How the Western Was Won...

If there's one thing that could be ascribed to the zeitgeist of it's times, it would be the fruitful revival of the Western in 1939. On the distant horizon, would be war for the Americans. Dire an atmosphere cast as dictators, throttle full, reign over a vulnerable Europe, whilst alien doctrines were now abroad. Now was the time of "Americanism" namely in it's values of what that nation was. The Western, would be it's very own anti-war rally, at the same time, invariably conveying the heroic period of an American expansion which emboldened it's inimitable democratic qualities and determination. The now outmoded swashbuckler would move over rover, and make way as it was being eclipsed  by the more viable Western. For it would be that the swashbuckler was  mostly comprised of gentlemen heroes who ventured their ways into the hierarchic realm of Old Europe, and this would now become seemingly anachronistic.

The swashbuckler film was centered within casa Warner Brothers, which served as it's main home base and these studios would be the source that catapulted Errol Flynn, the erstwhile lead of Captain Blood (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), into a myriad of costly, lavish and elaborately staged Westerns, on the heels of the success of Dodge City (1939). In the year that followed, Mr. Flynn would pose his pout in both Virginia City and Santa Fe Trail,  there would be more recurring Westerns in which Flynn would star in later in the decade - of note would be 1942's They Died with their Boots On and San Antonio (1945).

The revival of this spectacle and grandeur of Ancient World, Cecil B DeMille, already had his finger in that sugary Western pie thirties style, with his first ever oater entry; The Plainsman (1936) and Union Pacific (1939) A tribute to Canadian lawmen would segue with ;North West Mounted Police (1940) and a colossal celebration of America's own colonial background in the acclaimed Unconquered (1947).

               Give My Regrets to Broadway, coulda made a bit more there.


Hollywood Studios would soon take their place at the table, contributing their share towards the Western boom during wartime, by way of Twentieth Century Fox, who were renowned for their grandiose historical sagas. Fox would produce Brigham Young (1940) which centered on the Mormon pilgrimage to Utah during the 1840s. Western Union (1941) illustrated the creation of the Western telegraph system, and in 1944, Buffalo Bill, a mainly fictionalized account of the frontier scout would also grace the waves.

                                  Heeeeeeere's Kit..




In 1940, the creation by pioneers of these new western states would be chronicled in Arizona and Texas (1941). MGM gave us a taste of Wyoming (1940), while Republic would up the proverbial ante with both In Old Oklahoma (1943) and Dakota (1945). Paramount were no shirkers with 1946's California, Sam Houston and Kit Carson, who were respectively two of the most influential souls of the old West, would become subjects of enthralling epics made by smaller studios, Republic's Man of Conquest (1939) and Monogram's Kit Carson (1940)




Many other eventful characters of the West flurried onto the ol silvers. A bulk of these would be glamorized outlaws who were staunch believers in truth and justice...oh, and the American way too. These earnest individuals would pit themselves against the malevolent powers that be in monopolistic corporations, banks, and railroad companies.

                           Look out James Gang...


The restoration of the Western as a cinematic staple would be underlined by the eagerness with which film comedians took their trails West, satirizing the genre's conventions. A prime example of these comic cowboys were The Marx Brothers, with their not too okay corraling with Go West and in 1942, the dynamo duo of Abbott and Costello put their two spurs in with Ride Em Cowboy. Considered one of the finest and most acclaimed would be The Paleface in which a swimming Bob Hope got straight into his persona chaps as the lecherous coward braggart and the sultry Jane Russell in tow, recreating the seductive siren she created in the earlier effort The Outlaw.






The face of Westerns would get a special make-over in the forties, where in lieu of the fluff, would be more gravitas and intensity, where often themes of sexuality, contemporaneous social issues and violence would be rampant. 


A very early example of the socially concerning Western would be director William Wellman's The Ox-Bow Incident. (1943). Here we would be privy to a potent and somber indictment of lynch law ( not the Blue Velvet manifesto) The blatant superficiality of the studio-shot landscapes demonstrated the stark nature of the movie's message. A powerhouse cast, in which leader of the pack, Henry Fonda, astutely portrayed the root cause and effects of mob rule.

                      Those are not my eyes


Another controversial film, albeit in a different sense, would be Howard Hughes' production of The Outlaw. This entry was originally intended to be a vehicle for babe in woods Jane Russell, but Hughes being preoccupied with the certain upper curves of this actress, inadvertently turned this film into an advertising campaign for Russell's breasts. The judge who ultimately banned this film in Maryland was quoted, when describing them hanging over the picture 'like a thunderstorm spread over a landscape.' This Hughes film being immersed deeply in deep water would be withdrawn due to the censors and the Catholic Legion of Decency out for some proverbial blood. Following it's premiere in the year 1943, Hughes would pull the cord. Hughes would then comprise a publicity campaign to arouse mass interest in this film. The most memorable bait was of photographs of Jane Russell wearing the tightest blouse in tightville, which would earn her a one way ticked to sex symbol land - long before this film would be released.


