The Film (3/5)

Terror in a Texas Town, the final feature film directed by Joseph H. Lewis is a tale about an evil businessman.  Ed McNeil (Sebastian Cabot, Othelo), who wants to remove a number of farmers off their land, for the sole reason that he can control it. He has hired a gang of enforcers led by Johnny Crale(Nedrick ‘Ned’ Young, Gun Crazy, Seconds) to help him do that. One of the farmers that they want gone is a Swedish farmer Sven Hansen (Ted Stanhope, Jungle Hell) is unmercilessly shot to death by Crale

George Hansen (Sterling Hayden, The Asphalt Jungle) then comes to town and inquires with the sheriff about the murder. The sheriff refuses to help Hansen because McNeil basically owns him. Hansen then finds himself at bay with Crale and his other three henchmen. Hansen’s lone ally is Jose (Pepe) Mirada (Victor Millan, Scarface) who was a friend of George Hansen’s father. He also gets shot to death by Crale and it was right in front Pepe’s young boy in a pretty strong scene.

The finale of course has Hansen facing off with Crale and McNeil. See how a harpoon can be used for something other than capturing whales and other large sea life!

Terror in a Texas Town is an entertaining Western oddity. It’s definitely not your typical Western and director Lewis probably wanted it that way. Both Cabot’s McNeil and Young’s Crale are both great are heartless villains and really shine in this picture. Ned Young (under the name Nathan E. Douglas) went on to write the screenplay of The Defiant Ones and won an Oscar for it. He actually had been blacklisted and Terror in a Texas Town was his first step back into the movies. 

Sterling Hayden, however, whose characters tend to be him playing tough rugged characters, has a different type of role in this film, which is a fish out of water, and highly vulnerable George Hansen. His portrayal of a Swedish character leaves a lot to be desired however, ja. His Swedish accent also seems to come and go throughout the film. There are some pretty decent violent scenes in the film, but more or less this is a run of the mill Western despite some of the quirkiness. The remaining cast members all play their parts perfectly fine.

Audio/Video (4.5/5)

Arrow Academy presents Terror in a Texas Town on Blu-ray with a 2K scan, MPEG-4 AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The movie looks better than it ever has, with a beautiful, crisp black and white transfer. The greyscale is well balanced, while the black levels are pitch and the contrast is excellent.  There is a lot of depth, clarity and deep textures with the outdoor scenery throughout. Film grain is also present.

Terror in a Texas Town features an English LPCM 2.0 mono track and it’s excellent. Dialog, gunshots, screams and the soundtrack do sound really good here. I did not notice any hissing, pops or crackles

Extras (2/5)

There isn’t much in the way of supplements, more or less due to the film being nearly 60 years old and is a lesser title.

What was do get is an introduction by Peter Stanfield, a featurette called ‘A Visual Analysis’ which is more of Stanfield’s thoughts about the film

A theatrical trailer in 1080p is included and as usual, Arrow also provides a booklet with writing and some stills.

Overall (3/5)

The film isn’t bad at all, but to me it wasn’t a timeless classic. With the excellent picture and serviceable audio quality along with a couple of decent extras, this indeed does make this an excellent release for those who have wanted this movie in HD. Kudos to Arrow for giving this film a great presentation.