|
| Terror In A Texas Town |
|
  (7/10)
|
Runtime: 80 m |
| Public Rating: 9.67 (3 votes) |
Director: Joseph H. Lewis |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Western |
Year: 1958 |
| Writer(s): Dalton Trumbo (front: Ben Perry) |
| Reviewed by: Vadim Rizov |
| |
Forced by budgetary constraints to become an ingenious director, Joseph H. Lewis fortunately gained a following in the late 60s. TERROR IN A TEXAS TOWN, his final feature, is fascinating because of all the expectations it subverts, but even more so for its one-shot approach, most likely because there was no money for multiple set-ups. This visual style, unwanted or not, is fascinating because it forces the camera to move in ways that more tied-down Hollywood films of the period, with their standard cuts to the floor to reveal dead bodies and smooth editing, can't match. Aided by legendary cinematographer Ray Rennahan (an early Technicolor pioneer), Lewis makes unexpected choices that fascinate.
Nevertheless, this is no swirling Ophuls film. Even though it's only 80 minutes, the pace is positively funereal, with minimal story substituted for by great swaths of character development which toy with Western archetypes. Black-clad outlaw killer Johnny Crale (screenwriter and actor of varied parts Ned Young) is indeed the ruthless villain out of time, but he's also trying to prove something to himself about the nature of his fellow man. Meanwhile, the protagonist, George Hansen (Sterling Hayden with a trippy Swedish accent) is one-dimensional and fairly comical. He's introduced second, and is clearly more of a foil than a hero. There is a standard greedy financial interest behind all this (Sebastian Cabot, doing a standard fat-man part), but he's the weakest link.
The streets are eerily deprived of extras, and the whole thing has the quality of a existential dream, or maybe just that episode of "The Prisoner" where Patrick McGoohan does Western-style battle. The camera comes in at odd spots, and Gerald Fried's off-beat guitar-based score does wonders to refresh the standard-issue plot. It's a strange little film (with a legendary gun vs. harpoon finale), but an undeniably compelling one, whose visuals transcend its issues, compelling though those are to those plumbing the depths of the Western. It's neither campy nor foolish; it's a strangely assured movie that slowly works its way to a unique place in the Western pantheon, and what that place is I have no idea.
|
 Printable Version
|
Do you agree/disagree with this review of Terror In A Texas Town? Let your opinions be heard in our forum.
|
Buy the Poster of Terror In A Texas Town (Click Here)
|
|
|
|
