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A low budget western with a deep moral message, Joseph H. Lewis’s Terror in a Texas Town (1958) is an underappreciated Western that defies many of the conventions typically associated with the genre. At first glance, it may seem to be yet another run-of-the-mill B-western, but beneath its low-budget exterior, the film raises deeply disturbing questions about justice, morality, and societal complicity.
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Should there be madness in your script and the stretching of credibility, and should your script also be offering some subtle social comment, then there will be film noir.
The theme of there being a woman-in-danger ― or as the producers might prefer it ― to call it exactly what it is in their minds ― the paranoid woman ― is a firm film noir fave.
Nina Foch is one of many who had a bash at this ― note: you can tell she is a paranoid woman, because she is shot in bed. The paranoid woman is always filmed in bed, often clutching the covers. It's one of the more obvious signs of the trope. Bed is where these paranoid women often are!
Nina Foch however keeps the suspense on high throughout. The script never strays from her dilemma, which is just as well, because as with other films in this style, once examined, the set-up will be revealed as preposterous. It's one of the other better genre tropes and why it makes this psychological mayhem the fun time it is.
This is all happening in your marriage!
The walls and floors are streaked in shadows and there's a noisy boxing match roaring in the city.Joe McClure: I guess I'm getting too old to handle a gun.
Mr. Brown: Yeah, maybe you're just getting too old, Joe.