Not copyrighted by Beacon Productions, Inc. A Max Alexander Production. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 18 October 1934. 61 minutes. (Available on an Alpha DVD).
SYNOPSIS: A cowpoke "adopts" the young daughter of a bank robber.
NOTES: The first of Williams' six films as a "B" western hero for M. and A. Alexander... Writer, Sherle Castle, is a pseudonym for Shirley Ulmer, wife of the director. COMMENT: There are films that are bad-and vastly amusing because they're so inept in all departments. And then there are movies that are just plain awful, nauseous even, and contain few, if any, redeeming features. Thunder over Texas belongs firmly in the latter category. True, the director (hiding for good reason under the pseudonym, "John Warner") has contrived maybe three or four pleasing camera set-ups. The rest, however, are not only thoroughly routine but mundane in the extreme.
Production values with their impoverished sets, dusty locations and inept use of ancient stock footage also leave much to be desired. The acting varies from the excrutiatingly bad (Benny Corbett and company) to the barely passable.
The script with its almost complete absence of action and its focus on an archly sentimental story about a garrulous Shirley Temple tot and the not over-bright cowpoke who rescues her, would have to rate as a rabid western fan's worst nightmare. (What little action makes its way into the Milly Molly Mandy plot, is staged with breathtaking ineptitude by cult director Edgar G. Ulmer).
When you add in the most boring, mind-numbing "comic" relief we've ever had to endure in a lifetime of picture-watching, you'd have to agree that Thunder over Texas notches up as a prime contender for Worst "B" Western of All Time.
And while I'm handing out nominations, how about Ben Corbett (gasp... gasp... "This is Station T=O=M, Tom, signing off for the last time... Signing off... Signing off...") for Worst Supporting Male Performance of All Time?
SYNOPSIS: A cowpoke "adopts" the young daughter of a bank robber.
NOTES: The first of Williams' six films as a "B" western hero for M. and A. Alexander... Writer, Sherle Castle, is a pseudonym for Shirley Ulmer, wife of the director. COMMENT: There are films that are bad-and vastly amusing because they're so inept in all departments. And then there are movies that are just plain awful, nauseous even, and contain few, if any, redeeming features. Thunder over Texas belongs firmly in the latter category. True, the director (hiding for good reason under the pseudonym, "John Warner") has contrived maybe three or four pleasing camera set-ups. The rest, however, are not only thoroughly routine but mundane in the extreme.
Production values with their impoverished sets, dusty locations and inept use of ancient stock footage also leave much to be desired. The acting varies from the excrutiatingly bad (Benny Corbett and company) to the barely passable.
The script with its almost complete absence of action and its focus on an archly sentimental story about a garrulous Shirley Temple tot and the not over-bright cowpoke who rescues her, would have to rate as a rabid western fan's worst nightmare. (What little action makes its way into the Milly Molly Mandy plot, is staged with breathtaking ineptitude by cult director Edgar G. Ulmer).
When you add in the most boring, mind-numbing "comic" relief we've ever had to endure in a lifetime of picture-watching, you'd have to agree that Thunder over Texas notches up as a prime contender for Worst "B" Western of All Time.
And while I'm handing out nominations, how about Ben Corbett (gasp... gasp... "This is Station T=O=M, Tom, signing off for the last time... Signing off... Signing off...") for Worst Supporting Male Performance of All Time?