Terror in a Texas Town (1958) User Reviews

One of the strangest and most compelling westerns America has ever produced

[tomgillespie2002 · 7/10 · 19 September 2017]

While the eye-catching poster promises "Iron Hooked Fury!" and pitting a harpoon against a six-gun, the curiously forgotten B-movie western Terror in a Texas Town, directed by Joseph H. Lewis, is a positively downbeat little movie. Starting with a handsome, square- jawed hero walking into battle with a clad-in-black gunslinger, it appears at first glance that we are on familiar ground. But the film then flashes back, and all the western tropes we had been expecting are subtly subverted, similar in many ways to Nicholas Ray's groundbreaking masterpiece Johnny Guitar four years previous. The screenwriter is credited as Ben Perry - a name you'll likely be unfamiliar with. Yet this was in fact a front for Dalton Trumbo, the great Oscar-winning writer who was then under scrutiny from Senator McCarthy and blacklisted from Hollywood. With this knowledge, the oddness of Terror in a Texas Town suddenly makes sense.

In the - you guessed it - small Texas town of Prairie City, the hard-working farmers earning little from their land are struggling to fight off the advances of the unscrupulous land baron McNeil (Sebastian Cabot), who is using his wealth and influence to buy up the whole area for reasons not immediately clear. Some of the townsfolk are playing hard-ball, refusing to give their homes and livelihood to a man they never see. So McNeil brings in tough-as- nails gunslinger Johnny Crale (an outstanding Nedrick Young), a broken career-criminal who is happy to caress his pistol whenever a deal doesn't go his way. He murders Swede Sven Hansen (Ted Stanhope) when he refuses to sign a contract. A day later, his sailor son George (Sterling Hayden) arrives to greet the father he hasn't seen in over a decade, only the learn of his murder and that the land left to him is now the property of a greedy businessman.

It quickly becomes clear that the hero-versus-villain showdown the opening scene promised us will be nothing like we expected. The dashing American hero is in fact an immigrant without the skills of a quick-draw or the wits to take on McNeil on his own, and the black leather-donning Crale may just be in the midst of developing a conscience after years of killing and the loss of his gun hand. What makes Terror in a Texas Town so interesting is the way it merely hints at the two central characters' personalities and past, leaving these could-be archetypes as intriguing enigmas. Trumbo makes a point of highlighting the ranchers' ignorance of McNeil's Machiavellian role in the events, choosing instead to focus their hatred on the muscle. It isn't difficult to imagine that Trumbo's exile and unforgivable treatment at the hands of his own country didn't influence this apparently off-the-conveyor-belt B-picture. It has been unfairly forgotten by the decades, but Terror in a Texas Town is ripe for re-discovery as one of the strangest and most compelling westerns American has ever produced.

Low-budget film raises disturbing questions

[Igenlode Wordsmith · 8/10 · 16 February 2002]

There's a lot more to this little Western than the cheap thrills the title might suggest. The film itself may have been made in black and white, but the off-beat story is shot through with shades of moral grey. Indeed, I'm not sure that it would be entirely baseless to describe it as an implicit indictment of US society.

This picture uses familiar Western stereotypes - the corrupt sheriff, the land-greedy tycoon, the sinister hired gun - in a depiction that subtly undercuts much of the entire genre. I don't think it's too far-fetched to see the long shadow of McCarthy over the townspeople who allow themselves to be cowed and driven off one at a time, only to turn at last as a mob not on the man who bribed their silence, but on the outsider employed as a tool to do his dirty work.

(Having just read the IMDB entry for this film and discovered that the scriptwriter was himself blacklisted by the McCarthy regime, I'm now almost certain I was not imagining this!)

The whole story is framed by that final confrontation and the flashbacks (?flash-forwards?) that follow under the opening titles. After all, it's not every Western that features a man walking the length of Main Street to face down his father's killer... with a harpoon. This one *opens* with that image!

But as we catch up with the flash-back scenes in real-time we soon realise that things are not as they seem. This is no standard Western, there are no stand-up gunfights and no galloping horses; the only quick-draw we see is performed under duress as a humiliating party-trick. Virtue is not rewarded and those who make a stand on principle only suffer thereby. The hired killer is an aging gunman whose trade has lost him the use of his good right hand; the dogged hero is no cowboy or plains drifter but a seaman from a Swedish whaler, and the script makes it very clear just what value he can place on American justice.

Inexorably, driven by the sinister jaunty little tune of the theme music, the story winds on until we reach again that final face-down - and now the close-ups make sense, and they are not what we thought they were. That man with the moustache is not the sheriff; that blonde is not the hero's girl; the crowd is not spilling out of a saloon.

And it is not any longer, for me at least, the clear-cut question of good and evil the genre has led us to expect. When it is all over - when the shots are called and the dice are down - the crowd pours past the Swede without a backward glance. Society doesn't want to know; doesn't want to face its own complicity. It wants a scapegoat to sacrifice, and for life to go on.

Morally, this film is very far from black and white. If it is a B-movie, then it is by far more unsettling than the vast majority of cheap and cheerful productions made in that budget. I cannot imagine what its intended audience must have made of it. Am I the only viewer to find myself drawn as much to the cold-blooded, isolated 'villain' as to the nominal hero?

A great, cluelessly forgotten, 50s Western from a B-Movie genius.

[alice liddell · 8/10 · 6 September 1999]

When people discuss the Western in the 50s, the richest decade of the genre, they invariably cite Anthony Mann, Budd Boetticher, THE SEARCHERS or RIO BRAVO . Only the specialised, however, will single out Joseph H. Lewis. A LAWLESS STREET electrifies a banal story with inventive technique. TERROR, though, is something else. I have watched hundreds of Westerns, and I can safely say that this is the most remarkable pre-Peckinpah/Leone effort I've seen. It may not be as rich as the above-mentioned, but its formal daring is unparalleled.

Like Mann, Lewis came to the Manichean world of the Western from film noir, a genre defined by its moral ambiguity. The opening sequence is the most astonishing of any Western (except THE WILD BUNCH, of course), and cleverly complicates everything that follows. It starts with the shoot-out, an innovative device, but one of the combatants carries a large pike. His opponent, face unseen, taunts him. The scene is highly charged, even if we don't know why.

The result of this sequence is cut, and we get the opening credits, featuring an elliptical series of scenes, some lyrically pastoral, others brutally violent, none making any narrative sense because we don't know the story yet. The film proper hurtles us into a violent arson attack. So in the first five minutes, the viewer is assaulted by sensation and violence. There are none of the reassuring signifiers of the traditional Western - noble music (the score here is as bizarre, inventive and parodic as any Morricone spaghetti); John Wayne or Henry Fonda above the title; contextually explanatory intertitles. We have no idea what is going on, we are left staggered, breathless, excited, reeling.

What follows is an explanation of these events. But the unforgettable effect lingers, and colours what seems to be a traditional Western story - big business trying to muscle in on small farmers. The most interesting figure is not the hero, Sterling Hayden, a gentle man forced by circumstance to find savage violence in himself (and saddled with a ridiculous, faltering Swedish accent, but little character), but the villain. In many ways he is the archetypal baddie - dressed in black, a gun for hire, snarling, brutal with women. But he is also a complex psychological portrait - a once great shot, now a cripple, lush and impotent. The familiar story is subverted to become the tragedy of an evil man. The film's surface detective element - who killed Hayden's father - is subsumed thematically by the investigation into this fascinating character (we know early on who killed him anyway).

Stylistically, Lewis turns the Western, traditionally about open spaces, new frontiers, hope, escape, into a bitter male melodrama about entrapment, failure and death. The stark, clear visuals are as beautiful and aesthetically exciting as THE OX-BOW INCIDENT, another morbid masterpiece. The disturbing editing, and exagerrated compositions seem to belong more to Nouvelle Vague deconstructions than a Hollywood Western. Almost as awesome as GUN CRAZY, this is provocative proof that Lewis was a great director.

A tawdry "High Noon" but vivid and powerful archetypes at work

[secondtake · 6/10 · 5 March 2011]

Terror in a Texas Town (1958)

The first five minutes of this movie is fabulous a play of archetypes, with a showdown, some cattle breaking free and stampeding, a raging fire, and some close ups of sad faces lit by the flames. In fact, in the wide screen black and white, it seems most of all like a precursor to the spaghetti Westerns, dramatic and just a hair "arch" in its excess, music, photography, acting and all. It all takes place in a little Texan town called Prairie City.

This is a great movie right off the bat, but it isn't sustained. It tries too hard sometimes, and unlike "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" it talks too much for its own good. There is an overweight bad man (Sebastian Cabot of all people) who has a maniacal laugh, a tough guy gunslinger (Ned Young) with a fast draw and a metal arm, and there is a stoic good guy (Sterling Hayden) who depends on his stoicism and morality to stand up against them. Men are strong, women are to be kept in bed (or so the gunslinger tells his dame), and life is hard. In addition to the wood frame one street town and the hardworking farmers there is the discovery of oil, and lots of it, an appropriate twist in this final chapter of the Wild West.

The director is a favorite of mine, Joseph H. Lewis ("Gun Crazy" and "The Big Combo" both precede this one), and it has some of the same crudely cut archetypes and stiff dialog. But this is part of the style (he surely knew what he was doing), and adds to the blunt force of the story. There are moments of raw and brutal violence and sections of peaceful bucolic life. People are oddly realistic even if the movie isn't. This is a kind of warm up to about fifty episodes of a classic television show called "The Rifleman" that Lewis directed, playing with simple stories well told but quickly arranged. Sam Peckinpah initiated that show, and we can see some back and forth influence between the two directors.

It is a bit odd to hear Sterling Hayden with a Swedish accent. He plays a kind of simple fellow, but good hearted, and neither quality is exactly useful in this rough town. Hayden ends up a caricature, and not a good one. He is filled with such strained affectations, and he plays a "good" person, but he doesn't sweep you into his cause because he's just plain weird. But of course he prevails, and the last five minutes is much like the first, and you see that justice is sometimes the hardest thing to achieve but you have to keep trying anyway. It's a strain, but an archetypal one.

Hiring It Done

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 30 January 2006]

In El Dorado John Wayne has occasion to remark to Ed Asner that since he doesn't carry a gun himself he hires it done. And then the Duke went on to make some remarks about the quality of his help.

But the reverse of the coin is when who you hire is too good for you to argue with. That was the problem that Sebastian Cabot has with Ned Young, a brooding killer who he hires to intimidate some farmers to get off land that unbeknownst to them has oil. It was at the end of the frontier days and the great oil discoveries that were to make Texas and oil synonymous were just being discovered.

