If I
had to choose the movie-making era that beckons to me most, I’d probably have
to say late 40’s through early 50’s. A period which – make of it what you will
– happens to coincide with my birth and early childhood. Watching a picture I like from that period, I just tend to feel most at
home, most beguiled, most comfortably swaddled. I like to think I’m connected
to the present – the cinematic present at least. Favorite movies for me this
year include “Mommy” and “Two Days, One Night” (both films that certainly could
never have been made in the 40’s or 50’s). So I’m not always mired in the decade
after WW2 - but I often am. Movies have evolved and (as far as the best of
them go) matured in the years since. But that doesn’t lessen the appeal of the
vintage crop, which sings its own siren song - and certainly not just for me.
Somebody’s watching TCM.
My
mom started taking me to movies when I was a babe in arms. And - according to
her - I was transfixed from the word go.
Never made a peep. Just stared
and took it all in. I started going to Saturday matinees with the neighbor
kids by the time I was five (small safe 50’s town). Onscreen, the momentum of
old Hollywood pushed forward into the early 50’s films. The genres, performers,
rules and rituals were pretty much sustained.
I don’t remember serials being part of my own experience. But certainly
westerns were. Two or three new ones seemed to arrive every week. And were enthusiastically
watched and absorbed into my DNA. I can’t say western movies were my favorites back then –comedies, horror
and sci-fi, Disney films, swashbucklers and musicals all exerted equal allure.
But if westerns had been removed from the equation, the hole they left would’ve
been immense. They were such a large and integral part of early 50’s movie
watching – especially at Saturday matinees – that, looking back, they almost
seem to define the era.
It
wasn’t till decades later, having burrowed my way through the pasts of several other genres,
that I re-focused on vintage westerns and found them completely addictive. Now, I’ve never been an outdoor person. I
think I was on a horse once as a child – but maybe I just dreamed it. Still,
there’s nothing like an early 50’s saddle saga to bring out the armchair cowboy
in anyone. For starters, there are vast
expanses of glorious scenery to revel in. And with the right equipment and the right
talent in control of it, timberland, mountains, plains and valleys can register
as heaven on earth. And -stark or lush
–it’s a heaven that fully accommodates the smell of piney woods, the prickle of
cactus and the photogenic swirl of trail dust. A place where you feel you can fill your lungs and really breathe. At
least, till a particularly well-executed chase on horseback takes your breath
away. There’s really nothing quite so
bracing as a good 50’s western. Done right, the classic conflicts and high-energy
action are endlessly exciting . There’s
a comforting beauty and symmetry to the genre conventions and a joy in seeing the ways – from movie to
movie - those conventions are particularized, played with or sometimes departed
from. It’s all blissfully therapeutic
and the accumulated experience of seeing many westerns sets up an almost primal
need to see more of them. Which is not to say, every western’s a winner.
But you always know there’s a good chance the next one will be.
In
the early 50’s, the old Hollywood was much beleaguered, with TV rearing up as enemy
number one. But the studios – and the
system - were still running – and not yet on empty. They continued to maintain
permanent staffs of craftsmen who knew a million different ways to dress up a
western set. There was still a busy army of wranglers and stuntmen , their skills
honed on a non-stop schedule of
sagebrush dramas. Cinematographers had become marvelously adept at capturing
western landscapes. Films like “The Furies” and “Wagon Master” (both from 1950)
showed a staggering mastery of black & white photography. And aside from
full-on Technicolor, westerns were also well-served by alternative tint
processes. You could revel in the Turkish delight & gumdrop gaudiness of
Trucolor, Republic Studio’s pet process and thus the favored preserve of Roy
Rogers. And the cinnamon and pine-needle shades of Cinecolor, used by several
other studios as a less expensive alternative to Technicolor, fit western
settings like a glove; the DVD print of Randolph Scott’s “Albuquerque”(1948)
shows it off superbly. Not to mention Sepiatone
– with its Dorothy in Kansas allure. Strangely under-appreciated now,
considering the unique visual hush it lent to so many small and mid-scale
westerns. Check out ”Thunder in the
Pines” (1948) not exactly a western but certainly an outdoor adventure and a feast
for lovers of Sepiatone, beautifully preserved
on DVD.
The 50’s
was the decade when great western directors
like John Ford, Howard Hawks, Anthony Mann and Budd Boetticher made some
of their key works. Gifted craftsmen
like Jacques Tourneur and Joseph H. Lewis had dabbled in the genre in the 40’s and
continued to do so – sometimes to great effect -in the 50’s. And long-time B western
specialists like William Witney and Lewis R. Foster just seemed to get better than ever.
