Classic movie site with rare images, original ads, and behind-the-scenes photos, with informative and insightful commentary. We like to have fun with movies!
Archive and Links
grbrpix@aol.com
Search Index Here




Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Part Two --- Johnny Guitar

Co-stars of Johnny Guitar had to be separated for promoting gigs. As Crawford canvassed Texas, Mercedes McCambridge and Scott Brady made Broadway's Mayfair Theatre opening with Republic chief Herbert Yates. Decca Records threw them a cocktail party to stir embers for Peggy Lee's theme tune, and McCambridge/Brady judged a guitar strumming contest at Macy's. The pic was a surprise grosser even in this urban center. Reviews weren't helpful, but who needed them for a show like this? Something was in the air with Johnny Guitar, or maybe it was just the fact of fewer westerns among June '54's Top Ten to compete with it.


Herb Yates had wanted Johnny Guitar's cast to convene at his home for a live TV broadcast celebrating LA's opening, but that was like cats in a sack for angry barbs Crawford, Hayden, and McCambridge had been lobbing at one another. Crawford besides was forbidden by contract (so she said) to make vid appearances, owing to a net series that was imminent (didn't happen). The event was called on account of temperament.  Crawford meanwhile let off steam over an industry's indulgence of new generation stars and lack of discipline/decorum they showed. That last put Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe in crosshairs, among others. JC ridiculed what she called their whining to psychiatrists about childhood trauma, and revealed more about herself than was intended when she asked: Who grew up happy?


A nice aspect of Johnny Guitar was variety of ways you could merchandise it. Miami's Paramount Theatre was testing ground for which campaign clicked best. Approach "A" is the western action angle, reported Motion Picture Exhibitor, Miss Crawford as a glamour girl is played down, but she is sold as a gun-toting queen of a gambling house. The romance is played down also and the suspense and excitement angle are sold. The "B" side called for emphasis on Crawford in a daringly different role, and the impassioned romance is played up. To be soft-pedaled here was JC clad in black levis with guns and holster. Johnny Guitar had potential appeal to both sexes among ticket-buyers, and indeed broke out well beyond males that usually comprised greater support of westerns.



Action Man Nicholas Ray
 It was early enough in Nicholas Ray's career for the director to try on different labels. In Johnny Guitar's wake, he was dubbed a master of motion picture realism by The Independent Film Journal. Ray's fight scenes are considered some of the greatest in the history of the action motion picture, said an admiring trade. I don't like to use doubles, Ray remarked, I like to shoot close ... none of that "stagey look" others fell victim to. Was Nick trying to position himself as a next Howard Hawks or Raoul Walsh? It wouldn't hurt to develop a rep for gunplay and slapping leather --- likely as not, Ray got his Run For Cover assignment based on promising vibes off Johnny Guitar.



June 1954 saw Johnny Guitar tucked among a nationwide Top Five, according to Variety's boxoffice survey. Republic was perhaps most surprised to see it capturing ... many smash to great playdates. In fact, JG was bettering biz done by The Quiet Man, Republic's till-then yardstick of sock receipts. Those Texas houses saw Johnny Guitar "running way ahead of "Quiet," according to the trade's round-up. Success in theatres would not be duplicated, however, come early 1958 and a combo of JG with The Quiet Man, both being prepped in any case for release to television that same year. Exhibitors were up in arms over Republic's wholesale dumping of post-48 features to the enemy tube. The company's deal with six NBC owned-and-operated stations called for 140 titles to be available for broadcast, Johnny Guitar making its vid premiere during May 1958 on New York City's affiliate.



Johnny Guitar Opens in L.A.
 ... with John Ford's The Sun Shines Bright
as a Co-Feature.
From here to cult immortality came courtesy Films, Inc. and other non-theatrical suppliers. The first of the baroque westerns, as Johnny Guitar was known at a peak of Nicholas Ray's auteur standing, could be rented in 16mm for between $35 and $115, depending on audience size and whether or not admissions were charged. A by-then down-on-luck Ray attended many of these college screenings and was initially nonplussed by youth's worship of a show he'd gone years disdaining, memories of cast feuding, Republic's interference, and their withholding of a producer's credit souring recollection of Johnny Guitar. Maybe it needed a new generation to reassure Ray that his creative instincts had been right after all.

1 Comments:

Blogger John McElwee said...

Dan Mercer writes in with more on "Johnny Guitar" ...


