Available on Blu-Ray from Mon 10 July 2017

What makes this flimsy B-Western stand out is that it was directed by one of the most interesting film directors of the noir genre. Hardboiled Gun Crazy (1950) (a gutsy forerunner to Bonnie and Clyde) and the influential The Big Combo (1955) were both helmed by Lewis. Terror was his Western with noir overtones – lots of deep focus, close-ups of tortured faces, psychological depths and city-slicker attitudes, only in stetsons. It culminates with a High Noon-style shootout which is most memorable for its use of a harpoon rather than a six-shooter (something of a cinematic first).

The famously blacklisted Dalton Trumbo (who also penned Gun Crazy) wrote the screenplay and it comes as no surprise that there is a strong message – put simply: friends should stick together because there’s always strength in the collective. And the important thing is to speak out against injustice. Most of the actors in the film are unrecognisable.

Even long legged lummox Sterling Hayden looks more homey than usual as the Swede returning to the land after time on the whaling ships. His father has been murdered and their farm may be forfeited thanks to oil being discovered on the land. Hayden is not anxious to fight but not anxious to lose his farm either. He needs to galvanise the locals and win the wretched saloon girl’s heart. “I have been all over the world and met all kinds of men – and women – and have never known one who could not change if he wanted to,” Hayden tells her.

And although the stereotypes abound – this is B-movie territory, after all – what lifts the film is its graphic sense and interesting use of an almost free jazz soundtrack. Even without being told on the extras by a film academic, it’s clear that this was a huge influence on Sergio Leone’s groundbreaking spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s.