Customer Reviews

Terror in a Texas Town

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Dressed in a squared-off bowler, a wool jacket that doesn't cover his wrists, a stubby tie and sporting a painfully off-key Swedish accent, Sterling Hayden is an unlikely western hero. That ten-foot steel tipped harpoon he carries around doesn't help to buff the image much, either. Then again TERROR IN A TEXAS TOWN is an unlikely western. Scripted by blacklisted Hollywood writer Dalton Trumbo (Ben Perry received credit), it's ostensibly about a land robber (Sebastian Cabot as Ed McNeil) using means fair and foul (Ned Young as hired-gun Johnny Crale) to buy out the homesteaders in the small community of Prairie City, Texas. It's also about standing united against injustice, and not letting fear conquer integrity.
Hayden's George Hansen comes to the Prairie City after twenty years at sea to reunite with his father and help him on the farm the elder Hansen built in his absence. It was a farm coveted by McNeil as well, and hired goon Crale saw to the "Or else" part when McNeil's offer to buy it from the elder Hansen was rebuffed. The cowed community is too intimidated by McNeil to stand up to him, strength in unity or not. It's up to the foreign outsider to discover who murdered his father - the McNeil owned sheriff isn't going to tell, and the otherwise good folks don't want to get involved.
I'm not usually a great fan of the message westerns of the fifties. However noble it was to fight McCarthyism, it doesn't usually make for an interesting story - too many cowardly and townspeople for my tastes, too self-righteous a tone. Half the time I find myself rooting for the bad guy. TERROR IN A TEXAS TOWN is all that, to be sure, but the acting is generally strong, the musical score is interesting, and the pace doesn't relax too much. If the movie has to preach at me, at least this one offers an interestingly illustrated sermon.
If Hayden is a little stony and robotic in the lead, Cabot is wonderfully malicious as the velvet gloved big money bad guy and the relatively unknown Ned Young (looks a little like Humphrey Bogart) is beautifully understated as the steel-fisted thug. The movie also contains one of the oddest curtain closing shootout in western movie history. Strong recommendation for this little gem.

If this is not a cult film I dont know what one is. The opening scene of Sterling Hayden walking down the main street of a Western town with harpoon in-hand to meet a gunman clad in black is just so offbeat one finds it difficult not to be enthralled and immediately immersed into the story. Hayden seems to have been breed for these types of films but with his pseudo-Swedish accent it just makes it all the more bizarre. Even more bizarre is Nedrick Youngs portrayal of Johnny Crale the gunman in black. Now working for Ed McNeil (Sebastian Cabot) we learn that Crale had his right hand blown off and had it replaced with a steel one. Crale must now use his left hand to do his shooting which has diminished his skills. Basically Ed McNeil has hired gunman Crale to buy out or kill all the local landowners in town. What is really offbeat his how gunman Crale confronts each landowner and explains to each one his own perverse code of conduct and how he must carry out his duties as a gunman. Victor Millan as farmer Jose Mirada will not beg for his life and he explains it is his duty to die in dignity at the hand of Crale. Eventually Hayden the Swedish seaman must face Crale in probably the most bizarre and offbeat shootout ever filmed. I had not seen this film in over forty years until recently but I never forgot the incredible finale. Under Joseph H. Lewis direction it is style and offbeat characterizations that sets this film apart from its rather ordinary plot. Even the score by composer Gerald Fried is rather contradictory and strangely upbeat in some scenes. This is definitely a low budget film but a very effective one.

Joseph Lewis (My Name is Julia Ross, Gun Crazy) fans will likely be rather disappointed; this is not his finest hour-and-a-half. His films often trod on hoary ground; Big Combo could've been just another cops-and-robbers tale. But it is inventive direction, kinetic atmosphere and chiaroscuro camerawork which distinguish his work, and those elements are largely not to be found here.

Sterling Hayden (The Killing, Johnny Guitar) gives another of his ruggedly natural performances, this time as a whaler who comes to his father's Texas home, only to find Sebastian Cabot (Twice-Told Tales, The Time Machine) ruling the town with an iron fist. He wants everyone's oil-rich land, you see. Sound familiar? Of course it does. 'T in a TT' is unflinchingly violent, even a little bit subversive (Dalton Trumbo scripted it) in a Peckinpah way, and jumpily structured after the fashion of pulpy noir. But none of these things make it any more than what it is: just a fairly standard oater with an unusual conclusion.

The conclusion is really the only reason this film is remembered: it features a dusty-street showdown between hired gun and harpoon. Even so, we saw everything but the outcome of said duel in the first portions of the film. This one aspect is so askew from the norm that it might distract you from the implausibility. Or from the fact that everything else has been pretty much connecting the dots.

Or like me, it might not.

United Artists presents "TERROR IN A TEXAS TOWN" (September 1958) (80 min/B&W) (Fully Restored/Dolby Digitally Remastered) -- This near-legendary western stars Sterling Hayden as George Hanson, the son of a Swedish seaman-turned-farmer (Ted Stanhope) --- When he runs afoul of town boss Ed McNeil (Sebastian Cabot), Hanson's father is gunned down by McNeil's henchman Johnny Crale (Ned Young) --- Knowing full well that he can expect no help from the town's corrupt sheriff (Tyler McVey), Hanson takes matters into his own hands --- Tension mounts steadily until the unforgettable climactic showdown, wherein Hanson arms himself with a harpoon! --- Extremely well written by Ben L. Perry (ghosting for Dalton Trumbo)

The duel of Hayden against Young, where Hayden is using a harpoon is extremely well filmed --- Considering its low ambitions "Terror in a Texas Town" is quite an accomplishment.

Terror in a Texas Town was one of the last directorial efforts of cult favorite Joseph H. Lewis

Under the production staff of:
Joseph H. Lewis [Director]
Dalton Trumbo [Written by) (front Ben L. Perry)
Ben Perry (front for Dalton Trumbo) (as Ben L. Perry)
Carrol Sax [Associate Producer]
Frank N. Seltzer [Producer]
Gerald Fried [Original Music]
Ray Rennahan [Cinematographer]
Stefan Arnsten [Film Editor]
Frank Sullivan [Film Editor]
William Ferrari [Art Director]

BIOS:
1. Joseph H. Lewis [Director]
Date of Birth: 6 April 6 1907 - New York City, New York
Date of Death: 30 August 30 2000 - Santa Monica, California

2. Sterling Hayden [aka: Sterling Relyea Walter]
Date of Birth: 26 March 1916- Upper Montclair, New Jersey
Date of Death: 23 May 1986 - Sausalito , California

the cast includes:
Sterling Hayden - George Hansen
Sebastian Cabot - Ed McNeil
Carol Kelly - Molly
Eugene Mazzola - Pepe Mirada
Nedrick Young - Johnny Crale
Victor Millan - Jose Mirada
Frank Ferguson - Deacon Matt Holmes
Marilee Earle -Mona Stacey

Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 4 Stars
Performance: 4 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 4 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]

Total Time: 80 min on DVD ~ United Artists ~ (05/20/2003)

Writer Dalton Trumbo was one of the infamous Hollywood 10, that list of 10 Hollywood screenwriters whose political leanings got them blacklisted, jailed and kicked out of a guild they helped create. Hollywood did to them what the Germans did the "degenerate artists" twenty years before. Trumbo was probably the best of these writers and wrote a mind boggling number of excellent scripts, from his bathtub, as he smoked through 6 packs of cigarettes with his parrot on his shoulder, cheering him on. Only such an eccentric original could have fashioned Terror in a Texas Town (1958). Team Trumbo with B-movie maestro Joseph "Wagon Wheel" H. Lewis and a cast of idiosyncratic character actors and you get a peach of movie such as this.

Trumbo wasn't the only victim of the HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) associated with this film. Actors Ned Young and Sterling Hayden were also called before the committee. Young was also a screenwriter. Jailhouse Rock (1957), The Defiant Ones(1958), Inherit the Wind (1960), and The Train (1964) are among his credits, most of which he wrote under pseudonyms. Young refused to cooperate with the HUAC and was blacklisted as well. Hayden caved into the committee and gave them what they wanted, which cost him much in the long run. All this has given Terror in a Texas Town a cult status as a quirky reaction to the HUAC. The reputation is well-deserved.

The film opens to George Fried's bizarre score as Swede George Hansen (Sterling Hayden) walks down a dirt road in the middle of Prairie City, Texas. George is mad as hell, he means business and he's carrying a big whaling harpoon over his shoulder to prove it. George is followed by bloodthirsty, local farmers who are mad as hell, too.

They meet up with the object of their anger; southpaw gunslinger Johnny Crale (Ned Young, uncannily resembling Bogart and dressed from head to toe in black). Johnny is ready to face and kill George. Johnny taunts George, "You're a little too far away. Come a little bit closer. You wouldn't want to disappoint your friends. They all came here to see blood. Come a little bit closer so they can see. I want to give you a fighting chance. Five steps. One step, Hansen." George hangs his head in shame. It seems this is something he cannot go through with.

Titles roll through a typical Lewis shot of wagon wheel spokes. The farming townspeople are being bullied and driven out by local oil baron Ed McNeil (Sebastian Cabot, projecting slimy finesse in excellent form). McNeil likes the finer things in life and that includes women, food, champagne and land ownership; but the local farmers are uncooperative when it comes to their land, which McNeil wants to mine. McNeil utilizes the talents of gunslinger Johnny to get his dirty deeds done. Pa Hansen is one of those farmers, and he is murdered by Johnny. Pa's employee, Jose (Victor Millan, also in excellent form) witnesses the murder, but his wife wants him to remain silent. At this point, Terror in a Texas Town may seem like a formulaic movie, but underneath the surface this is a bleak film, dripping in cynical parody. That becomes apparent when Pa's son, George, arrives in Prairie City after being at sea for 19 years. George is returning to help his Pa, until he learns the awful truth that his Daddy has been shot and killed. With no help from the townspeople, George intends to find out who killed his Pa and why.

Both the Sheriff and McNeil attempt to coerce George into leaving, but his stubborn refusal brings Johnny in to handle the situation. George befriends Jose and his family, who also are being threatened to leave. After Crane and McNeil's thugs beat Hansen and put him on a train out of town, Hansen walks all the way back, bloodied and more persistent than ever. Jose is inspired by Hansen and makes his stand. Millan gives a powerhouse performance as Jose when he overcomes his fear and faces Crane, knowing full well that Crane will kill him. The ruthless Crane does just that, but he is shaken by Jose's courage. Young is equally superb in this scene and, little doubt, reacted to Millan's Jose by tapping into his own courage when he faced the Hollywood inquisitors. Young makes Crane one of the most interesting, classic western villains, who can stand alongside Lee Marvin's Liberty Valance and Jack Palance's Jack Wilson. Crane's girlfriend, Molly (Carol Kelly) tells him that she stays with him because she can look up to see someone lower than herself. Molly is very attuned to irony. She sees Johnny as an anachronism, forced for years to use his left hand after his right hand was rendered useless in a gunfight. "You're no good anymore," she says, hinting at something far more than a paralyzed gun hand. Johnny knows it too; he's a savage killer riddled with angst.

Aptly, George rallies support in a local church, grabs his Pa's whaling harpoon and heads to one of the strangest shoot-outs in screen history. It's an odd finale to an equally odd film and film career (it was Lewis' final film). Terror in a Texas Town arrived at the tail end of a politically troubled decade made for this American genre. It makes for a helluva showdown.

*My review was originally published at 366 weird movies.

This is a kind of baroque pre - spaghetti western save the fact that it was shot in the U.S.A. and directed by a genuine American native. From the frenzied opening credits showing backwards the main scenes of the film to the final duel between a black-robed iron-handed (in the literal sense of the term) gunfighter and a Swedish whale hunter armed with a gig, this film is a masterpiece. Ja.

This is a great b-western movie. It's no top notch, but it is pretty good with Sterling Hayden plus other famous actors. It may not have the best actors, but it's still good.

This was a classic old school western but it had a very smart story and a differnt kind of twist to the characters. What drew me to the movie was that one of my all time favorites, Sterling Hayden, was in it. Then I read that the heavy was literally the heavy Mr. French himself Sebastian Cabot. Then I read that even though it was a western Hayden played a Swedish sea captain. It is almost a noir western. Cabots top henchman is not just one dimensional either.

Check out this odd but good movie. I recommend it.

This has got to be one of the weirdest movies I have ever seen. For example, it starts off by showing several unrelated sections of the movie by way of clips. They even show you most of the ending. Later in the movie you see these same clips again, this time in context. What makes this perhaps one of the oddest Western movies I ever saw is the fact that nobody, except for the villain, seems to own a gun of any kind. Secondly, Sterling Hayden has the worst Swedish accent I have ever heard. The basic plot is run-of-the-mill, there's a big land grab and nobody except a pacifist farmer will stand up and fight. Unless you are a big fan of so-so movies and/or Sterling Hayden I would suggest you skip this movie.

Everything is just right, the actors, the atmosphere, action. Sometimes miracles do happen. I would put it just below the great westerns. It is actually a 4,5 star film, but 4 stars is not enough. I rank it with the Boetticher-Scott films.