Sterling Hayden Movies

This near-legendary western stars Sterling Hayden as George Hanson, the son of a Swedish seaman-turned-farmer (Ted Stanhope). When he runs afoul of town boss Ed McNeil (Sebastian Cabot), Hanson's father is gunned down by McNeil's henchman Johnny Crale (Ned Young). Knowing full well that he can expect no help from the town's corrupt sheriff (Tyler McVey), Hanson takes matters in his own hands. Tension mounts steadily until the unforgettable climactic showdown, wherein Hanson arms himself with a harpoon! Extremely well written by Ben L. Perry, Terror in a Texas Town was one of the last directorial efforts of cult favorite Joseph H. Lewis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Kathy Ferguson (Barbara Stanwyck) is a cynical newspaper columnist in San Francisco, handling women's advice -- by chance one day, the paper's city editor assigns her to cover the woman's angle on the arrival of a pair of L.A. police detectives, Capt. Manny Alidos (Royal Dano) and Lt. Bill Doyle (Sterling Hayden), on the hunt for a murder suspect known to be hiding somewhere in the city. They're both pretty button-down types and seem like fish-out-of-water in the more easy-going Frisco, and Kathy quickly clashes with them both, especially when her column appealing to the missing suspect as a woman yields serious dual results -- not only does Kathy boost her profile and readership, but the missing suspect makes contact and is ultimately brought in; in the process, Kathy goes from journalistic back-bencher to media star. That would be the end of the issue, except that Kathy and Bill have become attracted to each other amid their clashes, parries, and thrusts, and decide to get married -- she spurns the offer of a job in New York to move to Los Angeles and settle down to the life of a wife and homemaker. But that proves impossible -- Kathy quickly chafes at what she regards as the empty vacuous chatter of her fellow detective wives' lives and social interactions, and also her place in their pecking order as determined by their husbands' ranks and assignments (and Bill just doesn't rate high enough). Her own life suddenly cut off from career and ambition, and an ability to act on either, she becomes fixated on Bill's career and advancing it and him as a substitute. She contrives to cross paths socially with Alice Pope (Fay Wray), the wife of Inspector Tony Pope (Raymond Burr), who is both the head of an elite detective unit and the top man in her husband's division, and is soon not only getting Bill invited to parties with Pope and the police commissioner, but also cutting her husband's boss Manny Alidos and his wife Sara (Virginia Grey), to whom she's taken a special dislike, out of those same events.
It's not quite enough, however, and Kathy starts socializing on her own with Tony Pope, on Bill's behalf, and the two soon have their own relationship. Bill is still too much of a nice guy, and not careerist enough or assertive enough -- until she feigns distress at receiving poison-pen letters accusing her of having an affair with Pope, and blames Manny and Sara. This drives Bill to confront and assault Alidos, leading to a hearing in Pope's office where the chief of the division -- now very much beholden to Bill for Kathy's sake -- comes down on Bill's side. When the smoke clears, Manny is bounced back into uniform and Bill is made acting captain and put in charge of the homicide unit that Alidos formerly headed. Bill is on his way, and so is Kathy and Pope's relationship. But Pope proves to be a distressingly honorable and loyal man -- when his wife's health takes a turn for the worse, he decides to put in for retirement, and Kathy wants him to recommend Bill as his replacement. He considers it but decides that regardless of what he's done outside of his marriage, the department is too important to compromise the detective division, and that Bill just doesn't have what it takes to head it. Kathy is too deep in her strategy to back off, and also feels betrayed by Pope; now pushed over the edge, she contrives to threaten him with a gun, and is prepared to make good on her threat. Ironically enough, Bill may get his shot yet at heading the division, as he's head of homicide and takes personal charge of the biggest case the department has seen in years -- bringing in Tony Pope's killer. The only question is if and how he can put together the clues and pieces of the puzzle leading back to Kathy. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Anita Ekberg amply fills the title role in the offbeat western Valerie. Clearly inspired by Rashomon, the film offers contradictory flashbacks during a lengthy trial. The defendant, Civil War hero John Garth, Sterling Hayden, is accused of seriously wounding his wife Valerie and murdering her parents. At first, the jury's sympathy is with Garth, who claims that his faithless wife was running off with preacher Blake (played by Ekberg's then-husband Anthony Steel) and that the death of his in-laws was accidental. But as testimony proceeds, it is revealed that the highly respectable, much-beloved Garth is a beast in human form. The complicated outcome of the trial has so many twists and turns that it would be criminal to reveal any one of them. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Frontier peacekeeper Sheriff Galt (Sterling Hayden) faces a crisis of conscience in The Iron Sheriff. In the aftermath of a robbery-murder, Galt follows the trail of evidence directly to his own son, Benjie (Darryl Hickman). Sworn to uphold the law at all costs, Galt is grimly determined to see that Benjie will receive a fair trial without any coercion on his part. But the townsfolk have already decided that the sheriff will try to spring the boy, and a lynch-mob mentality slows festers its way through the community. As the trial proceeds, it becomes obvious that Benjie is going to hang for his alleged crime, but there's still one or two surprises in store. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Killing was director Stanley Kubrick's first major film effort -- though, like Kubrick's earlier films, it was economically produced with an inexpensive cast. In a variation of his Asphalt Jungle role, Sterling Hayden plays veteran criminal Johnny Clay, planning one last big heist before settling down to a respectable marriage with Fay (Colleen Gray). Teaming with several cohorts, Johnny masterminds a racetrack robbery. The basic flaw is that all the crooks involved are losers and small-timers who find themselves in way over their heads despite their supposed cleverness. None of the participants is more pathetic than George Peatty (Elisha Cook Jr.), who is goaded into the robbery by his covetous and far-from-faithful wife (Marie Windsor). As in a Greek tragedy, Johnny's best-laid schemes go awry. Prominently featured in the cast of The Killing are offbeat character actors Tim Carey and Joe Turkel, who'd show up with equally showy roles in future Kubrick productions. The Killing is based on the novel Clean Break by Lionel White. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Republic's Trucolor process is shown off to good advantage in the outdoors actioner Timberjack. Sterling Hayden and David Brian star as Chipman and Brunner, a pair of rugged lumbermen who vie for the attentions of Lynn Tilton (Vera Ralston). The richer and more powerful of the two, Brunner would seem to have the advantage, but Chipman is handsomer. It also turns out that Chipman is more honest; Brunner has already killed several men in his climb to the top, and has cheated Chipman out of his rightful property. Lynn is won over to Chipman's side when she discovers that Brunner was responsible for the death of her father (Adolphe Menjou). Timberjack was based on a novel by Dan Cushman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Republic super-production The Last Command is a partial remake of the same studio's Man of Conquest (1939). But whereas the earlier film concerned itself with the exploits of Texas patriot Sam Houston, Last Command concentrates on Houston associate James Bowie, played by Sterling Hayden. When Texas is threatened by the armies of Mexican general Santa Ana (J. Carrol Naish), Bowie at first adopts a policy of peaceful coexistence. When this proves impossible, Bowie joins Davy Crockett (played as an irascible old cuss by Arthur Hunnicut) and the rest of the courageous defenders of the Alamo. The climactic confrontation between the heroes of the Alamo and Santa Ana is long in coming, but well worth the wait. Frank Lloyd's large-scale direction and the vibrant musical score of Max Steiner imbues Last Command with a "major studio" aura not often found in Republic productions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of Republic's most elaborate productions of the 1950s, The Eternal Sea is the biography of American admiral John M. Hoskins. Sterling Hayden delivers a superbly understated performance as Hoskins, who continued to serve throughout WW2 despite the loss of a leg in the early phases of the conflict. The admiral's farsighted activities as commander of the aircraft carrier Princeton led to the development of the more sophisticated jet-aircraft carriers of the Korean War. The well-chosen supporting cast includes Alexis Smith as Hoskin's wife Sue, Dean Jagger as Admiral Thomas L. Semple, Morris Ankrum as Adm. Arthur Dewey Struble, and John Maxwell as Adm. William "Bull" Halsey (whose life story would serve as the basis for the 1960 film The Gallant Hours). Elmer Bernstein's soaring musical score is the icing on the cake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the strangest westerns on record, Johnny Guitar has less in common with Zane Grey than it does with Sigmund Freud and Krafft-Ebbing. The title character, played by Sterling Hayden, is a guitar-strumming drifter who was once the lover of Arizona saloon-owner Vienna (Joan Crawford). Though her establishment doesn't make a dime, Vienna doesn't care because the railroad is going to come in soon, bringing a whole slew of thirsty new customers. This puts her at odds with bulldyke rancher Emma Small (Mercedes McCambridge), who doesn't want any new settlers on her land. Hating Vienna with a purple passion, Emma will do anything to drive her out of the territory...and even worse, Emma's got the law and the other ranchers on her side. Hoping to keep Emma at bay, Vienna