One guy who won't be pushed is a Swedish farmer who Young kills. His son played by Sterling Hayden comes to town asking questions. Like Hayden in real life, the son is a seaman who's strange in that western environment. He carries no gun, but only a harpoon from his seafaring days.

By this time Hayden was ready to leave Hollywood for Tahiti and was just trying to earn enough money to sail there with his kids. He'd been a friendly witness at the House Un American Activities Committee It must have been a bit strained on the set because the screenplay was by Dalton Trumbo, one of the Hollywood Ten. Trumbo was still writing under pseudonyms though.

Hayden walks through his role, the real acting here is done by Ned Young and Sebastian Cabot. Both of them are a pair of hateful people, Cabot the greedy capitalist and Young the stone killer.

Western fans won't be disappointed however, especially at the final confrontation at the end.

This movie brings a harpoon to a gunfight.

[JasonZ · 6/10 · 15 March 2013]

This movie is probably most well known for the unusual choice of weapon used by the hero in the final showdown, but as fun as that is, there's more to this movie than that. The plot is not complicated or even very original, and there are slow patches, but it has enough unique elements in it to keep the viewer interested.

As in many westerns, the characters in this movie are archetypes. When confronted with a choice of action, the viewer can usually correctly predict what the characters will do. This could have been a bad thing, but the writing in this movie is intelligent enough to present the characters with choices that are not always clear-cut. For the good characters, sometimes the choice comes down to picking the lesser of two evils; interestingly, the same is true for the bad characters as well.

Despite their archetypal nature, there is room for character development. In a scene near the end of the movie with no dialogue or action, the viewer is presented with a still life of a room, and from what is shown on screen and the character development that has occurred, we can tell what happened, why, and what the situation is now for the hero.

Overall, an entertaining, non-standard western with some above average writing, and worth a viewing.

Truly unique

[johnbmoore · 9/10 · 27 May 2011]

This strange, surreal film is unique among westerns of the era. While it contains most of the standard western clichés, every cliché has a twist. The music is bizarre and often doesn't seem to fit, but that just adds to the offbeat feel. The acting is odd but perfectly suited to the film. Hayden's take on a Swedish accent and speech patterns bounces from realistic to annoying to non-existent, but his performance is excellent, as is Cabot's. The story is riddled with moral dilemmas that give it surprising depth. Don't be fooled into thinking this is just another B western. This movie has a quality that is difficult to describe. Strangely great.

Pretty good Western with usual ingredients : a loner hero , fast draw , street shootout and surprising final confrontation

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 12 November 2021]

Peace-loving Sven Hanson is one of a number of farmers whom Ed McNeil (Sebastian Cabot) wants to run off their land because he knows there's oil on it . While McNeil's gunfighter , Johnny Crale (Nedrick Young) commits grisly killings against villagers and countrymen . Then , Hanson's friend Pepe Mirada (Victor Millan) hides his knowledge of the killer's identity in order to protect his family . When George Hanson (Robert Mitchum) arrives in Prairie City and takes up his dad's cause , not only Mirada but also Johnny Crale start changing their minds . When the Texas Plains Ran With Blood and Black Gold! Harpoon against Six-Gun! A savage duel!..For The Black Gold That Flowed Under The Blood-Drenched Land! Harpoon against Six-Gun !...in the most savage duel the ever ripped the Texas.

An interesting time-passer , where snappy and engaging dialog run through-out . This notable , meaty Western contains attractive plot , intrigue , a fine ensemble cast , along with a non-traditional , minimalistic soundtrack and resulting to be entertaining enough . It starts with the opening credits : The characters and incidents portrayed and the names used herein are fictitious and any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely accidental and unintentional . Outstanding Western balances action , suspense and drama ; being probably one of the strangest Western in the fifties and sixties . It's a classical recounting about a strange visitor who is really an expert harpoon thrower surrounded by cowards and frightening people . The highlights of the film are the climatic shootouts , and , of course , the final showdown between the harpoonist and the gunslinger . The traditional story and exciting screenplay was well written by Dalton Trumbo , who often used pseudonyms as Ben Perry or Millard Kauffman , that's why he had been blacklisted as a subversive , being pursued by House Un-American Activities Committee o House Committee on Un-American Activities or HUAC during the McCarthy Red Scare time . The enjoyable tale is enhanced for interesting moments developed among main characters and especially on the peculiar relationships among the main characters played by Robert Mitchum , Nedrick Young , Carol Kelly and Sebastian Cabot . Magnificently performed by Robert Mitchum as a Swedish whaler is out for vengeance when he finds out that a greedy oil man murdered his father for their land , while their enemies start reevaluating their attitudes . Mitchum is an awesome expert in the art of conjuring sensational acting without overacting , here he's joined with other nice players , in this atypical but thought-provoking western with a lot of reflection , distinguished moments and dramatical attitudes , in addition a multitude of entertaining situations . Top-notch plethora of secondary actors playing vicious, sadistic sociopaths who take advantage of the frightened townspeople , such as Sebastian Cabot and Nedrick Young . Furthermore , the unknown Carol Kelly , Eugene Martin and the regular secondary Frank Ferguson .

