Colin over at Riding The High Country has put up a nice post on Arthur Penn’s The Left Handed Gun (1958), a film I find more interesting than good. Make that very interesting.
This is one of a few 50s Westerns that sticks a juvenile delinquency story on horseback — Nicholas Ray’s The True Story Of Jesse James (1957) is another. It’s an approach that seems to work.
And though Newman’s Method is a bit too, uh, Method-y at times (as Colin points out), portraying Billy and his gang as a bunch of illiterate imbeciles who come to believe the news stories about them takes the picture in a fascinating new direction. James Best, with that strange giggly laugh that’d serve him well on The Dukes Of Hazzard, makes quite an impression.
(The subject line is from an interview with Arthur Penn.)
Thanks for the plug Toby. And a further thank you as you’ve actually reminded me of something I meant to include in that post.
THE TRUE STORY OF JESSE JAMES is more successful at blending the two genres, I think. It has those turbulent, mysterious emotional currents that are unique to Ray, even though it’s still not rated all that highly in his canon.
The True Story Of Jesse James is one of my favorite Ray pictures.
First, it’s a Western. Second, it’s in CinemaScope, which Ray always handled so well. Third, like Left Handed Gun, it’s fascinating in its failure.
I’d agree with both of you here as I’m kind of fond of “True Story” too.
I think Stephen’s correct in saying it works better than Penn’s effort, but once again the casting doesn’t help any.