This rousing low-budget western had a remarkable cast and
enough fresh ideas to keep it more than interesting from start to finish. The
cast includes John Ireland as a disaffected veteran of the Civil War and
Dorothy Malone as a small-town newspaper editor’s daughter. Lon Chaney, Jr.,
plays the heavy, a maniacal cattleman. Jack Elam is nicely sinister as one
of his henchmen.
Plot. At the movie’s
start, Ireland seems to be in a post-traumatic state, having sustained unnamed
battlefield experiences as a Confederate soldier. He arrives in Independence,
Missouri, intent on drifting westward, maybe as far as California. We’re told
that he’s looking for “a way of life where he would never again have to bear
arms against man.” He doesn’t find it in Independence.
Before even arriving, he’s witness to the murder of a
homesteading couple, whose house is then burned to the ground by a gang of
ruffians. They work for Chaney, who regards the nesters as unwelcome squatters
on his land.
The local newspaper editor (Frank Marlowe) is being
encouraged by Malone, his outspoken daughter, to demand justice. But the town
banker (Charles Trowbridge) is in cahoots with Chaney and threatens to call in
his loans to the newspaper if it sides with the homesteaders.
Leaving town, Ireland is intercepted by Chaney’s nasty
daughter (Myrna Dell), who doesn’t like him crossing the property. She arranges
to have him shot as he’s being escorted away by one of the ranch hands (William
Holmes). When, at her orders, Chaney’s chief thug (Lawrence Tierney) bushwhacks
both men, he ends up dead himself, shot by the dying Holmes.
Ireland survives the shooting and is taken in by the
homesteaders, who are mustering courage to fight Chaney. But he soon finds
himself arrested for the two killings. He is taken prisoner by the town marshal
(Wayne Morris), who is in the hire of Chaney. Surprisingly friendly,
even-tempered, and reasonable, the marshal is a man of some refinement, who
keeps a chessboard on his desk.
When Elam and another man attempt to interfere with the
publication of the newspaper, Malone pulls a gun on them. As Elam tries to
intimidate her with his patent leer, she shoots him dead. Marlowe’s editorial
when it sees print is a scathing attack on Chaney, who sends two men to ride
into the print shop on horseback and wreck it before mortally shooting Marlowe.
Ireland escapes from jail and marshals the farmers into an
armed defense of their homesteads. He acquires a gun for that purpose, and
Chaney’s gang, led by Dell, rides into an ambush that quickly reduces their
numbers. Only Dell escapes.
Chaney collapses and dies when he learns from Ireland that
his days as a tyrant are over. Meanwhile, at the bank, Dell shoots the banker
after she’s persuaded him to open the safe, and makes off with a bagful of
cash. But the dying banker manages to put a slug through her before she gets
away.
All the villains removed from the picture, we last see
Ireland and Malone getting friendly on the floor of the wrecked newspaper office.
He has decided to stop drifting and take over for the departed editor. The
movie ends with a kiss.
Dorothy Malone, before she found fame as a blonde |
Camera angles and the blocking of actors before the lens
(sometimes called “mise-en-scene”) often show a wish to be
freshly different. Sunlight catches clouds of dust stirred up by galloping
horses. There is a Citizen Kane-style
montage as the newspaper’s fiery editorial is read aloud by various characters.
An interior scene involving Ireland, Malone, and a half dozen farmers is
carefully played out in a single take, the camera following the actors as they
speak lines and move in the space.
Map of the U.S. in 1848, Independence, Mo., at far left |
The script has some clever exchanges of dialogue. When after
a bar fight Chaney’s chief henchman says to the marshal, “This stranger
insulted me and Franklin,” the marshal replies, “I didn’t know it was possible.” When
he tells the pistol-toting Malone, “Don’t you know that ladies aren’t supposed to
handle guns,” she says, “Now you know one that does.”
The two women’s roles in the movie are unusually strong.
