Two chilly entries today.
Charlie Chaplin is one of the most famous filmmakers of all time and he often said
The Gold Rush is the personal favorite of his features. His character The Tramp has made his way north - WAY north - to the Klondike as part of the gold rush. During a blizzard he becomes trapped in a cabin with an outlaw and another prospector. Once he survives and makes it back to town there's a girl - there's always a girl. It is full of some truly ingenious and influential gags. Hysterical and near perfect. Our first silent film thus far, it lands on the countdown of MoFo Westerns at #78 with four votes including a fifth placer.
André De Toth on the other hand is not a famous director, and unless you are a film buff you may have never heard of him. The Hungarian De Toth worked in Hollywood genre pictures in the ‘40s and ‘50s. Horror fans may know him from
House of Wax starring Vincent Price in 3D and Film Noir fans may know him from
Pitfall with Dick Powell and Lizabeth Scott. But he made a saddle bag full of Westerns, starting with the very Noirish
Ramrod (1947) and finishing with
Day of the Outlaw a dozen years later. In between he made nine other oaters, six of them starring Randolph Scott. But his farewell to the genre is probably the most memorable and influential of the bunch. It certainly influenced Sergio Corbucci and Quentin Tarantino as
The Great Silence and
The Hateful Eight are unabashedly both cut from this same cloth. Set in the snowy Wyoming mountains (stunningly filmed on Mount Bachelor, Oregon) Robert Ryan stars as a man hellbent on getting rid of his romantic rival in town so he might possess the woman he is obsessed with (Tina Louise) but instead he is sidetracked. A pack of dangerous men ride into town, lead by a former cavalry officer (Burl Ives). Tense, bleak, and as frigid as the snow-covered wilderness.
Day of the Outlaw was on five ballots including a third place vote. It was one of the last flicks I cut from my own ballot so I was very happy to see it make the countdown.