A well made film with perfect cinematography in black and white by Ray Rennahan . As well as atmospheric , exciting musical score by composer by Gerald Fried , it is competently performed , no strings or other big orchestra elements , but consisting of mostly solo horn , trumpet , tympanic sounds , acoustic guitar and percussion. Masterfully directed by Joseph H Lewis who chooses all the right angles for a real impact and never puts a wrong foot . Lewis was a B craftsman who directed a lot of films of all kinds of genres with a penchant for Noir movies, with his masterpiece : Gun Crazy , as he made Drama, Thriller, Action, Western , such as Terror in a Texas town, 7th cavalry, The Halliday brand, A lawless street, Cry of the hunted, Retreat hell, Desperate search , A lady without passport, The undercover man, So dark the night, My name is Julia Ross, The mad doctor of Market Street, The gang of mine and his greatest hits were The Big Combo and Gun Crazy . Rating 7/10. Better than average . Essential and indispensable watching for Robert Mitchum fans and Western aficionados .

Gritty Western Noir Worth Checking Out

[FightingWesterner · 9/10 · 19 December 2009]

When oil is discovered on the properties of peaceful homesteaders, fat-cat Sebastian Cabot sends his one-handed gunman to terrorize them into leaving. When stubborn Swedish whaler Sterling Hayden's father is killed by them, he takes on the bad guys with only a harpoon and the truth!

The premise is a bit familiar but the story is artfully told with great acting by all involved. Hayden plays an offbeat, interesting, and unconventional western hero and Cabot is a wonderfully sleazy villain. However, Academy Award winning screenwriter Nedrick Young gives the film's best performance as Cabot's vile hired killer.

Entertaining from start to finish, this is a really compelling low-budget movie that really knows what buttons to push, especially as Hayden tries to get his neighbors to break their fearful code of silence.

The final showdown, glimpsed in the opening scene, is both memorable and exciting

A Grade A Western B-Movie

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 7 July 2017]

A Swedish whaler (Sterling Hayden) is out for revenge when he finds out that a greedy oil man (Sebastian Cabot) murdered his father for their land.

Fans of Sterling Hayden know that he specialized in westerns and film noir, such as "Johnny Guitar", "The Asphalt Jungle", and "The Killing". This is a strong role for him, although the attempt at a Swedish accent is not always pleasant for the ears. Notably, this was the final film from director Joseph Lewis, perhaps best known for "Gun Crazy". Like Hayden, he was best associated with westerns and film noir, often making what would be described as B-movies.

The script was written by Dalton Trumbo (under a pseudonym) with an obvious debt to "High Noon" and a possible nod to the Swede played by John Wayne in "The Long Voyage Home" (1940). The harpoon also may have come from John K. Butler's short story "Death on the Hook" (1937). But this is merely speculation. Much like "High Noon", this film is steeped in the Red Scare, though in a much more real and less symbolic fashion. Trumbo was notoriously blacklisted, of course. Actor Nedrick Young (all dressed in black) was just beginning to get back on his feet after years on the blacklist. Interestingly, star Sterling Hayden had been "naming names"; the star of the film, in other words, was on the opposite side of the issue as his on-screen nemesis (and the writer) .

Michael Grost sees more in Trumbo's writing than just a throw away western. To him, the film "is a generalized endorsement of street activities, probably including protest marches and sit-ins. The film is full of vivid left-of-center imagery. But it is hard to align this with any concrete political orientation." Also, "The hero champions female equality. Politically, they suggest left wing, woman's liberation views advocating female-male equality." While Grost is likely overstating things just a tad, he is not altogether off the mark. For a character to say that girls can be just as good as boys may not have been too radical in the late 1950s, but in the context of the Old West? Comparing the gathering of citizens to a protest march seems more of a stretch.

Cinematographer Russell B. Harlan would go on to be nominated for six Academy Awards, most notably "To Kill a Mockingbird". An interesting thing he does in this film is place static, inanimate objects in the foreground while the actors move in the background. Why is this done? What artistic merit does it have? Is this just a way to create depth in what would otherwise be a very shallow film set? Variety, at the time of release, said the film was "handicapped by a slow-moving story" and did not enjoy Hayden's performance. A later review by Stephen Holden referred to the film as a "low-rent" and "cut-rate" version of "High Noon" and critiqued it for having "trashy B-movie dialogue", though he did concede that the film "has acquired a reputation in some quarters as a minor classic." Of course, there is no denying the film is a B-movie, but in many respects it has blossomed with age.

That the film had influence is evidenced by later westerns. The specific plot of "Texas Town", a crooked businessman throwing farmers off their land, is repeated in episodes of "The Rifleman"; specifically, "Baranca" (1960) and "Squeeze Play" (1962). Yet again, we see this in "The Big Valley" episode "The Man from Nowhere" (1966). In all three, the farmers' homes are burned by the capitalists. Surprise! They are also all directed by Joseph Lewis, though each with different writers.

On the Arrow Blu-ray release, Peter Stanfield gives a 13-minute overview on the career of director Joseph Lewis and how he evolved from his B-movie "singing cowboy" days. Stanfield also discusses auteur theory and how Lewis does (or does not) fit into that concept. The disc is not packed, but looks great and it seems about time to re-evaluate Trumbo's films following his relatively recent biopic.

