Look out! Here's
seven more Westerns!
Track of the Cat (William A. Wellman / 1954)
Seven Men from Now (Budd Boetticher / 1956)
Warlock (Edward Dmytryk / 1959)
Death Rides a Horse (Giulio Petroni / 1967)
Jeremiah Johnson (Sydney Pollack / 1972)
Keoma (Enzo G. Castellari / 1976)
Open Range (Kevin Costner / 2003)
Track of the Cat is a Western, it is directed by William A. Wellman, and it's based on a novel by Walter Von Tilburg Clark. But believe me, those are the only three things this one has in common with 1943's
The Ox-Bow Incident! If anything, it's proof of Wellman's range and stylistic diversity. It's this very strange tale of a
very dysfunctional family living on a ranch in Northern California during the winter months, during which their cattle herd is terrorized by the ravages of a mysterious (and unseen) panther, and Robert Mitchum's character is determined to track it down and kill it. I've read some rather mixed commentary on this film in different books, one writer comparing it to a Roger Corman / Edgar Allan Poe film from the early '60s, and another describing its story as being like a bad Eugene O'Neill play. So I was naturally quite intrigued and quite determined to check it out. And I'm really glad I did, because it's one of the most unique and eccentric Westerns from the '50s.
Seven Men From Now is the first of seven films that director Budd Boetticher made with Randolph Scott and which have come to be known as the Ranown Cycle. This one, alas, wasn't part of
The Ranown Westerns box set which the Criterion Collection recently released, so I had to get it separately. And it's really quite good. Not necessarily the
best of the seven (I personally prefer
The Tall T,
Decision at Sundown and
Ride Lonesome), but it's definitely worth watching. I mean, Lee Marvin plays the villain, and you can't go wrong there!
Warlock stars Henry Fonda plays a legendary freelance marshal who is hired to deal with some no-good cowboys making trouble in the town of Warlock. Anthony Quinn plays his Fonda's scheming partner, and Richard Widmark is the reformed cowboy who ultimately has to stand up to Fonda. This one's quite a nifty late '50s epic Western, and there's more than just a hint of the Tombstone / Wyatt Earp legend in the story. Oh, and
Star Trek's DeForest Kelley plays one of the cowboy gang, so there's a nice bit of icing on the cake!
Death Rides a Horse is one of several Italian Westerns from the late '60s that starred legendary American character actor Lee Van Cleef, best known from the second and third films in Sergio Leone's "
Dollars / Man With No Name" Trilogy. John Phillip Law plays a young man whose entire family was killed in front of him when he was a boy, and he has sworn revenge on the outlaw gang responsible. Lee Van Cleef plays the older gunfighter who comes to his aid, and who has his own particular beef with the members of the gang. I must admit, though I thought this was a really good Italian Western, I didn't like it
quite as much as other films from the period starring Van Cleef, in particular
The Big Gundown and
Day of Anger (which also came out in '67). My main problem is John Phillip Law, whose performance I thought was really stiff.
Jeremiah Johnson is a very cool wilderness adventure starring Robert Redford as the title character, a war veteran who retires from civilization and heads up to the Rockies to live as a mountain man. Will Geer plays the grizzled eccentric who becomes Jeremiah's mentor. I thought this was a very effective film, and it's definitely got its share of tragedy and melancholy.
Keoma is an Italian Western from its "twilight" period in the late '70s, during which the sub-genre was kind of fading and on its last legs.
Django's Franco Nero turns in his
second most iconic Western performance as the title character, a half-Indian Civil War veteran who returns to his hometown to confront his three half-brothers, who have allied themselves with a tyrant named Caldwell who has taken over the town and put it on lockdown while a plague is ravaging the populace. William Berger plays Keoma's sympathetic father, and the legendary Woody Strode plays his childhood mentor George, who has become an alcoholic and must recover his former strength in order to help take the town back. There's also a mysterious old woman who appears to Keoma, who may be a witch or may even represent Death itself. A very strong and compelling late Italian Western, with a bent towards the mystical and religious allegory.
Open Range stars Robert Duvall and Kevin Costner - the latter of whom also directed - as open range cattlemen who run afoul of a tyrannical Irish rancher (Michael Gambon) who largely runs the local town of Harmonville, and whose men have crippled one of their hired hands (Diego Luna) and killed another (Abraham Benrubi). Costner's character is a Civil War veteran dealing with traumatic memories of the conflict, and he eventually develops a relationship with the town doctor's sister (Annette Bening). Whle not quite conceived on the grand scale of
Dances With Wolves or
Horizon: An American Saga, this movie definitely showcases Costner's ability to deal with more intimate characterizations and storytelling. Of Costner's Westerns, this is certainly more of a "chamber piece." And it doesn't hurt that Michael Gambon is one of those actors who excels at playing villains. (If you don't believe me, check out Peter Greenaway's
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover from 1989. He plays a
serious piece of work in that one!)
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