The Town That Dreaded Sundown

Alternate titles : The Phantom Killer, Terror at Dusk.

Tagline : "In 1946 this man killed 5 people, today he still lurks the streets of Texarkana, Ark."

Based on actual events, this often overlooked B-movie attempts to recount the story of a serial killer, known as "The Phantom". Who stalked the lovers lanes, preying on courting couples, in the American town of Texarkana in the mid-1940's.

Its 1946 and most of "the boys" have returned home from World War 2 and are settling back into civilian life. The mid-western town of Texarkana was just a quiet farming town back then, so when the local police are called to investigate a brutal attack on a young couple by a man wearing a white hood, the town is shocked beyond belief.

Despite a massive manhunt operation by the police and sheriff's office, who even draught in the FBI to help, they fail to net the hooded killer who continues to strike at each full moon. Leaving a trail of dead teenagers in his wake.

Determined to crack the case, they bring in one of the country's top investigators, Captain Morales of the Texas Rangers, as played by Ben Johnson. But with the various law enforcement agencies patrolling the woods and back lanes, the killer continues to stay one step ahead of them, by switching tactics and attacking couples in their own homes.

Some of the sharper eyed viewers will notice similarities in the camera work between this and some of the earlier Friday the 13th films, which isn't surprising as the pre-hockey masked Jason in the second film was actually based on this character, right down to the white hood.

Told in a docu-drama style, complete with a narrator filling in between scenes, it should be noted that the truth has undoubtedly been stretched in paces. The scene with Officer 'spark-plug' Benson and the other patrolmen going out on stake-out duty dressed as women just seemed too ridiculous to be true and I can only assume was included for comic relief. In addition, those who are familiar with the real case will know that the end shoot out in this is entirely fictitious.

However, aside from this, the film still proves to be an interesting and somewhat chilling look at these real life crimes which terrified a town and still remain unsolved to this day.

Overall Marks : 6/10.

Terrifying Trivia

• The actual killings were dubbed by the press as "The Texarkana Moonlight Murders", owing to the killer always striking on a full moon.
• Director Charles Pierce and writer Earl Smith both have small roles in the film. The Director played the part of bungling officer "spark-plug" Bernson, whilst the Writer played the role of Dr Kress.
• The Phantom was played by stuntman Bud Davies, who had previously worked on "Race with the Devil". He was still working in the industry as a stunt-coordinator up until 2009 and amassed some 120 films to his credit.
• Ben Johnson, who played Captain Morales, was a regular in cowboy movies and TV shows, being a former rodeo performer and horse wrangler. Having appeared in films like "Will Penny", "Hang em High" and Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch". Other notable ppearances were in "The Mighty Joe Young" and "The Swarm".
• Andrew Prine, who played Deputy Ramsey, claimed he had to help write the ending as when they started production, the script didn't have one as they were unsure how to finish the film.
• Director Charles Pierce and writer Earl Smith also produced the 1972 docu-drama "Legend of Boggy Creek". They also worked together on the script for the Clint Eastwood film "Sudden Impact".
• Narrator Vern Stierman also did the commentary for Pierce's earlier film "Legend of Boggy Creek". He was actually working as a weatherman for the Texarkana-Shreveport NBC Affiliate Channel 6 when "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" was filmed
• Dawn Wells, who plays one of the final victims, had previously played "Ginger" in the US TV show "Gilligan's Island".
• The film was very hard to get hold of for many years, though released on video in the early 80s, it was never re-issued and so the only way to see this was the occaisional showing on late night TV. As a result, the film gained a huge cult following. It wasn't until 2013, with upcoming release of a remake/quasi-sequel, that the film finally was issued on Disc.
• Although no one was ever charged with the killings, a car thief named Youell Swinney was believed by the Police to have been responsible for the killings, as his wife, Peggy, supplied them with details about the murders only the police and the killer would know. But the only admissible evidence against him was circumstantial, so the Police instead charged him with felony car theft, as being a repeat offender, that qualified him for a Prison sentence under Texas law. He was subsequently given a life sentence, but served only 25 years before getting his case appealed and released at the age of 57. He was subsequently in and out of prison several times over the years for various offences, before he finally died in 1994 at the age of 77.

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