Abenteuer in Texas

Under the mistaken belief that he killed his best friend, John Wayne quits his job as sheriff and leaves town to become a desert tramp. A year later, he cleans up his act in order to help his friend's daughter with the horse ranch she inherited. The two fall in love but the real murderer plans on ruining the ranch in order to take her away!

Texas Terror is a likable entry in Lone Star's series of Saturday matinée westerns starring Wayne. It has a well-written script with some decent melodrama to go along with the action and has one of the better love stories of the series.

Near the beginning, this gives the viewer an irresistible chance to get a look at Wayne in a full beard and dirty clothes. That's certainly something I've never seen before.

In this Lone Star production, John Wayne is a sheriff who is tricked into thinking he killed his best friend and that selfsame friend was part of a robbery of an express company.

So distraught is Wayne over this that he quits the sheriff's job and becomes a desert prospector. In these scenes the Duke with that growth of beard on him looks a whole lot like his character Tom Doniphan in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

Wayne does a major reclamation job on himself after he rescues Lucile Browne from a stage holdup. Browne is the best friend's daughter.

Of course in the end the Duke does find out who are the real culprits with the help of some grateful and friendly Indians. How the Indians get into it, you have to watch Texas Terror.

Texas Terror is set in a more modern version of the west. The stage is actually a large sedan and the people out here use telephones. Kind of like the settings of most later Roy Rogers westerns.

Gabby Hayes is on hand as well as the former sheriff who steps back into his job when Wayne quits and LeRoy Mason who was in so many of these Lone Star films for Monogram as well makes a convincing villain as always.

John Wayne plays a sheriff who mistakenly believes he killed his best friend. So he turns in his badge and goes to live in the woods. A year later the dead friend's citified daughter shows up. Wayne has to rescue her and she offers him a job as foreman on the ranch she inherited from her father. Romance follows but not without some troubles. Eventually Wayne finds out who really killed his pal and straps on his guns to get justice.

In many ways this is a routine B western, the type Duke made plenty of early in his career. The plot elements and even some of the stunts seem familiar to other Wayne oaters I've seen from the period. But there are some interesting things I haven't seem before. John Wayne being broody, for one thing. At one point we see him with a beard and trying to look disheveled. Kind of funny. Gabby Hayes is also in this but without the grizzled old-timer shtick we all love. It's enjoyable enough for the type of unchallenging movie it is. I think these were mostly aimed at kids back in the day so don't expect anything deep.

I've seen this a few times now, but this was the 1st time on DVD with new digital music added to pep it up. Unfortunately it doesn't pep it up, it simply makes you wonder what the producers of the video release were thinking of in messing about with the original soundtrack. They wouldn't have been allowed to ruin 'Frankenstein' with senseless and incongruous dramatic chords sprinkled throughout, so why cheapies like this? This was a budget release, why couldn't they have spent any spare cash on eliminating the frame wobble?

Big John's in good form, with lots of noble deeds to do and the usual Lone Star chases on horseback back and forth across California (not Texas) in 1934. In a case of mistaken identity the heroine says to him that she "doesn't know words vile enough to express her contempt for him". Sadly todays heroines would have no such problem! Nice to see Gabby Hayes just after his last shave!

A good film for fans of the genre, not even marred by the shortness (49 minutes on this DVD) - Wayne made so many of these you'll be lucky to live long enough to see 'em all!

Wayne portrays a Texas sheriff at around the turn of the 20th century who is framed for the murder of his best friend. His best friends daughter finds out about what is believed to be The Sherriff's brutal act, yet Wayne finds out the truth and brings the real killers to justice. Kudos to the Duke!