Highly Overrated But Still Good

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Easily one of the worst westerns I have ever been forced to watch. It starts out with clips from different parts of the movie, including most of the ending, and then settles down to tell the story (such as it is). First of all, though this is a town in Texas NOBODY carries or even seems to own a gun except for the bad guy. Then, this one man terrifies everyone except a Swedish ex-whaler who is basically a pacifist. Not only is the script lame but the acting is poor and unbelievable. Most of the actors seem to be just going through the motions. This is a grade D movie in my opinion. Watch it and make your own decision. I watched it because I had a friend who was an extra in the film.

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.

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.

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