Nonureva Really Surprised!

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . the ways. First off, "Dan" is Bess' dad and John's foster pops. That makes John's Canoodling with Bess some sort of incest (but probably just a mild case, by Red Nape Standards). Second, John and Bess fall in love with each other while John is firm in the sincere belief that he himself blew Dan's brains out awhile back. (But Bess later eagerly surrenders her Virtue to the thug who actually DID do in Dear Old Dad, as this sort of Patricide-by-Sexual-Proxy seems to be a major plot requirement for Early Westerns.) Third, the downfall of Joe Blow's Crime Empire comes when the Martin Brothers pass two stolen ONE dollar bills from a random heist months earlier to pay their cover charge for the Annual Halloween Dance & Milking Contest, which indicates that the Police State of Texas has always monitored the exchange of all cash down to the last buck far more carefully than it follows the swapping, selling, or gifting of military assault rifles capable of gunning down at least 102 civilians even when the lone shooter is surrounded by platoons of heavily-armed S.W.A.T. cops.

utgard14 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.

JohnHowardReid This is the twelfth of the fourteen Lone Star westerns in which John Wayne starred between 1933 and 1935. Unfortunately, it is not one of the most action-packed in the series. In fact, there are only three action sequences in the whole movie, including two at the beginning and the customary double climax. And none are staged with the breathtaking vigor of "The Lawless Frontier" or even "West of the Divide". True, a couple of the stunt falls are daring enough and the locations are well utilized, but writer-director Robert North Bradbury's camera in the hands of photographer William Hyer, is a bit light on running inserts. The stunts are all shot from fixed positions. And the climax is further marred by the obvious insertion of ancient stock footage. Instead we are treated to a comic milking contest between Fern Emmett and Henry Roquemore! As if all this were not inducements enough to give "Texas Terror" a miss, the heroine did not take my fancy at all, and the bad guys did not impress me either, though it was good to see Buffalo Bill, Jr. in a fairly sizable role as a sort of chief henchman to the chief villain. However, apart from Wayne himself, who turns in his usual capable performance, the most interesting player is George Hayes. Although he turns in an odd scene or two speaking in his usual wheedling old sourdough voice, for the most part he employs his natural accents. In fact, it's weird to see Hayes with such a neatly trimmed beard, let alone to hear this impeccably mellifluous voice issuing from his lips. Perhaps he felt the role needed more dignity – and he was dead right. In fact, Hayes is one of the very few members of the Lone Star stock company (Wayne is another) who can make writer-director Bradbury's clichéd and instant information dialogue seem at least halfway convincing.

John W Chance Almost all of the 'Lone Star' westerns have some unique elements that make them worth watching, if not just to see the early John Wayne. As one of the later films in the series, with its large cast, leisurely pace, and more developed scenes with lead and supporting players, it seems more like a western of the forties (of course, without the music sound track), with major portions of it given over to John Wayne's love interest, Lucille Brown, as Beth Matthews.In many of the previous ones the female had little to do, or was reduced to a cypher, and usually, as if by magic, kissed him or ran off with him at the end, hardly ever appearing much in the film or playing off him in very many key scenes.Here the emphasis is quite different.From her first scene facing the camera in a long medium shot and boldly proclaiming herself, she is given a lot of dialog and many scenes with John Wayne, who plays John Higgins, the 'falsely accused' killer of her father (this fact unknown to her until revealed by the villain, Leroy Mason as 'Dixon.') These scenes range from adulation and love, surprise and sadness, to vile contempt and tears -- when she condemns him as a robber, thief, liar and murderer -- and then back to "love in a cabin." No riding off into the sunset here! The movie gives more screen time to the heroine than to the villain! Here the villain, Dixon, is weak and doesn't appear very much. Well, you can't always have both (except in great films, of course!).Unfortunately, the film drags along after Dixon hatches the plot to steal all of Beth's horses. There's no tension or excitement that builds from this point on, even when Higgins captures Dixon, in a rather weak fight. Just a dull, working through of the plot. The first half had the excitement, with Higgins chasing and being pursued by Dixon's 'posse', who rob the 'Stage' (an old Tin Lizzie!).So, finally, I have to give it a four, even though I enjoyed the fact that as a love story, this was one 'Lone Star' that was more fully developed! Side note: We also get to see and hear George Hayes use his 'normal' voice and facial expressions as Sheriff (except for short inter cut scenes with 'Blacksmith Bob')!