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Johnny Guitar
Joan Crawford's powerhouse performance is the centerpiece of 1954's Johnny Guitar, a richly entertaining melodrama mounted on a western canvas, rich with colorful and three dimensional characters, guided by one of the greatest directors of the 1950's.
Crawford is spectacular as Vienna, the tough-as-nails owner of a saloon and gambling palace who finds herself implicated in a murder and a bank robbery, just as a man from her past named Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden) comes back into her life and commits himself to getting Vienna out of all the trouble she's in.
Yes, on the surface, this is a western, but take away the western setting and you have a good old fashioned soap opera, rich with all the elements you expect from the genre...murder, blackmail, a love triangle , and people accused of crimes they didn't commit. There is also a look at the effect of mob sensibility that reminded me a lot of the 1940 classic The Ox Bow Incident.
Screenwriter Phillip Yordan (Detective Story and director Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause) have constructed an emotionally charged story here with a strong sexual undercurrent as two of the principal male characters have romantic pasts with Vienna. Love the scene where Vienna and Johnny lay out their romantic past before us in the first person. Also loved the softening of the Vienna character as the film progressed, which I didn't see coming. Our first glance of the character finds her in jeans, toting a gun, ready to take out anybody who crosses her. When she has been captured and being prepared to be hung for her crimes, she is wearing a gorgeous white gown, but that tough exterior is never completely buried.
Ray's direction is sharp and often imaginative, creating some striking cinematic picture, like those explosions in the mountain ranges when the bank robbers are making their escape, or that first shot of Vienna's saloon burning to the grounds. Don't be fooled because it's set in old west Arizona, the Queen of Melodrama Joan Crawford and is in her element, chewing the scenery to the nth degree without every going overboard. Sterling Hayden offers the strongest performance of his I've seen as the title character and Mercedes Macambridge is appropriately intense as Emma. There's also a flashy supporting turn from Ernest Borgnine, who, a year later, would win a Best Actor Oscar for Marty, but this is Crawford's show
and she never lets you forget it.
Joan Crawford's powerhouse performance is the centerpiece of 1954's Johnny Guitar, a richly entertaining melodrama mounted on a western canvas, rich with colorful and three dimensional characters, guided by one of the greatest directors of the 1950's.
Crawford is spectacular as Vienna, the tough-as-nails owner of a saloon and gambling palace who finds herself implicated in a murder and a bank robbery, just as a man from her past named Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden) comes back into her life and commits himself to getting Vienna out of all the trouble she's in.
Yes, on the surface, this is a western, but take away the western setting and you have a good old fashioned soap opera, rich with all the elements you expect from the genre...murder, blackmail, a love triangle , and people accused of crimes they didn't commit. There is also a look at the effect of mob sensibility that reminded me a lot of the 1940 classic The Ox Bow Incident.
Screenwriter Phillip Yordan (Detective Story and director Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause) have constructed an emotionally charged story here with a strong sexual undercurrent as two of the principal male characters have romantic pasts with Vienna. Love the scene where Vienna and Johnny lay out their romantic past before us in the first person. Also loved the softening of the Vienna character as the film progressed, which I didn't see coming. Our first glance of the character finds her in jeans, toting a gun, ready to take out anybody who crosses her. When she has been captured and being prepared to be hung for her crimes, she is wearing a gorgeous white gown, but that tough exterior is never completely buried.
Ray's direction is sharp and often imaginative, creating some striking cinematic picture, like those explosions in the mountain ranges when the bank robbers are making their escape, or that first shot of Vienna's saloon burning to the grounds. Don't be fooled because it's set in old west Arizona, the Queen of Melodrama Joan Crawford and is in her element, chewing the scenery to the nth degree without every going overboard. Sterling Hayden offers the strongest performance of his I've seen as the title character and Mercedes Macambridge is appropriately intense as Emma. There's also a flashy supporting turn from Ernest Borgnine, who, a year later, would win a Best Actor Oscar for Marty, but this is Crawford's show
and she never lets you forget it.