One of the fascinating aspects of your site is how often you present some box office statistic which seems to belie whatever impression one might have had regarding a film's popularity. I would have thought that a film as weird and esoteric as Johnny Guitar could have appealed to a few critics, but would not have gone over all that well with the public. Instead, you've shown that just the opposite was the case, the critics being indifferent to it, by and large, while the public made it a substantial hit. As you pointed out, the timing of its release was crucial, there being no other big westerns out at the same time, while Joan Crawford's stardom probably made it seem more important than it would have been otherwise.

Today, its appeal is the reverse of what it was. To the public, it's another old film, but to film enthusiasts, it seems to presage the work of Quentin Tarrentino and others working today. To my mind, this reflects the essential decandence of their films, when morality and sentiment are as easily manipulated as sound and image, and to no better end than our supposed amusement. Death is a quip, tragedy a jest. Sterling Hayden's confession of love to Joan's Vienna would actually be rather affecting, as was David Carradine's for Uma Thurman's Bride in Kill Bill, save that, given the context, each is worthy only of a smirk.

8:28 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

grbrpix@aol.com
  • December 2005
  • January 2006
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • September 2006
  • October 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • February 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • July 2007
  • August 2007
  • September 2007
  • October 2007
  • November 2007
  • December 2007
  • January 2008
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • September 2008
  • October 2008
  • November 2008
  • December 2008
  • January 2009
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • April 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2009
  • July 2009
  • August 2009
  • September 2009
  • October 2009
  • November 2009
  • December 2009
  • January 2010
  • February 2010
  • March 2010
  • April 2010
  • May 2010
  • June 2010
  • July 2010
  • August 2010
  • September 2010
  • October 2010
  • November 2010
  • December 2010
  • January 2011
  • February 2011
  • March 2011
  • April 2011
  • May 2011
  • June 2011
  • July 2011
  • August 2011
  • September 2011
  • October 2011
  • November 2011
  • December 2011
  • January 2012
  • February 2012
  • March 2012
  • April 2012
  • May 2012
  • June 2012
  • July 2012
  • August 2012
  • September 2012
  • October 2012
  • November 2012
  • December 2012
  • January 2013
  • February 2013
  • March 2013
  • April 2013
  • May 2013
  • June 2013
  • July 2013
  • August 2013
  • September 2013
  • October 2013
  • November 2013
  • December 2013
  • January 2014
  • February 2014
  • March 2014
  • April 2014
  • May 2014
  • June 2014
  • July 2014
  • August 2014
  • September 2014
  • October 2014
  • November 2014
  • December 2014
  • January 2015
  • February 2015
  • March 2015
  • April 2015
  • May 2015
  • June 2015
  • July 2015
  • August 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2015
  • November 2015
  • December 2015
  • January 2016
  • February 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2016
  • May 2016
  • June 2016
  • July 2016
  • August 2016
  • September 2016
  • October 2016
  • November 2016
  • December 2016
  • January 2017
  • February 2017
  • March 2017
  • April 2017
  • May 2017
  • June 2017
  • July 2017
  • August 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2017
  • November 2017
  • December 2017
  • January 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2018
  • April 2018
  • May 2018
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
  • August 2018
  • September 2018
  • October 2018
  • November 2018
  • December 2018
  • January 2019
  • February 2019
  • March 2019
  • April 2019
  • May 2019
  • June 2019
  • July 2019
  • August 2019
  • September 2019
  • October 2019
  • November 2019
  • December 2019
  • January 2020
  • February 2020
  • March 2020
  • April 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2020
  • July 2020
  • August 2020
  • September 2020
  • October 2020
  • November 2020
  • December 2020
  • January 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2021
  • April 2021
  • May 2021
  • June 2021
  • July 2021
  • August 2021
  • September 2021
  • October 2021
  • November 2021
  • December 2021
  • January 2022
  • February 2022
  • March 2022
  • April 2022
  • May 2022
  • June 2022
  • July 2022
  • August 2022
  • September 2022
  • October 2022
  • November 2022
  • December 2022
  • January 2023
  • February 2023
  • March 2023
  • April 2023
  • May 2023
  • June 2023
  • July 2023
  • August 2023
  • September 2023
  • October 2023
  • November 2023
  • December 2023
  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024
  • April 2024
  • May 2024
  • June 2024
  • July 2024
  • August 2024
  • September 2024