When the Outlaw would finally come to fruition, with some marginal editing, in 1946, it would gross a whopping 3 million smackers in the United States alone. The truth of matter is that the film is as uneventful as it gets, slowly paced and Jane Russell's presence would be eclipsed by an all-male menage of Pat Garrett, Billy The Kid and Doc Holliday. 

                          The message was clear, Westerns were no longer their once chaste selves


In the end, the reputation build-up of The Outlaw, would assure that sex was now going to be part of the Western rubric. This would be affirmed by the successful outcome of David O Selznick's Duel in The Sun also released the same year in 1946. Here we find the amatory adventures of the staggeringly beautiful Jennifer Jones, who plays a half-breed Indian named Pearl Chavez, who would be seen as another hot-blooded figure in the tradition of Rio. Directed in the main by the most royal KingVidor, Duel in the Sun was shot in vivid Technicolor, and rife with lurid, blood-red sunsets, precarious horseback chasing, entrancing dances and intense love-making which would only be jolted by flashes of lightning, and bells pealing. This film's searing eroticism inspired one critic to hail the film as 'Lust in the Dust.'

Another key ingredient of the Western would be violence, in the past, with the mores of the time, was seen in all actuality as a bit of harmless fun. However, released like Andre De Toth's Ramrod (1947) would bring a new disconcerting brutality to the genre. Violence was not the only element - Freudian theories would also present themselves, as it updated the character conventions of the Western. The protagonist of Raoul Walsh's Pursued (1947) a genre-crossing noir inflected western, was Robert Mitchum, who is perpetually dogged by a repressed childhood, suffering post-traumatically, set to a dizzying montage of complex flashback.


Yet in light of all these developments and changes, Western's tradition was indelible and the Forties audiences would remain smitten and moth like to it's flame. The early years of this decade, would see two classic expositions of this change - The Westerner (1940) from William Wyler and Raoul Walsh's They Died With Their Boots On. The Westerner delved into the resistance of stand-up and hardworking homesteaders to the impervious organized might of the cattlemen. The film showcased extreme contrasts between the serene communal celebrations of the settlers ( a service of thanksgiving among the cornfields and a joyful hoedown), and the eruptions of unforgiving violence among the cowboys  ( trampling down the crops and carousing in town, challenging fights with anyone who looked at them crooked). In last resort, this was a film that was based on character as opposed to action and examined the love-hate relationship between Gary Cooper's Cole Harden and Walter Brennan's calculating alcoholic old reprobate Judge Roy Bean, dispensing summary justice from a saloon, and overtly worshiping the beauty of actress Lillie Langtry. Inevitably this relationship sees it's end. but satisfyingly with one last shoot-out in front of a theatre in which Langrty is due to appear.

                Neither one of you palookas has got a chance






When a prodigal John Ford would return after wartime service, he would never be more prolific. He embarked on this rich tapestry of film making with My Darling Clementine (1946) he utilized historical facts of the infamous feud betwixt the Earps and Clantons at the OK Corral and reshaped them into a quite personal and character driven statement regarding the introduction of civilization in the West. The Clantons were brutal, anarchic and ruled with a bullwhip by a curmodgen of a patriarch (Walter Brennan) who represented the unacceptable face of the Old West. Ultimately, they are destroyed by the Earps, whose family solidarity and reciprocated affection is placed at the mercy of the nascent community. The core values of this commune are illustrated in the just and famous sequence in which the kindly selfless citizens of Tombstone, as they hold a festive square dance in their partially built church, beneath the fluttering American flags. This imagery would convey a potent fusion of religion , patriotism and town spirit. which was the cement of the society that the Earps were attempting to build.


This same sense of allegiance to community, allied to an indomitable feeling for tradition and the collective concept of service to the nation, provided the language for Ford's cavalry trilogy, Fort Apache (1948) She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950) The values of this utopic society which Ford believed in, encapsulated in the US cavalry - and succinctly so in the flowing yellow ribbons, crossed sabers and lush vocals of the soldiers as they sing out "The Girl I Left Behind," in which we hear their unison, beneath the credits of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.These would be the very values that seduced Ford into the concept of the cavalry at the time America emerged from the second World War, and would face radical social changes and problems of a new variety.






It was finally in Ford's film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) where Ford would use the quotation 'When the legend becomes fact, print the legend' But in Fort Apache, Ford goes to all ends of the earth to convey the truth behind the legend. in this case which was Custer's last stand - at the same time illustrating how the legend is born and advocating the need for legends and heroes in the same process of edifying national memory. Ford lovingly re-created the rituals of cavalry life - the patrols and parades, the convivial parties and regimental balls and excitingly stages the battles, charges and Indian attacks as a background to the story of a misanthropic martinet, Colonel Thursday (Henry Fonda) whose reluctance and stubbornness eventually lead the regiment to it's disaster.