain. There were no FBI profilers, no DNA, criminal forensics was in its infancy. Thus nobody knows if the killer died, went to prison, or just "stopped".
The one thing I DID notice - and that is completely forgivable given the film's B pedigree - is that the women's hairstyles were often very 70s for this to be 1946. Part documentary, part suspense film, I'd recommend this one.
I like how the film in the beginning takes the time to set up the atmosphere in Texarkana - heck, all across America - immediately postwar. There were plenty of jobs, people were optimistic, there was great growth in the need for houses and a marriage boom following the men coming back from overseas, yet Texarkana retained its small town charm.
The killer escalates in violence and bravado with each attack until he is almost caught, and then disappears as suddenly as he appeared. When the killer is attacking, you just see a homemade mask made from a sack over his head, and he never speaks, but his heavy breathing is scarier than anything he could say. When the film is insinuating that the killer is around town, hiding in plain sight, just a pair of shoes are shown. He carried a blunt instrument because he seemed to enjoy the act of bludgeoning and causing pain, but he also carried a gun in case he had to kill quickly.
Ben Johnson does a great job of portraying legendary Texas Ranger J.D. Morales, but I imagine law enforcement even in a big city would be hard pressed to solve what at that time was such an uncommon crime - a man who killed complete strangers just for the joy of inflicting pain. There were no FBI profilers, no DNA, criminal forensics was in its infancy. Thus nobody knows if the killer died, went to prison, or just "stopped".
The one thing I DID notice - and that is completely forgivable given the film's B pedigree - is that the women's hairstyles were often very 70s for this to be 1946. Part documentary, part suspense film, I'd recommend this one.