User reviews

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!

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.

This entry in Wayne's series of Lone Star westerns that he made for Monogram in the 30's is a cut above the average. It has a good plotline and plenty of action crammed into its 51 minute running time.

In the early part of the film we see Wayne depart from his usual clean-cut hero image when he thinks that he has killed his best friend. He grows a beard and has a generally unkempt appearance almost foreshadowing a similar appearance at the end of "Three Godfathers" (1948).

The film is also enhanced by the appearance of such "B" western stalwarts as LeRoy Mason as the villain and a pre-Gabby George Hayes as the sheriff. There is also an unusually large cast of extras in the "Indians to the rescue" sequence which does not appear to be stock footage. The stunt work (likely coordinated by Yakima Canutt) is also superb.

Not a bad way to spend an hour.

This B-western begins with John Wayne as a town's sheriff. However, following a robbery, Wayen chases the baddies and thinks he's accidentally shot and killed an old friend--not knowing that the leader of the gang actually killed the man. Saddened by the death, he decides to quit the job and become a recluse...for a while. Eventually, he gets his act together and eventually unravels the mystery--saving the day.

Compared to other Wayne films of the era, this one is about average--entertaining but with a few problems here and there. The one big problem for me was the use of stunts--which were usually the highpoint of these films. Instead of staging new stunts, they sloppily took clips from other Wayne films and stuck them in--less than seamlessly. For example, though the grass is short and they are in a semi-wooded area, when baddies are shot, they fall in very high grass with no trees about them! Sloppy...and obviously recycled. Still, the rest of the film is breezy light entertainment--what you'd expect from such an unpretentious film.

A couple things to look for is a particularly bad job of acting and directing when the heroin enters the film. She talks directly to the camera and her delivery is less than magical...in fact, it's craptastic. Also, look for Gabby Hayes as the new sheriff. Unlike many of his other western roles, here he wears his dentures and sounds very erudite--without that 'old coot' voice you usually expect from him. This isn't too surprising, as in these Wayne westerns, Hayes experimented a lot with his characters--even sometimes playing bad guys or action heroes...of sorts.

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’d always resisted watching John Wayne’s 1930s Western programmers (some of them have been shown on both local and Cable TV over the years) – but, some time ago, my father had purchased a bargain-basement PD triple-bill featuring two of these (plus Clark Gable’s official debut, THE PAINTED DESERT [1931]) and I thought I’d check them out in time for The Duke’s 100th Anniversary. Incidentally, a few other early Wayne stuff is available from my local DVD rental outlet and, now that I’m in the vein for his films, I may get them as well...

Anyway, having watched two such oaters in quick succession, I can say that they’re harmless and enjoyable enough – but, at the same time, charmingly naïve. Curiously, some years back, I had rented a number of PD Westerns and these included a couple of Randolph Scott titles from this same era – TO THE LAST MAN (1933) and ROCKY MOUNTAIN MYSTERY (1935): they share a connection with the two Wayne films I watched in that one was directed by Bradbury, while the other was adapted from a Zane Grey novel; the Scotts, therefore, are similar but also slightly superior.

The plot of this one is pretty straightforward, but Wayne is a likable lead: he plays a sheriff who ends up accused of killing his best friend, resigns, meets and falls for the dead man’s daughter (whose ‘crime’ she’s unaware of) and eventually routs the real villain (who, unsurprisingly, is also interested in the girl). The treatment is completely unassuming (it has to be when the film is a mere 50 minutes long!) – with folksy characters (acting in broad early-Talkie style, particularly the leading lady) and stunt-heavy action (with the horses involved in some incredibly hazardous falls!). Still, the extreme low-budget is evidenced by the baffling intrusion on the Western setting of contemporary contrivances – houses are equipped with telephones, characters attend a dance in dinner-jackets, and Wayne himself is made to drive a car at one point (how a cowboy ever came to understand its mechanism so quickly isn’t worth pondering about, I guess)!

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.

An American Western; A story about a Sheriff who thinks he has killed his best friend in a gunfight with robbers. Amidst desperation he quits and goes into prospecting. He encounters his dead friend's daughter and becomes foreman on her ranch, hoping she won't find out about his past. John Wayne's acting is raw in this weaker issue from Paul Malvern's Lone Star Productions. It is characteristically low budget, but unlike others it's a bit low on action, though the chase sequences are quite impressive for their horse riding speed and stuntwork. Lucile Browne provides spritely support, and gives Wayne a dressing down so absorbing that it wouldn't be equalled until Katherine Hepburn in Rooster Cogburn many years later. 'Gabby' Hayes firms up the picture in a small way, but with less of the animation we are accustomed to. There is some comedic diversion between the action, but all in all it amounts to being quite mediocre.

