Writers Had a Way with Westerns ...

 

Panning for Frontier Gold: Gun Fury, 3:10 to Yuma, The Deadline, and The Lonely Man

Often (always?) matters less who directed a western that who wrote it. That applied even to what Ford, Hawks, most famed and associated with the genre, did. I see particular names in credits and know there will be much ahead to like. All movies compel for good story and dialogue, westerns the more so. Or maybe I like them enough to sift continually for sleepers. For sure there are diamonds amidst much that is ruffage.

Depth That Didn’t Need 3D --- Gun Fury (1953) was a writer’s western laden with a short-lived gimmick not really needed. It was based on a novel by a woman named Kathleen Granger, who because she was a woman and felt aced out of western literature, created a triple credit for her novel, Ten Against Caesar, two men (her creation) whose names would grease acceptance for her work. Caesar was bought by Columbia and they put Irving Wallace and Roy Huggins on the job of adapting it. Wallace was prolific and got more so later in the fifties and into the sixties when he wrote bestsellers The Chapman Report and The Prize, both manna for movies. Huggins would dream up sure-fire concepts for television like other people tied shoes, creative brilliance for him strictly routine (credits: 77 Sunset Strip, Cheyenne, Maverick, The Fugitive, The Rockford Files, more … much more). Where names like these dressed credits, there was no doubt the western would go off worn paths and tender something fresh if not unique. Gun Fury and similars would not reinvent wheels or attempt same. They took tropes and tweaked them to effect they’d seem like reinvention. First step was often heavies with texture, as here Philip Carey as a self-described “unreconstructed” Southerner after the Civil War. All any director needed was words and situations to service settings and background, or as here overlay of 3D where well enough applied, details well attended by Raoul Walsh, who upon reading the Wallace-Huggins script had to know he’d finish in the money, this director recognizing distinction when he saw it. Good enough writing almost can’t be botched. Twilight Time released a very nice 3D Blu-Ray, out of print and expensive now.

Solid Opportunity to Root for the "Bad Guy" Here

Two Against the Clock --- High Noon had been an influence, sometimes to good effect, more often lazily applied. As for 3:10 to Yuma (1957) it was a benefit, in ways perhaps improving on the model. Desperate for cash Van Heflin takes the job of putting stage robber Glenn Ford aboard the train for Yuma prison. Complications with Ford’s gang ensues. That’s pretty much all, but critics and a thinking public saw more and called 3:10 something special among westerns offered in its year. Delmer Daves directed and more importantly salved the script. Less maybe of that was needed for story having origin with Elmore Leonard, who always brought fresh meat to western cookouts. Credited scribe also was Halsted Welles who wrote TV scripts by seeming thousands from fifties onward. Director Daves was assurance always of good output, especially westerns, his direction sure enough, but it was story and dialogue skills applied to each project that dug crucial inroads. Heflin and Ford do two-man verbal and sometimes physical combat throughout 3:10 to Yuma. Neither part goes cliched route, that to be expected given credits here, shadings to character plus great actors a guarantor to fine finished product. I like heavies with charm which Ford exerts throughout. You’d almost think he was a good guy getting a bad rap but for fact he shoots two men in cold blood during the opener strongbox steal. Ford had his choice of which part and this time he chose the bad man, a wise pick. Heflin has wife trouble that is neatly understated. How is it westerns benefit so splendidly from fine and subtle writing? At least they do for me. 3:10 to Yuma is on a Criterion Blu-Ray where words and image sound and look fine.

Nobody Wants Buck for Having Been a Convict. Who Says "B" Westerns Were Simple-Minded?

Buck Obliged to Pull in His Horns --- They’re letting Buck Jones out of prison on strict parole in The Deadline, modern dress letting us know this is here-and-now (1931) rather than wilder west days. That means Buck must behave or he’ll land right back, says warden John Elliot, who’s not kidding and Buck knows it. Thing is Buck is innocent of manslaughter he served for and suspects certain party who framed him, but what can he do? Local folk shun Buck for being an ex-con and he has to back down to bullies who know one wrong move will return him to the pen. Heartland America was still raw enough in 1931 for us to believe gunplay and fights in the street could and did happen. Look at bank robbers on the loose back then, and it seemed none got caught. Buck rides about like it’s 1879 and we believe him. Lambert Hillyer wrote and directed The Deadline. Fans who know westerns certainly know Hillyer. He began with Bill Hart and pegged the word prolific. Hillyer did over a hundred westerns and wrote the bulk of them in addition to directing. He slept outdoor yarning and made everything he did look and sound authentic. Hillyer, like Lesley Selander, William Witney, brotherhood of western specialists, all assuring fast and convincing action. Add Hillyer to Buck Jones and you got a good hour for sure. Old age didn’t slow him, as he finished up writing Highway Patrol episodes. Fun fact: Lambert also directed Dracula’s Daughter and The Invisible Ray, both excellent horrors. Mill Creek has The Deadline in a nine-feature Buck box.

Of Course I'm Crying ... We're Doing a Psychological Western Here.

Frontier Family Troubles --- 50’s westerns had to be “adult.” Don’t know who set that rule or when, but it was concrete by the time High Noon and Shane rode in to reconquer the frontier. About a same time saw series “oaters” ushered out, not gently but by toe of showworld boots, so-called “B” cowboys consigned to TV or oblivion. That’s thumbnail explain of what happened with westerns but detail of truths is more complicated, to which explaining I’d suggest Brian Garfield, Jon Tuska, Packy Smith among august panel of experts I always defer to (all past, and sadly, passed). Rest of us are like dilettante art observers who at least know what we like. To be an adult western meant you’d pour more drama and characterization. The Lonely Man trades on 50’s trend, the sullen, hateful boy who won’t forgive Dad for long ago leaving Mom. James Dean contaminated a lot of young players, including Anthony Perkins. I kept wanting Jack Palance to tan his hide for insolence, especially since Palance is set up from start as a big-time robber that deals harsh with weaklings. Does parental guilt run so deep as apparently it did in those days? Writer Harry Essex came from newspapers and short stories. I guess all the best talent began this way, certainly back then they did. Essex wrote good science-fiction in the fifties and even better film noir before that. He and writing partner Robert Smith give The Lonely Man what texture it has and no one was going to misread this as for-kids cowboys. There’s dragging through parts of 88 minutes till a showdown finish wraps conflict neatly. Such well-staged massacre helps up-to-then medicine go down.

ASTERIX: Turns out Greenbriar did Gun Fury back in 2018 at some length. Not too much overlap. Comes under heading I suppose of, Good Pictures Are Forever New. Call this then, another Black Camel moment.