And
– of course – there was the star power. 30’s and 40’s icons like Cooper, Gable,
Stewart and Taylor turned more and more to westerns as the years advanced – and
all enjoyed great genre success in the 50’s. Glenn Ford had made some 40’s westerns
- but the decade after is when he emerged
as the definitive peaceable guy who could be pushed only so far; he even made
an impressive defection to the wrong side of the law in one of the era’s best,
“3:10 to Yuma”(1957). Alan Ladd (though often promoted as a tough guy) had a
natural sensitivity that made him easy to root for. Add to that a distinctive
voice, a tersely poetic way with dialogue plus immense physical grace. And it’s
easy to see what a natural fit he was for western stardom. And –of course – with “Shane” he found a
vehicle completely worthy of his gifts. Even non-Americans like Errol Flynn and
Stewart Granger, whose cultured accents suggested more Jane Austen than Zane
Grey, carried off western roles beautifully through sheer star-quality and
panache.
Second-tier
actors headed west on a regular basis too. Ronald Reagan slipped comfortably
into the saddle for several 50’s titles,
including dandies like“The Last
Outpost”(’51) and “Law and Order”(’53). John Payne, veteran of every
conceivable genre in the 40’s, was an even more frequent sight on 50’s movie
ranges. Ever adaptable and always welcome. John Derek suffered from Orlando Bloom
syndrome, sometimes dismissed because of his pretty-boy exterior in spite of real and quite individual
talents. Derek projected man-on-a-
mission intensity – with an inner flame that shot out of his eyes; this stood him in good stead through the 50’s as various bandits, pirates
and rebels. “The Ten Commandments” and
“Exodus” wouldn’t be quite as good as they are without his fire. He didn’t make
many westerns; but his simmering
presence was always an asset. Among his oaters, I probably like “The Outcast”(’54) best. If not as outwardly impassioned as Derek, Jeffrey Hunter, Robert Wagner and Tab Hunter
all acquitted themselves admirably in the saddle at least once and often more. Guy
Madison was appealing in a kind of “We both know I’m not much of an actor” way.
He was famously handsome
– and had some solid early 50’s hits like “The Charge at Feather River”
and “The Command” but successfully decamped to TV (as “Wild Bill Hickok) then went even further afield to Europe for –
among other things - some unexpected forays into sword and sandal territory. Former
Tarzan Lex Barker made several 50’s
westerns; but he eventually went to Europe too and that’s where he found his real western stardom. In the
Winnetou series, endearing ersatz oaters (German financed Yugoslavian lensed)
that took most of the world (minus North America) by storm, in the process
midwiving the spaghetti western revolution that changed the face of cowboy
movies. I’m neither here nor there on pocket-sized Audie Murphy. But there’s no denying he
carved out a lucrative career as Universal’s busiest cowboy in the 50’s.
Joining Ma & Pa Kettle, Abbott & Costello and Francis the Talking Mule
as the studio’s most profitable early 50’s assets. Ben Johnson, a real-life ranch-hand
turned stuntman was embarrassingly stiff
in his first lead (the non-western “Mighty Joe Young”). But with a couple of John
Fords under his belt, he was communicating authenticity and all-round
uprightness, with an uncluttered technique that’s still a marvel. And what
movie cowboy ever sat a horse better? He and Harry Carey Jr. make a wonderful
team in the miraculous “Wagon Master” a movie that surely gives “Shane” a run
for its money as the era’s greatest western. Most people forget that Johnson’s
actually in “Shane” too. It’s a small role, but when he’s onscreen, the man's quietly superb. It seems likely he never
had any real yen for stardom; after the mid 50’s he just kind of disappeared. Which
made it all the sweeter – for fans who remembered him fondly - when he won an
Oscar in the 70’s for his work in “The Last Picture Show”. Still authoritative, still 100% genuine.
Johnson,
as I said, probably never seriously courted stardom. But there were other might-have- beens who deserved to be western superstars, worked hard at it for
awhile, but somehow missed the breaks; Alex Nicol and John Russell would fit here. Tall, blonde
Nicol – a kind of American version of a Nordic god - could be cucumber cool as
a western hero (“The Redhead from Wyoming” ’53) or devilishly unstable as a heavy (“Dawn at Socorro” ’54). But he
always delivered the goods. For some reason, though, film-makers generally relegated him to the sidelines and
no matter how much quality work he contributed, more or less kept him there.