After a shootout with some outlaws leaves his best friend dead, "Sheriff John Higgins" (John Wayne) is so emotionally distraught he decides to tender his resignation and heads out west to live a solitary life as a prospector. It's during this time that he befriends an injured Indian and carries him back to his tribe for medical attention which earns him the gratitude of the chief by the name of "Black Eagle" (William Wilkerson). Not long after that, he then witnesses a stage car being robbed and, after chasing off the bandits, not only recovers the stolen loot, but also rescues the sole female passenger--who just happens to be the daughter of his best friend. Unfortunately, she mistakes him for one of the bandits which complicates things even more for everyone involved. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was a decent western but suffered from a poor script, unsophisticated action scenes and a very short running time (approximately 51 minutes). Having said that, however, I have always believed that it isn't quite fair to compare a film made so long ago to those produced in modern times and, as a result, many of these issues should probably be discounted to some degree. Even so, this was, by and large, a grade-B film by any standard and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

"Texas Terror" is better than a lot of the Wayne Lonestar Productions. In this one, Wayne gets a chance to expand on his usual innocent-tough guy persona. After an incident where his friend gets shot, a distraught Wayne quits his job as sheriff. He falls apart and grows a beard and looks like he's halfway towards turning into a Gabby Hayes, gruff-old- goat character. He then does another nice-turn-around to get back to being the hero. Wayne is less stiff and actually looks interested in the scenes he's in. Its really one of his best early performances.

Besides Wayne getting to play a more multi-dimensional character, there's a great plot twist at the end. It is Wayne's Indian friends who come charging on horseback to the rescue. It is nice to see a 1935 movie where the Indians are truly the good guys and heroes in the tale.

There's an hilarious milking contest in the middle. The losing milker looks exactly like the Pappy Yokum character from Li'l Abner. He was probably the prototype.

Overall, this Wayne Lonestars becomes more interesting as it goes along. This is not something you can say about some others.

No need to repeat the plot. This matinée special has a number of interesting features. Reviewer jayraskin1 is right—this is one of the young Wayne's better performances since he has to run a gamut of emotions from shame to anger. He's actually a better actor than these two-reelers required, and I wouldn't be surprised this was a feature where the great John Ford caught Wayne's potential before elevating him to the A-class in Stagecoach (1939). Then too, I enjoyed the old flivver chugging down the road. Sure, there are some questionable anachronisms like the antique telephone. But it's fun and revealing to see these early editions of everyday modern contraptions. Also, the milking contest is a charming hoot, expertly done by the two characters playing the yokels. I wish I could say the same for the leading lady who at one point declaims like she's center stage doing Shakespeare.

But wonder of wonders, catch an apparently well-groomed George (Gabby) Hayes in several scenes where, dare I say it, he looks almost handsome! I'm still wondering about that and whether I should have any more 12-packs while enjoying these oaters. Speaking of visual oddities, is that about ten seconds of a subjective camera in the movie's first part when the scene goes all blurry as though we're peering through the blurry eyes of the leading lady (I believe it was hers and not mine!). If so, it's one of the few subjective shots in a genre not known for arty effects, to say the least. Anyway, I'm glad Lone Star popped enough money to put the larger than usual cast including extras into the piney mountains east of LA. The locale may not be the scenic Sierras, but it sure beats the scrubby hills of city outskirts. All in all, it's a better-than- average entry for fans of the Lone Star- Wayne series.

The Lone Star westerns John Wayne made for Monogram Pictures became his cut-rate purgatory before stardom. Some go down easier than others; "Texas Terror" mostly just goes down.

Sheriff John Higgins (Wayne) is fooled into believing he shot his best friend in a gunfight with robbers. It's decided the friend, an old man who happened to be carrying a wad of dough, was part of the robber gang, so Higgins is off the hook. He turns in his badge anyway.

"When duty makes it necessary to take the life of a man like Old Dan Matthews, then I'm through with duty," Higgins declares.

"Texas Terror" is the kind of movie where things happen abruptly. Coincidences abound unexplained. People deliver long exposition in the form of conversation, stiffly and at one point, staring directly at the camera: "I'll be so happy to get home. You see, I'm Bess Matthews, and I own the Lazy M," a woman tells a driver after he has presumably been driving her awhile.

