Texas Terror

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.