Sturm über Texas

A bizarre, intense, frightening unsung masterpiece filled with original and compelling characters. It's hard to tell what the main interest is: the Swedish hero; the leather-clad Bogie-inspired villain; the brave young Mexican; the callous, quick-tongued fatcat. The cinematography is stylized yet subtle. The dialogue is trenchant. Then, of course, there is the unnerving harpoon showdown. There is no movie quite like this one, folks. A must-see.

Peace-loving Sven Hanson is one of a number of farmers whom Ed McNeil (Sebastian Cabot) wants to run off their land because he knows there's oil on it . While McNeil's gunfighter , Johnny Crale (Nedrick Young) commits grisly killings against villagers and countrymen . Then , Hanson's friend Pepe Mirada (Victor Millan) hides his knowledge of the killer's identity in order to protect his family . When George Hanson (Robert Mitchum) arrives in Prairie City and takes up his dad's cause , not only Mirada but also Johnny Crale start changing their minds . When the Texas Plains Ran With Blood and Black Gold! Harpoon against Six-Gun! A savage duel!..For The Black Gold That Flowed Under The Blood-Drenched Land! Harpoon against Six-Gun !...in the most savage duel the ever ripped the Texas.

An interesting time-passer , where snappy and engaging dialog run through-out . This notable , meaty Western contains attractive plot , intrigue , a fine ensemble cast , along with a non-traditional , minimalistic soundtrack and resulting to be entertaining enough . It starts with the opening credits : The characters and incidents portrayed and the names used herein are fictitious and any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely accidental and unintentional . Outstanding Western balances action , suspense and drama ; being probably one of the strangest Western in the fifties and sixties . It's a classical recounting about a strange visitor who is really an expert harpoon thrower surrounded by cowards and frightening people . The highlights of the film are the climatic shootouts , and , of course , the final showdown between the harpoonist and the gunslinger . The traditional story and exciting screenplay was well written by Dalton Trumbo , who often used pseudonyms as Ben Perry or Millard Kauffman , that's why he had been blacklisted as a subversive , being pursued by House Un-American Activities Committee o House Committee on Un-American Activities or HUAC during the McCarthy Red Scare time . The enjoyable tale is enhanced for interesting moments developed among main characters and especially on the peculiar relationships among the main characters played by Robert Mitchum , Nedrick Young , Carol Kelly and Sebastian Cabot . Magnificently performed by Robert Mitchum as a Swedish whaler is out for vengeance when he finds out that a greedy oil man murdered his father for their land , while their enemies start reevaluating their attitudes . Mitchum is an awesome expert in the art of conjuring sensational acting without overacting , here he's joined with other nice players , in this atypical but thought-provoking western with a lot of reflection , distinguished moments and dramatical attitudes , in addition a multitude of entertaining situations . Top-notch plethora of secondary actors playing vicious, sadistic sociopaths who take advantage of the frightened townspeople , such as Sebastian Cabot and Nedrick Young . Furthermore , the unknown Carol Kelly , Eugene Martin and the regular secondary Frank Ferguson .

A well made film with perfect cinematography in black and white by Ray Rennahan . As well as atmospheric , exciting musical score by composer by Gerald Fried , it is competently performed , no strings or other big orchestra elements , but consisting of mostly solo horn , trumpet , tympanic sounds , acoustic guitar and percussion. Masterfully directed by Joseph H Lewis who chooses all the right angles for a real impact and never puts a wrong foot . Lewis was a B craftsman who directed a lot of films of all kinds of genres with a penchant for Noir movies, with his masterpiece : Gun Crazy , as he made Drama, Thriller, Action, Western , such as Terror in a Texas town, 7th cavalry, The Halliday brand, A lawless street, Cry of the hunted, Retreat hell, Desperate search , A lady without passport, The undercover man, So dark the night, My name is Julia Ross, The mad doctor of Market Street, The gang of mine and his greatest hits were The Big Combo and Gun Crazy . Rating 7/10. Better than average . Essential and indispensable watching for Robert Mitchum fans and Western aficionados .

When people discuss the Western in the 50s, the richest decade of the genre, they invariably cite Anthony Mann, Budd Boetticher, THE SEARCHERS or RIO BRAVO . Only the specialised, however, will single out Joseph H. Lewis. A LAWLESS STREET electrifies a banal story with inventive technique. TERROR, though, is something else. I have watched hundreds of Westerns, and I can safely say that this is the most remarkable pre-Peckinpah/Leone effort I've seen. It may not be as rich as the above-mentioned, but its formal daring is unparalleled.

Like Mann, Lewis came to the Manichean world of the Western from film noir, a genre defined by its moral ambiguity. The opening sequence is the most astonishing of any Western (except THE WILD BUNCH, of course), and cleverly complicates everything that follows. It starts with the shoot-out, an innovative device, but one of the combatants carries a large pike. His opponent, face unseen, taunts him. The scene is highly charged, even if we don't know why.

The result of this sequence is cut, and we get the opening credits, featuring an elliptical series of scenes, some lyrically pastoral, others brutally violent, none making any narrative sense because we don't know the story yet. The film proper hurtles us into a violent arson attack. So in the first five minutes, the viewer is assaulted by sensation and violence. There are none of the reassuring signifiers of the traditional Western - noble music (the score here is as bizarre, inventive and parodic as any Morricone spaghetti); John Wayne or Henry Fonda above the title; contextually explanatory intertitles. We have no idea what is going on, we are left staggered, breathless, excited, reeling.

What follows is an explanation of these events. But the unforgettable effect lingers, and colours what seems to be a traditional Western story - big business trying to muscle in on small farmers. The most interesting figure is not the hero, Sterling Hayden, a gentle man forced by circumstance to find savage violence in himself (and saddled with a ridiculous, faltering Swedish accent, but little character), but the villain. In many ways he is the archetypal baddie - dressed in black, a gun for hire, snarling, brutal with women. But he is also a complex psychological portrait - a once great shot, now a cripple, lush and impotent. The familiar story is subverted to become the tragedy of an evil man. The film's surface detective element - who killed Hayden's father - is subsumed thematically by the investigation into this fascinating character (we know early on who killed him anyway).

Stylistically, Lewis turns the Western, traditionally about open spaces, new frontiers, hope, escape, into a bitter male melodrama about entrapment, failure and death. The stark, clear visuals are as beautiful and aesthetically exciting as THE OX-BOW INCIDENT, another morbid masterpiece. The disturbing editing, and exagerrated compositions seem to belong more to Nouvelle Vague deconstructions than a Hollywood Western. Almost as awesome as GUN CRAZY, this is provocative proof that Lewis was a great director.

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

In El Dorado John Wayne has occasion to remark to Ed Asner that since he doesn't carry a gun himself he hires it done. And then the Duke went on to make some remarks about the quality of his help.

But the reverse of the coin is when who you hire is too good for you to argue with. That was the problem that Sebastian Cabot has with Ned Young, a brooding killer who he hires to intimidate some farmers to get off land that unbeknownst to them has oil. It was at the end of the frontier days and the great oil discoveries that were to make Texas and oil synonymous were just being discovered.

One guy who won't be pushed is a Swedish farmer who Young kills. His son played by Sterling Hayden comes to town asking questions. Like Hayden in real life, the son is a seaman who's strange in that western environment. He carries no gun, but only a harpoon from his seafaring days.

By this time Hayden was ready to leave Hollywood for Tahiti and was just trying to earn enough money to sail there with his kids. He'd been a friendly witness at the House Un American Activities Committee It must have been a bit strained on the set because the screenplay was by Dalton Trumbo, one of the Hollywood Ten. Trumbo was still writing under pseudonyms though.

Hayden walks through his role, the real acting here is done by Ned Young and Sebastian Cabot. Both of them are a pair of hateful people, Cabot the greedy capitalist and Young the stone killer.

Western fans won't be disappointed however, especially at the final confrontation at the end.