Bess (Lucile Browne) is the daughter of the slain man, and for some reason new sheriff Ed Williams (George Hayes, not yet going by his better-known moniker "Gabby") decides Higgins is just the man to help Bess get Pa's ranch up and running. Never mind the fact he supposedly killed her father. Is this sort of thing supposed to be a secret forever, or does Ed think they will laugh it off when she finds out?

Wayne's Lone Star pictures were mostly sub-par films, often worse than that. But most of them do feature Wayne coming into his own as a solid anchor performer. Here, however, he seems flustered and bored. At one point, when talking to the second male lead, villain Joe Dickson (LeRoy Mason), he seems to forget the character's name, awkwardly stopping mid-line.

Director Robert N. Bradbury plays with spatial reality a lot here. In the beginning, we see Higgins right behind the robbers, even shooting one off his horse. The wounded man stumbles into a house where Dickson shoots Dan Matthews. This would have been heard by Higgins, you'd think, except somehow now the guy is ten minutes behind, so he can be led to believe he shot Matthews himself in a later battle, never mind the corpse is lying in the middle of a room, not near a window.

The film does have some grace notes. A milking contest brings some country charm, with lovable Fern Emmett as Bess's Aunt Martha going toe-to-toe with a competitive but amiable old coot. You also have a scene where rustlers threatening the Lazy M are set upon by local Indians who act at the behest of their friend, Higgins. The Lone Star productions were death on stunt horses, but nobody in the 21st century can fault them on their handling of Native Americans. Throughout Wayne's run there Indians are depicted as his wise and loyal friends.

Whatever the intentions on view, the movie is so draggy, unbelievable, and lifeless I struggled to sit through it, short as it was. Even Hayes seems less invested in his character this time around. Wayne looks formidably scruffy for a while after leaving the sheriff's job, even sporting a beard for a while, but he is hemmed in by the same exposition-laden dialogue that does in everyone else. "Texas Terror" wound up more like Texas Tedium to me.

John Wayne is the local sheriff and in his attempt to stop some would be robbers, he believes that he has killed his best friend,, he is very distraught and winds up quitting his job, and becoming a hired ranch hand in the desert, in the meantime , he helps some Indians with their day to life and problems,, George "Gabby Hayes,, plays the old sheriff , who now has to take the job of sheriff since Wayne quit.. Leroy Mason plays the villain as usual, and does a pretty good job with it. as the film moves on , one of the people he is helping a young girl, who he knows very well is the daughter of his friend,, the man who he believes he has killed, will she find out that he had something to do with it,, in the meantime he has to stop some horse thieves, and eventually it will all lead back to who shot his best friend,, and interesting watch,, not a great western,, but not a bad one either,, middle of the road , maybe a little better.

Sheriff John Higgins (Wayne) follows three men responsible for a hold-up at Wells Fargo to the ranch of his oldest friend, Dan Matthews. When Matthews is killed by the outlaws, Higgins mistakenly believes himself to be responsible, and quits his job as sheriff. When Dan's daughter comes to claim her inheritance, she asks Higgins to help prove that Dan was not part of the hold-up.

John Wayne is the Texas Terror in this early western of his, which is a bit creaky in places, has some annoying synthesiser music (maybe someone shot the piano player) and the plot feels a bit shaky but it has a good story where Wayne is mistaken as a murderer of his mentor friend. Bad guy LeRoy Mason feeds that flame, tells the dead man's daughter (Wayne's love interest) and she believes him. It's quite passable, helped by good acting by Wayne and some twisty plot points. Got confused for a second by the appearance of a car!!

I enjoyed this movie. I found the characters to be well written and the set good. Good movie overall 6/10.

Encore Westerns presented "Texas Terror" in November of 2014 and I was able to see it for the first time. That I had not seen it before surprised me, and that I got to see it this night gratified me: It is an excellent entry of the Lone Star movies.

Robert North Bradbury wrote and directed and had a cast of good actors, including John Wayne giving an unusual performance, one that merely foretells even greater performances to come.

Wisely, director and make-up and costuming allowed him to look like the "desert rat" he was supposed to be.

His leading lady, the lovely Lucile Browne, was one of the ablest among his B-Western co-stars, a very, very watchable young lady who I wish had made more movies.

Leroy Mason is, as usual, the chief bad guy, but he is such a smooth and good-looking guy, I wish he had had his own series with him as the hero.

All the players, even as the most minor characters, are totally believable and usually likable, helping make "Texas Terror" an excellent B-Western movie that I highly recommend.

There is a lot of story in "Texas Terror," with lots of good action, marred somewhat by (in my opinion) out-of-place stock shots that could have been omitted to the improvement of the still good movie.

One complaint: Neither the film credits nor even IMDb tells us who played Chief Black Eagle. That is a shame, a slap in the face to him and to us, the viewers and fans. I hope someone somewhere knows who he was and corrects this terrible omission.

TEXAS TERROR (Lone Star Productions for Monogram Pictures, 1935), written and directed by Robert N. Bradbury, stars John Wayne in reportedly his twelfth quickie western (52 minutes) for the studio, and one of his more interesting regardless of low-budget scale and no underscoring for mood setting and pacing. Wayne continues to use his first name to his character as before. As usual, he gives another commendable performance.

Set in an unknown town, the story introduces John Higgins (John Wayne) as sheriff, thanks to the assistance and upbringing of his fatherly figure and best friend, Dan Matthews (Frank Ball). Matthews stops by to pay John a visit, telling him about wanting to restock and repair his "Lazy M" ranch for his daughter, Beth, set to arrive from the East to live with him next year. On his way to King City after withdrawing his savings from the bank, three men rob the Wells Fargo Express Company riding off with the stolen money. Hiding out in the home of Matthews outside of town, he is gunned down by one of the robbers. With Sheriff John in pursuit, a shootout ensues before the robbers get away. As John enters the cottage, he finds Matthews dead. Believing he shot him by mistake, John withdraws is position as sheriff, leaving the job to his predecessor, Ed Williams (George Hayes) and lives a secluded life as a lone prospector. During the course of a year, John forms a lifelong friendship with Chief Black Eagle and his tribe after carrying his injured son with a broken leg miles back to his home. John later assists incognito the visiting Beth Matthews (Lucille Browne) by rescuing her from being held up after bandits after killing off her driver. The now clean-shaven John is hired by Sheriff Ed to work as foreman of the ranch now belonging to Miss Matthews. As time passes on, Beth begins to fall in love with John until Joe Dickson (Leroy Mason) says something incriminating to change her mind about him. Other members of the cast include Fern Emmett (Aunt Martha Hubbard); Buffalo Bill Jr. ("Blackie" Martin); Bert Dillard ("Red" Martin); John Ince (Bob); Henry Roquemore (Square Dance Caller) and Jack Duffy (Jake Abernathy). Sources fail to mention or credit the name of the Indian actor who played John's good friend, Chief Black Eagle.

Considering this being a fast-paced production that really gets down to basics the moment it starts, with robbery and horse chasing sequence all under five minutes, TEXAS TERROR is certainly one of those little westerns that needs to be seen more than once. Not that the story elements are hard to follow, but mainly to capture certain elements of interest that may get missed the first time around. Quite typical and standard for its time, TEXAS TERROR is more of interest today for the youthful presence of John Wayne from cowboy matinee hero to major box-office attraction of many genres, especially westerns, that serves him best.

Interestingly, Wayne's next Lone Star Production, RAINBOW VALLEY (1935) featured much of the same cast as TEXAS TERROR (John Wayne, Lucille Brown, George Hayes, Leroy Mason, Buffalo Bill Jr., Bert Dillard and Frank Ball). It's no sequel but different story and character portrayals making it worth seeking out.

Available on video cassette and DVD format, cable television broadcasts to TEXAS TERROR include American Movie Classics (1996-2000), Encore Westerns and MGM Plus. Beware of slightly shorter prints with new intrusive underscoring that takes away from the enjoyment of this little western gem. (**1/2)

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!

John Wayne becomes friends with a tribe of Indians after helping a young Indian boy but it all starts when Duke thinks he killed his best friend, played by Frank Ball. He goes into seclusion and this time has more whiskers than Gabby Hayes. The heroine Lucile Browne does well in her romantic interest in Duke but unaware of his role in her father's murder. Of course the West's favorite villains, Leroy Mason plays his role to the hilt in creating a love triangle. There's a great folk dancing and a cow milking contest scene with favorite western character actress Fern Emmett and silent screen vaudeville comic Jack Duffy. As another reviewer noted, he looked like Pappy Yokum from Li'l Abner. As always there is great stunt work of Yakima Canutt. One of the first times Wayne got to run the gamut of dramatic emotions as a multi-dimensional character. Of course he did them brilliantly from love, anger, overwrought, and of course "Texas Terror".