Greatest B-Western Ever

[David Elroy · 9/10 · 9 December 2001]

A bizarre, intense, frightening unsung masterpiece filled with original and compelling characters. It's hard to tell what the main interest is: the Swedish hero; the leather-clad Bogie-inspired villain; the brave young Mexican; the callous, quick-tongued fatcat. The cinematography is stylized yet subtle. The dialogue is trenchant. Then, of course, there is the unnerving harpoon showdown. There is no movie quite like this one, folks. A must-see.

Campy Nonsense

[abooboo-2 · 6/10 · 8 April 2000]

This strange, little B-picture has a lot of the same characteristics as a mid-season replacement TV series. It also has quite a bit of camp value, with its improbable but not unentertaining premise of a Scandinavian Whale Harpooner taking on unscrupulous Land Grabbers in the Old West. The shot of grim Sterling Hayden lugging his giant harpoon through town for his big showdown with the villain is a scream - sort of a bizarre homage to "High Noon".

Joseph H. Lewis has an unusual take on Westerns here. His direction seems fragile, overly sensitive. When there is violence, it's staged very methodically, clumsily. (For some reason, people have a deadly habit of standing motionlessly whenever the bad guy gallops into view, instead of gee, I don't know, running?) And while Lewis supplies some style, at other times, he's surprisingly amateurish; like when a third character wanders into a Two Shot without any warning.

There's a lot of scenery-chewing going on too between Sebastian Cabot's fat, wicked Land Grabber and Ned Young's snarling, black-clad gunslinger. Particularly Young, who seems to have strayed off the set of the latest Mel Brooks' spoof with his hilariously noisy leather outfit (it constantly creaks and groans whenever he moves) and his vague, frustratingly obtuse insinuations before he is about to knock somebody off. He's quite ridiculous but quite watchable.

Hayden, as the reluctant hero, sounds somewhat comically like a refugee from the cast of "Fargo", but he's an intelligent actor and an appealing lead. At the time this film was made, he was nearing the end of the first phase of his career, where he was often a leading man in generally standard, lower budgeted films. He would soon enter a second and much more memorable phase as a formidable, mountainous character actor in all time classics like "Dr. Strangeglove" and "The Godfather".

Other than a harpoon, there's nothing special about this Western

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 7 June 2009]

Sebastian Cabot is a rich jerk who wants to buy up all the land because there is oil--though none of the locals are aware of the oil. With the help of an evil gunfighter in black, they kill and terrorize everyone. When the son of a murdered man arrives, he refuses to back down and stands up to these forces of darkness.

Wow. As I watched TERROR IN A Texas TOWN, I felt as if I'd seen this film many times before and would probably see something like it again. That's because aside from a few novelties (such as Sterling Hayden using a harpoon on the bad guy), it has a plot that is too familiar. Once again, we've got a rich guy who is trying to drive out all the farmers in order to gain control of all the land. And, to do so, he's brought in hired guns to force people to sell or kill them. Been there, done that in just too many films.

I love Sterling Hayden in films, but just couldn't recommend this as anything other than a poor time passer.

Impressive visuals but could have been much better with a tighter script

[arbesudecon · 7/10 · 29 July 2010]

Didn't know this was scripted by Dalton Trumbo , or by someone on his behalf let's say, due to the circumstances which surrounded the guy during the 50's. His script here is not particularly impressive , plot is quite dull indeed ,typical revenge history focused on the clash between the righteous and noble country boy and the hired gun whit conscience troubles who knows that the end of the road is getting closer for him . We have seen this history a million times , so accomplishments of this films are mostly on the visual side, the way it was beautifully shot in black and white , relying on the dark ambiances to make up for the lack of budget ...Lewis definitively knew how to do that .

The whole tone of hopelessness and deception given to the film reminds me a bit of Ow Box Incident ( but that was a much better film ) The impression I get after having seen this is that with a tighter script the outcome could have been much better , ( for instance why Sterling and his father are using an harpoon ? it appears this was the only weapon they could find but it's clear that there are people in the village who have guns and ammunition …ok maybe it's just a symbol )

Sterling never was a hell of an actor let's admit it. He was quite solid and managed to complete dozens of good films throughout his career but when it comes to acting he was not specially skilled .

He knew to play though characters which made him a perfect choice for film noir and westerns , but don't ask him for much acting , his presence was enough . Problem here is that he had to play a Swedish character and his accent is a bit ridiculous , but his impressive presence and his stiff face contribute a lot to the elegiac tone of the film .

Things are not what they seem to be

[Ziglet_mir · 7/10 · 22 December 2016]

If you are reading this review than it is probably because you were/are as interested as I was/am about watching 'Terror in a Texas Town.' As the few reviews have already mentioned, yes, this is probably one of the strangest westerns out there but strange in all the right ways. I mean, how often do you see a film start off with the top-billed actor walking intently down the middle of the street with a harpoon in arms, let alone in a western? Then, there is a slight monologue from the opposing man as we face his back (and we don't see his face). We are already hooked and want to know more. Who is that blonde in the crowd? Who are those people and why are they watching? And why does one man carry a harpoon? The film begins with this startling image, provides an alarming western montage, and gives us the title card to then begin guiding us through the events that lead up to the unorthodox standoff we began with.

Parts are indeed flawed, but what do you expect from a B-western? The biggest qualms are more than likely the choice of music, some instances of the editing, and Sterling Hayden's floundering Swedish accent. But there is A LOT of good to enjoy which makes this film absolutely worth seeing.

We are led to believe that Hayden is the main character when I think there is more to look at through Ned Young's leather-clad gun-for-hire. Some of the previous reviews mention this; that there is a moral grey area this film conveys. Ned Young's Johnny Crale, who does all the dirty work for the greedy fat man McNeill, is troubled from the start. We learn that he and McNeill have had a past and that Crale is not the same person. He has changed, but for better or for worse? What does he seek from their relationship? And I suppose the same question can be asked of Crale's and Molly's bond.

And everything that was so wacky about that first confrontation now makes more sense, but not in ways we could have imagined. Now we know who the characters are and where their motives lie and the context of the situation. The Swede wants revenge for his father's death and the townspeople want to watch on like the curious bystanders they are. Society wants its victim, and so gets it. Because we need a bad guy when we know that Crale isn't the only one. As you watched the movie and got back to the confrontation how many other morally inept people were there? And how many does the Swede actually take on? Kinda puts things a bit more in perspective, doesn't it?

The loyal Mexican friend, Mirada, played by Victor Millan is the other mention-able part of the film, and the other major contribution to Johnny Crale's character development. Mirada knows, and Crale makes him pay but not without their confrontation changing Crale more than he suspected. During the scene nothing out of the ordinary happens and then the scene ends. It isn't until we watch Crale confront his girlfriend Molly that we see how truly disturbed he has become. "I saw a man this morning who wasn't afraid to die. YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND."

Highly recommended B-western, with a lot going for it especially if you like a little bit of a change-up to the normal prescription.

This one stands out.

[Filmnerd1984 · 7/10 · 23 November 2010]

Good original western revolving around a murder and the unstoppable justice that follows in the shape of a determined Swedish immigrant. my oh my there was some lousy acting to behold here, with the exception of Hayden, Cabot and..... let's just call that last one "the bad guy"(Bogart lookalike). I must say i find the whale spear vs. a revolver kind of amusing, but actually quite plausible if you can believe it. The story ain't much but it aims to please. It is always satisfying to see the average Joe stand up against tyranny and evil s.o.b's. So by all means watch it if you enjoy old school western's that stand out a little from the rest.

The Whaler and the Western.

[hitchcockthelegend · 8/10 · 21 November 2009]

Joseph H. Lewis was something of a B movie king, with his best directorial efforts coming via Westerns and film noir. After this Sterling Hayden starrer he signed off from Hollywood for good, as a legacy it's difficult to say if it's a fitting point of reference to Lewis and his talents, or entirely apt for his career? It's an often quirky, even bizarre, picture that manages through its surreal like tendencies to detract from its formulaic Western plot.

Set in Prairie City, Texas, the tale revolves around George Hanson (Hayden), a Swedish whaler who after 19 years away, returns to Prairie to find his father has been murdered. As he delves deeper with a staunch undaunted determination, he finds that the law is corrupt and a horrible land baron called McNeil (Sebastian Cabot), aided by gunslinger for hire Johnny Crale (Ned Young), is behind his fathers death. It appears there is oil in the land and McNeil is using force to buy up the land at ridiculously cheap prices. But if he thought George was going to be forgiving? Or going to be easily frightened? Well he and Crale are in for some big shocks.

Shot in stark black and white, Lewis' film throws up the always interesting conflict between homespun virtue and greedy evil. There's compelling villains and some nicely drawn characterisations for the decent citizens of the town, such as those who are on the periphery of the protagonists struggle (note Victor Millan's poor Mexican farmer and Carol Kelly's downbeat girlfriend of Crale).

What of Hayden, though? It's a fascinating performance, where saddled with the task of trying to do a Swedish accent, and wearing a suit a size too short for him, it's difficult to know if he is in tune with the off-kilter nature of the film, or he's just on robotic auto- pilot while Lewis chuckles to himself off camera. Either way Hayden gives us a character to root for with our every breath. Hanson is a bastion of good and well meaning, we ache for him to outdo the lobster eating land baron and the metal clawed outlaw.

There's some controversy in the tid-bids here. The script was credited to Ben Perry, but actually was written by Dalton Trumbo who was blacklisted. Hayden, although not blacklisted, appeared before the House of Un-American Activities Committee and simultaneously admitted past communist affiliations and named names. Lewis was not involved in the unsavoury chapter but was a close friend of Ned Young, who was blacklisted for taking the fifth, but whose impact on the film was to not only be in it, but to also be instrumental in getting Lewis to direct it. Boy was that an interesting time in American history.

Stylish, odd and certainly different, Terror In A Texas Town has enough about it to make it worthy of a night in. And it gets better on repeat viewings once you buy into the kookiness. 7.5/10

Weird Western

[kenjha · 6/10 · 7 August 2011]

A Swedish whaler comes to a Texas town to visit his father but learns the latter has been murdered. This is an unusual Western from Lewis, who directed the B-movie classic "Gun Crazy." It starts with a showdown between a gunfighter and a harpooner! and then fills in the story via flashbacks. Stanley Kubrick effectively used Hayden in "The Killing" and "Dr. Strangelove," but he was a limited actor who generally turned in wooden performances. In this film, that awkwardness actually fits in with his fish-out-of-water role. Faring better is Cabot as the heavy (literally and figuratively), but the best performance comes from Young as a black-clad gunslinger who looks and acts like Humphrey Bogart.

I Saw a Man Who Was Not Afraid to Die

[TedMichaelMor · 9/10 · 7 October 2010]

Dalton Trumbo's ideological script and Nedrick Young's complex hired killer drive this interestingly weird and elegant Western. Director Joseph Lewis brought immense skill to this work, as did cinematographer Ray Rennaban and editors Stefan Arnstan and Frank Sullivan. Gerald Fried's original score has the same minimalist intensity as the script and production. Several old-time actors with excellent skills play in this movie. I think anyone connected to this movie had to feel pride.

Sterling Hayden, Carol Kelly, Eugene Mazola, and Sebastian Cabot play a bit more traditionally than Ned Young does, but that makes for interesting counterpoint. You never have a sense of haste in making this film. This is not a subtle work. It is an effective one.I rate it highly because for a small movie, it is a fine piece of work.

Hayden's Worst Picture?

[Picketpin · 3 August 2004]

In late 58 or 59, a friend and I went to see this movie at the GLYNCO,GA Naval Air station theater. We had a saying that "any movie was worth a dime." For some reason this picture has stuck with me all these years. I cannot critique as the others viewers have done. All I can remember was the Swede,coming up a dirt road,looking ridiculous with a harpoon in his hand,the road was marked with Caterpillar tractor tracks,the highway in the background was full of moving vehicles and the sky had contrails in it.

This was not a "B" movie. It had to be a "D" if there is such a thing.Hayden,a decent actor,must have been horribly embarrassed at appearing in a turkey like this.

So much for the "any movie is worth a dime" theory.

Unsatisfactory Western Saga with a Gimmick

[zardoz-13 · 6/10 · 28 November 2009]

"Big Combo" director Joseph H. Lewis' offbeat western "Terror in a Texas Town" is a low-budget endeavor that tweaks the formula and offers a little something different. The typical protagonist who performs the heroic duties is not a stud in a 10-gallon hat with a six-gun. Sterling Hayden, who played a gun-toting lawman in "Top Gun," plays George Hansen, a Swede with a slight accent who has made a living wielding a harpoon as a whaler on a sailing ship. He has arrived to take care of his late father's property. Lewis opens the film with part of the climactic showdown that occurs later at the end when our hero totes his father's harpoon to a gun duel. Lewis doesn't let the action loiter and "Terror in a Texas Town" clocks in at 81 minutes. One flaw is the death of the villain at the hands of another villain, an act of violence which occurs off-camera and deprives us of any closure in seeing how the villain accepted death. This western imitates all those that came before it with regard to the town boss plot.

Basically, this Dalton Trumbo-scripted black & white frontier epic qualifies as your standard town boss western with an elegant city-slicker (Sebastian Cabot) as the villain. He never abandons the comfort of his hotel room in town. He controls the town and has the sheriff in his pocket. The second-in-command villain is a black-clad hombre, Johnny Crale (Nedrick Young of "Gun Crazy"), strapping a matched brace of six-guns. Since can no longer shoot with his right hand, he handles his gun with his left hand. Symbolically, this tough-talking Hemingway type character is castrated because his hand doesn't work. Moreover, to enhance his evil, he wears a solid black outfit from Stetson to boots. He has a moment toward the end where he learns that some men aren't afraid to die and it rattles him. The town citizens that cower at the feet of the town boss are embroiled in a land dispute with him, and this individual—MacNeil—has obtained the legal right to all the territory around town. He has hired a former comrade, injured gunslinger Johnny Crale to help him dominate the people and the land. Later, our hero learns that oil soaks his father's land. All Hansen knows is that a man shot his father in cold blood. He finds a witness, Mexican landowner Jose Mirada (Victor Millan of "Touch of Evil"), who agrees to testify in court that he saw Crale murder Hansen's father. Mirada dies not long afterward when the black-clad killer confronts him on his property. Tragically, Mirada's wife has just given birth to a baby. Previously, she had refused to let him reveal his knowledge of Hansen's murder. All this makes it imperative that Hansen kill Crale in the most unorthodox western showdown.

Altogether, despite its differences with the typical western, "Terror in a Texas" qualifies as something of an oddity. The way that Lewis and Trumbo has tweaked the formula is clever, but the overall impact is less than satisfactorily in pure entertainment terms. The William Wyler western "The Big Country," made after this one, attempted the same thing by making the protagonist a sea captain who was going to marry into a cattle owning empire. "The Big Country" was flawed, too. "Terror in a Texas" suffers from contrivance and the omission of the villain's death scene in the hotel.

Worth it for the shoot-out

[sjd-3 · 8/10 · 7 March 1999]

This is the last film from western and crime movie specialist, Lewis. It`s the complete opposite of what you would expect from the title, a slow and character-driven film, beautifully shot in high contrast black and white. Cabot is especially good as a complex and troubled baddie. The final shootout comes as a complete surprise (I won`t tell you.) Recommended to Western fans.