Malone is not just a pretty face whose chief purpose is set decoration. She
fearlessly voices strong opinions. In an argument with her father, we get this exchange:
Marlowe: You should have been in politics.
Malone: I am. Every American is in politics.
She also knows how to use a gun and will kill a man if she has to. Chaney’s daughter is her foil, a woman of similar grit, who has gone over to the dark side. However, Dell’s performance is consistently shrill, and you find yourself wishing for a little nuance.
Marlowe: You should have been in politics.
Malone: I am. Every American is in politics.
She also knows how to use a gun and will kill a man if she has to. Chaney’s daughter is her foil, a woman of similar grit, who has gone over to the dark side. However, Dell’s performance is consistently shrill, and you find yourself wishing for a little nuance.
A curious choice that doesn’t work is making Chaney a man
who has become both mentally and physically rigid. Unable to rise from the
chair where he sits, he delivers all of his lines in a rage, without gesturing, shifting
position, or even turning his head. His final scene has him rise stiffly and
fall in a heap, like Dracula in his last moments.
John Ireland in Gunslinger, 1956 |
With over 200 screen credits, John Ireland would go on to make more westerns, including Gunslinger (1956) and Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957). Director Rod Amateau had a long career in TV, producing and
directing comedies the likes of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1956-1958) and The Many Loves of Dobie
Gillis (1959-1963). The
Bushwhackers seems to have been his only
western. The script was co-written with Tom Gries, whose long writing and
directing career in film and TV included Will Penny (1968) and Breakheart Pass (1975).
The film is currently available online at Internet Archive,
where there are also a number of stills from the movie. At netflix and amazon,
it is included with three other films in volume 12 of the cheapy Platinum
series, “The Great American Western.” The film is available singly at
Barnes&Noble. For more overlooked Movies and TV click on over to Todd Mason’s blog.
Photo credits:
Dorothy Malone photo, tcm.com
John Ireland photo, imdb.com
Dorothy Malone photo, tcm.com
John Ireland photo, imdb.com
Coming up: Oakley Hall, Warlock (1958)
According to associate producer Herman Cohen - who was just a kid when he worked on this one for Realart - this was the flick that pushed Zinneman and Kramer toward casting Lon in HIGH NOON. Don't know about that, but the films were made very close to each other. Also, Lawrence Tierney was in this one, playing a baddie. Larry never felt he was suited for westerns - he was a true man of the city - and we just did a little piece about that in the new issue of TRUE WEST (sorry about the plug!).
ReplyDeleteThanks, Courtney, for the background. I think Chaney is wonderful in OF MICE AND MEN. I'd forgotten about HIGH NOON.
DeleteI always liked Dorothy Malone especially. When my husband first met me I looked a bit like her and he called me Connie after her part in Peyton Place. I wonder if he remembers.
ReplyDeleteAsk him.
DeleteI remember seeing this one years ago -- probably at a drive-in -- and thinking it was a good film. But in those days I thought any Western was a good film. But I viewed this one within the past year and I think it holds up very well.
ReplyDeleteI always thought John Ireland was a highly underrated actor.
Good review.
I should have mentioned RED RIVER, too. He plays an interesting role there opposite Montgomery Clift.
DeleteAnd I'll suggest that GUNSLINGER is a better than we could/should reasonably expect no-budget western, as well. Beverly Garland being the star doesn't hurt.
ReplyDeleteNeed to give that one a look if I can find it.
DeleteWomen have played a decisive role in the westerns I have read and watched in recent months. Your excellent review highlights the "unusually strong" roles of the two women, Malone and Myrna, in this film. They are gutsy and they mean business, whichever way they go. That said, I haven't seen THE BUSHWHACKERS and I am not familiar with John Ireland in spite of having seen GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL long ago.
ReplyDeleteNot use to seeing Lon in a western and Malone as a blonde. Different enough for me to take a gander.
ReplyDelete