hires Johnny Guitar, who unbeknownst to everyone else in town is a notorious gunslinger. But Johnny prefers to bide his time, waiting for Emma to strike before he makes his move. As a result, Vienna endures several life-threatening experiences, culminating with a feverish chase through the Arizona wilds with lynch-happy Emma and her minions in hot pursuit. According to most sources, the animosity between Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge was quite real, added several extra dimensions to their scenes together. Director Nicholas Ray and screenwriter Philip Yordan stuff the film with so much sexual symbolism that one wonders why they left out a train going into a tunnel. Ms. Crawford's vivid red-and-blue wardrobe scheme was later appropriated by Ray for James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause--with equally stunning results. In addition to the stars, Johnny Guitar is well stocked with reliable supporting players, including Ernest Borgnine, Ben Cooper, Royal Dano (superb as a consumptive, book-reading hired gun) and Paul Fix. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ross Hunter hadn't yet completely graduated to glossy, star-studded soap operas when he produced the taut crime meller Naked Alibi. Chief of detectives Joseph E. Conroy (Sterling Hayden) is busted after failing to prove that "solid citizen" Al Willis (Gene Barry) is a maniacal cop-killer. Despite his lack of authority, Conroy puts so much heat on Willis that the latter skips town with his floozy lady friend Marianna (Gloria Grahame). Conroy follows the two fugitives to a wide-open border town, then slowly and methodically maps out the villain's doom. Essentially a cat-and-mouse game for most of its running time, Naked Alibi slowly but surely builds up to a nailbiting rooftop-chase climax. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A car with two men visible in it pulls up to a Los Angeles service station at night, with a single attendant (Dub Taylor) working. As he starts to pump the gas, he doesn't see the third man come around the side until it's too late and he's knocked cold. The trio carries out their robbery but before they can finish, a motorcycle cop rolls up. A gun battle ensues, and one of the robbers is shot, as is the police officer. Now a manhunt is on for the trio, all escapees from San Quentin who were making their way south; the other two give the wounded man enough money to get to the apartment of a former cellmate of one of them, Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson). But Lacey is genuinely trying to go straight and live a clean, honest life with his wife, Ellen (Phyllis Kirk), and wants nothing to do with anyone he knew in prison, or with harboring an escaped prisoner. He's even more unhappy when Dr. Otto Hessler (Jay Novello), another ex-con and a veterinarian, arrives to treat the gunshot victim. But when the hood dies, matters get even more complicated -- Lacey's life becomes a nightmare as the police arrive, led by the hardboiled Det. Sgt. Sims (Sterling Hayden), who doesn't believe that any hood ever goes straight. Sims doesn't believe that Lacey's claim of knowing nothing of the escapees, and is ready to send him back to prison on a parole violation -- even though his parole officer (James Bell) believes him -- when he won't cooperate. And worse still, the other two escapees, Doc Penny (Ted de Corsia) and Ben Hastings (Charles Buchinsky, aka Charles Bronson), force their way into Lacey's home, insisting on hiding out there and threatening Ellen. And as they're now a man short, they want Steve's help on a major heist they're planning -- and will kill Ellen if he doesn't cooperate. Soon Lacey is up to his neck in a daylight bank robbery, timed to the minute, and his wife is at the mercy of a mentally deficient, sexually deviant confederate (Timothy Carey), while the police still seem to be following every trail but the right one. Steve realizes that he is the only one who is going to be able to save himself or his wife from this nightmare, and isn't convinced that he'll get out of it alive -- but by then, between being put on him by Sims and his unwanted companions, he's prepared to die in order to save Ellen. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

This 1953 tear-jerker is the third film version of the Edna Ferber novel So Big. Stepping into the role previously essayed by Colleen Moore and Barbara Stanwyck, Jane Wyman plays Selina, a girl of wealth who comes to a Dutch community outside Chicago as a schoolteacher. Here Selina falls in love with poor but big-hearted truck farmer Pervus DeJong (Sterling Hayden). When Pervus dies, Selina is left a widow with a small son and little else to her name. Through grit and perseverance, Selina single-handedly raises the boy, who grows up to be architect Dirk DeJong (Steve Forrest). Taking a cue from his self-sacrificing mother, Dirk devotes himself to creativity rather than money-grubbing while pursuing his profession. Meticulously produced, So Big is one of the better "saga" soapers of the 1950s, with Jane Wyman repeating her "aging" process from 1951's The Blue Veil. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide