Little-known Joseph H. Lewis diamond-in-the-rough, TERROR IN A TEXAS TOWN, gets the Blu-ray treatment via Arrow Academy

A director with some 54 credits on his resume, whose films, a few of which -- Gun Crazy, The Big Combo, The Undercover Man -- are oddball gems that are much better known than he is, Joseph H. Lewis (shown below) was one of those filmmakers whose served his material, rather than the other way around. TrustMovies grew up greatly enjoying some of this fellow's films without being aware of who he was or how he fit into the world of movie-making.

All that is beginning to change these days, as Lewis'
better films continue to be more fully recognized and appreciated. One of these is TERROR IN A TEXAS TOWN (from 1958) which has just arrived on Blu-ray in a smackingly good edition from Arrow Academy -- with some first-class Special Features in tow. Starring that always-capable actor Sterling Hayden (below), playing the son of a recently murdered father who arrives in the titular town to take over his dad's home, the movie proves an unusually low-key and philosophical western about the meanings of freedom and justice.

The movie's excellent screenplay was written, under a pseudonym, by Dalton Trumbo, and it bears a number of this blacklisted writer's hallmarks, starting with its low-key approach and interest in ideas, as much as in action -- all of which director Lewis serves up to a tee.

Once in town and having learned of his father's death, Hayden's character encounters the suave-if-tubby lead villain, essayed with classy smarm by Sebastian Cabot (above, right), along with his hired-gun henchman, played by a crackerjack performer new to me named Nedrick Young, a blacklisted actor/writer who would give us the following year (using yet another pseudonym) the Oscar-winning screenplay for The Defiant Ones.

Mr. Young (shown above and further above) makes a simply terrific villain: intelligent but frightening and as impressive in his own way as is Hayden in his. The pair makes a fine set of adversaries, and the change that occurs in Young's character (I hesitate to call it growth, but yet I think it is) once he encounters a man who is unafraid to die (the fine Victor Millan, below, right), provides a death scene of such simplicity, intelligence and strength that it instantly becomes one of the more memorable that movies have given us.

The women in the film are quite interesting, as well, particularly the our villain's "kept woman" who does not seem to quite have to strength to stand on her own. As played by an actress also new to me, Carol Kelly (below, left, and at bottom center), this character proves to be another of the movie's memorable people with some interesting things to tell us.

Terror in a Texas Town, while adhering to practically every last one of the cliches of the movie western, still manages to often be quiet, thoughtful, and sometimes surprising -- never more so than in the scene (below) in which three bad guys work over our hero, and instead of the expected all-out, razza-ma-tazz fight scene, we get something quite other.

Conversations between characters are equally low-key and telling; they make us listen and consider. And director Lewis serves the intelligent screenplay exceedingly well, drawing expert performances from all, and keeping the relatively taut story-line moving along at a decent pace.

At most, I suppose, this is simply a very good example of the B movie that used to show up on double bills and sometimes proved better than the main attraction. But it is yet another feather in the late-arriving cap of this unusual and far-too-unheralded film director.

From Arrow Academy (distributed here in the USA by MVD Visual and running a lean 80 minutes. Terror in a Texas Town arrived on Blu-ray disc on July 11 in a new 2K hi-def restoration from the original film elements, with an uncompressed mono soundtrack. Also worth watching and included on the Blu-ray is the excellent introduction to the film (and its director) by Peter Stanfield.

From the treasure trove of classic, "disappeared" B films: Budd Boetticher's THE KILLER IS LOOSE

Unless you're a connoisseur of Hollywood's B movies of the 1940s and 50s, you might not have noticed that Netflix streaming is offering of late quite a selection of these, some of them I've not been able to find anywhere else. One excellent example of this genre from the late 50s, around the time Bs were beginning to disappear: THE KILLER IS LOOSE, written by Harold Medford from a story by John Hawkins and directed by a guy film buffs will certainly know and love, Budd Boetticher (shown below).

A great watch for nostalgia buffs; lovers of  tight, 50s crime flicks; folk who want the chance to see the voluptuous redhead Rhonda Fleming in black-and-white (many of her films were in color, and why not? Her peaches-and-cream complexion against that red hair: Whew!); or anyone who'd like to view a Boetticher movie that's not a western (the genre he's best-known for) -- if any or all of the above entice, then The Killer Is Loose is made for you. TrustMovies is offering a double dose of poster images this time (see above) -- partly because there are so few decent images available from the film but also to point up how badly designed some of the poster art from the 50s could be. (These were the days when the designer had to pack in an awful lot of information the best he could.)

The film runs but 73 fast-paced minutes and was most likely considered quite violent for its time. (Boetticher knew how to do the most with the least.) Think of this one as kind of police procedural of its time. The tight plot begins with a bank robbery in which not all is as it first appears. When our star policeman (the usual OK work from stolid Joseph Cotton) and his crew accidentally shoot the wife (above) of the robber (Wendell Corey, the  film's stand-out), the already unstable fellow goes full-out nuts -- but in his own quiet, mild-mannered-but-scary way (below).

Within the short running time,  Boetticher and Medford manage to work in the old "I-can't-bear-my-husband-being-a-cop routine, which helps lead to the movie's climax, along with several scenes that give Corey the chance to shine -- making us fear him but also understand where all this is coming from (his wartime service and a history of bullying). If the points scored aren't exactly subtle, neither are they driven home in any overly melodramatic way. This director was too smart for that, which makes so many of his films so surprising and so much fun to view.

One of the movie's best scenes has actress Virginia Christine (above, playing the wife of another cop) giving Fleming's character a good dressing-down for her selfish attitude. One of the later examples of the fine B film that often outshone the A film with which it was paired, The Killer Is Loose is available now via Netflix streaming -- another reason why this very affordable service is currently the best deal going for movie lovers of all kinds (except mainstream, would-be blockbusters).