Eventually, like John Derek, he drifted out of acting and took up directing -a
profession both men seemed to find more fulfilling. Dark-haired John Russell was also tall and commanding.
To me, he was the best things in Fox’s lavish (but rather tame) 1947
bodice-ripper, “Forever Amber”. His Black
Jack Mallard highwayman, was dashing, dangerous and soulful. He was also –
unfortunately - killed off early in the picture. Fox should have groomed this
guy for stardom – but didn’t; so he moved to Universal, where they kept him
busy, sometimes in westerns - but hardly ever in the foreground ,where he most
certainly belonged. Eventually he wound up at Republic, where you’d think he’d
have finally gotten nothing but leads. No such luck. At least he landed a great
supporting part at Columbia in Randolph Scott’s “Man in the Saddle” ‘51.
Alexander Knox is the main villain – but it’s the Scott-Russell conflict that
really burns up the screen. I remember reading a (decades later) interview with
Joan Leslie, who worked with him a few times (in that film among others). All those years after, she was still expressing
amazement that Russell ( according to her just as impressive off-screen as on) had never achieved full-fledged stardom. I
think she speculated about poor management being a possible reason. He did enjoy some success on television.
Starring in two series “Soldiers of Fortune”(which I loved as a kid) and (more prominently) “The Lawman”. And –
with his dramatic cheek bones and imposing presence – Russell made a memorable Indian chief in Gordon
Douglas' super-entertaining “Yellowstone Kelly”(1959). But I’m with Joan Leslie.
This is a man who deserved bigger and better things than Hollywood offered him.
Of course it was another John who did
dominate the era’s westerns. That would be box-office magnet John Wayne - a law
(and an acting style) unto himself. He didn’t only make westerns in the 50’s.
But his westerns are what fans around the world couldn’t get enough
of. And with “Rio Grande”, “Hondo”, “The
Searchers” and “ Rio Bravo”, he straddled the 50’s landscape like a bow-legged colossus.
A
more cerebral ,psychological type of
western began to take hold in the late 50’s, though the constraints of the
Hayes code still kept a fairly decorous lid on things. At the same time, the
western TV programs that flourished tended to be pretty timid, too. Then – from Europe - came the spaghetti
westerns of the 60’s and suddenly all bets were off. Grit, graphic violence and
all-round nihilism were suddenly the order of the day. The old technical
proficiency was largely replaced by choppy editing ,bad color and worse
dubbing. The old classic film scores were displaced by Euro-twang. Reinforcing the over-all air of garish mayhem,
women in spaghetti westerns traipsed around in Russ Meyer hairdos and make-up. Supporting casts seemed to be chosen on
the basis of availability rather than suitability. But the movies connected with
audiences world-wide. And – yes the wave did manage to
produce some excellent films (“A Bullet
for the General”, “Death Rides a Horse”)) and stars(I like Guliano Gemma best).
Modern
westerns – and they don’t make that many anymore – have mostly
re-claimed the technical polish that was eroded during the spaghetti era. But –
and of course this is in keeping with the prevailing
mood of the time - they’ve certainly abandoned the old optimism.
Contemporary westerns are routinely permeated with the despair of the slaughterhouse. Graphic, profane, cynical and hopeless. With
every rotten tooth, canker and psychosis on full display. Like their grim, grey
muddy color palettes, these things almost certainly reflect the genuine old west more candidly than the fantasies I grew up on.
And the best ones certainly have braver, more adventurous scripts than
in the old days. I’ve seen one new western this year. It was “The Homesman”,
directed by Tommy Lee Jones. And it’s terrific. A genuine work of art that’s somehow gotten lost in the
shuffle. Jones also stars – and gives a
great performance. The film definitely made me feel I was seeing aspects of the
real old west through the inspired eye of a gifted modern film-maker. It’s sober
and profound and pulls no punches. And I
urge you to see it. Great westerns are still
being made.
Nevertheless,
whatever’s been gained over the years, something’s been lost, too. So I’ll
never stop returning to the cozy radiance of the early 50’s westerns. Live long
enough and there’s a good chance the present (and not the past) becomes a foreign country. Which is why return trips to that movie range can be
so much fun. It’s a place where old
friends and old conventions, old codes, old certainties, old thrills and old
fashioned optimism are always waiting to take us on one more ride. Maybe through a west that never was – except in our
minds and memories. But, after all, aren’t our minds and memories what keep us
going?
