Terror in a Texas Town (1958)

Simply Perfect

Pretty Good

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

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.

Terror in a Texas Town has the look of a film that was made on the cheap over a long weekend but it's harpoon toting hero and quirky villain make it interesting enough to go the distance with.Swedish immigrant George Hansen comes to Texas with the intention of working on his father's farm. He arrives however to find out his father has been murdered by Johnny Crale a hired gun of greedy and treacherous oil man Ed Neil who is out to steal farmers oil rich property. When Hansen can't get any satisfaction from the law he takes it into his own hands.When you look at Terror's roster of black listed players (Dalton Trumbo,Sterling Hayden, Nedrick Young) you get the feeling this a desperate quickie trying to put food on the table but Trumbo and director Joseph Lewis give this generic western with a twist a lot more bite. Taken as microcosm Terror in a Texas Town takes a swipe at a corrupt capitalist society. The sheriff is in the oil man's pocket and wears his xenephobia on his sleeve thwarting any attempt by Hansen to get the justice he has a right to. The power of big oil flexing its muscle and influence in Terror eerily reflects the arrogance displayed today by BP and the Gulf oil spill that as I write has still not been remedied. Performances are unremarkable save for Young as the rusting gunslinger who does a Bogart/Marc Lawrence hybrid that is inconsistent but interesting. Everyone else looks like they may have had only one take to get it right. Still, Lewis is to be commended for his savvy decision of capturing audience interest by inserting some of the final scene into the film's opening. This B movie king certainly understood the public.

There was so much gunsmoke in Hollywood, 1958, the producers of this low-budget indie can hardly be blamed for the harpoon gimmick. All in all, the movie is neither the best nor the worst of oaters of that day, as some folks hold. It does have points of interest, but overall the 80 minutes lacks the intensity that many of the elements promise. For example, Ned Young's killer dresses the part, postures the part, and leers the part, but the total never gets beyond the impersonation stage. There's no real sense that he means it. Compare Young's black clad gunman with his counterpart, the fearsomely memorable Jack Palance of Shane (1953), as illustration. Then too, as another reviewer notes, Cabot's scheming mastermind fails to convey much beyond a grumpy old fat guy waiting for dinner. Thus the needed sense of evil-incarnate never really materializes, despite the posturing. In fact, in my little book, it's Carol Kelly as the conflicted Molly who delivers the movie's one really convincing performance.Now, I have as much respect for director Lewis as the next old movie buff, particularly for that overlooked Korean War drama Retreat, Hell! (1952). However, it looks like he was just going through the motions here, especially in his work with the actors. As other reviewers note, the movie does have points of interest absent from other little Westerns of the day, including that stunning back shot of Hayden stalking down railroad tracks that stretch to infinity-- a memorable visual. Nonetheless, despite the many script opportunities and dramatic situations, the action never really gels into the riveting essay on greed and evil that writer Trumbo evidently desires. In passing— the low-budget Western was a favorite refuge for those in Hollywood blacklisted by HUAC, like Trumbo and Young, or those compromised, like Hayden. My favorite is The Tall Texan (1953), not a very good movie, but featuring a whole array of compromised Hollywood talent looking for a needed payday. Watching such stalwart city types as Lee J. Cobb and Luther Adler tell their horses to giddy-up amounts to a real hoot. But unfortunately, it hasn't turned up on the movie channels lately. Then again, maybe that's fortunately.

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.