An unfinished tale of intimidation, corruption, murder, betrayal, poetic justice, and possible reformation

[weezeralfalfa · 6/10 · 27 March 2020]

A strange western in a few ways, but familiarly formulistic in most ways. A stranger(Sterling Hayden, as Swede George Hansen) shows up in a small prairie Texas town. Naturally, he will turn out to be the hero in this tale. He has come to meet his father he hasn't seen in 2 decades. George once lived here for a spell, when his father bought some nearby land to farm. Meanwhile, George was been a whaler, following his father's footsteps, when he was young. In the hotel, George inquired about a rig to go to the farm, but was informed that his father was shot dead a few days ago by an unknown assassin, and that he should see the sheriff about visiting the farm. The sheriff told him that no-one was to visit the farm, by court order, but that he should check with hotel owner McNeil(played by portly Sebastian Cabot), who holds the court order. McNeil claimed that George's father didn't legally own his farm, but that McNeil did. Thus, technically, his father had been a squatter all these years. The same held for the other nearby farms. However, McNeil offers to pay George a small sum to settle the matter. George refused.(Still not clear to me the legally correct status of these lands. McNeil seems to have the sheriff in his pocket in going along with his claims). Early in the film, we learned why McNeil was so eager to establish a clear title to these farms. There's evidence of oil seeps under at least some. Strangely, only one farmer, Mexican Jose Mirada, seems to know about this!? Mirada lives next to the land worked by George's father, and becomes George's friend. Jose tells George that he witnessed the killing of George's father when he was arguing with one Johnny Crale(Nedick Young) about the ownership of his farm. Crale threatened to shoot him if he didn't leave. The father grabbed his harpoon to threaten Crale, but Crale shot first. Mirada had kept the harpoon, and now gave it to George........Crale is the most prominent of several toughs McNeil has hired to terrorize the farmers into leaving. Always dressed in black from head to toe, as badmen often were(with apologies to Hopalong Cassidy and Zorro), George had previously met Crale in the hotel, when he had informed George of his father murder. Perhaps you then sensed that Crale was the murderer. McNeil now ordered Crale to get Mirada off his land:Kill him if he refuses. A while later, George learns that Mirada has been murdered. This incites him to grab his father's harpoon and go 'gunning' for Crale. Lacking a gun, he is at a handicap. However, Crale also is handicapped at a distance, in a fast draw, in that his natural trigger hand has been shot up. Presumably, this is why Crale kept taunting George to come a little closer, when they were facing each other....... Now, Crale has a steady girlfriend(or wife?) in blond Molly(Carol Kelly). They seem to have a love-hate relationship. He seems to have an interest in her only as a carnal partner and card-playing opponent. She seems mostly interested in him as a meal ticket, from his gun-for-hire activities. Clearly, she's bored with her life and feels trapped. Presumably, she formerly was a saloon girl, and is seen mostly drinking it away, in the mostly empty saloon.? One time, George parleys with her, in which she pours out her frustrations and goals. She assumes no decent man would have her as a wife, given her background. George retorts that a person can usually get out of a bad situation if they really want to. Later, sensing the imminent standoff between Crale and George, she barges into a farmer's meeting, and beckons them to follow her, to help George. They do so, catching up with him as he nears Crale, in the street. Apparently, they lack firearms, thus perhaps can intimidate Crale by their numbers, and serve as witnesses. Thus, we have a lethal confrontation basically like that between Crale and George's father. Cale is too slow in drawing his pistol, and slightly off mark, allowing George time to thrust his harpoon perfectly.: poetic justice! .........Shortly before this, Crale reported his killing of Mirada to McNeil. But, after the killing, he had a change of heart, in his mind, complimenting Mirada on his courage, in standing steadfast, in the face of certain death. When Crale meets McNeil, he shoots him dead: poetic justice again!..........After Crale expires, the film ends, with the assumption that no possible family member of McNeil picks up where he left off, and that the sheriff acquiesces to George's plea that he is the rightful owner of his father's farm. Then, there's the question of whether George and Molly's flirtation will come of anything. Molly's background would hardly mesh with his probable dream girl. But, she's not bad looking when she smiles, and he just might give her a chance to redeem herself. See it at YouTube!

ordinary movie, interesting style

[bobc-5 · 5/10 · 14 September 1999]

In most respects, this is a completely unremarkable low-budget western. Greedy rich guy hires evil gunfighter to terrorize local farmers. Upstanding good guy arrives and it's just a matter of time before the final showdown. It's competently executed most of the time. Some of it is imaginative and some of it is predictably cliché. Contrary to what some other reviewers have written, the final showdown did not surprise me in the least. Die-hard western fans and followers of Sterling Hayden will want to view this, but I don't know about anyone else.

Except that it is successfully filmed in an interesting and unique style, as if it were a 1950's comic book or pulp-fiction novel brought to the screen. This is immediately apparent in the opening credits, with its teaser glimpse of the final scene and including the alliterative hyperbole of the title, and continues consistently throughout the film. Perhaps many little known low budget 1950s film accomplished this feat, but this is the only one I'm aware of that does it so well.

Gunslingers take over a small Texas town

[helpless_dancer · 11 September 1999]

Well, if you can ignore single action revolvers that don't require cocking, punches that never connect, and Sterling Hayden's atrocious accent, this is not a bad production. An evil land baron is intent on evicting all the land owners from their property in order to reap huge financial rewards. He does this by using the tried and true method of instilling fear and dealing out violence whenever necessary. The owners outnumbered the thugs, but were to gutless to band together and boot the criminals out of town. Until the right man came to town, that is, and set a courageous example.