What’s a blog dedicated to 50s Westerns doing taking part in the For The Love Of Film (Noir) Blogathon? The money raised will help the Film Noir Foundation and Paramount Pictures fund UCLA’s restoration of the 1950 film noir The Sound Of Fury (also known as Try And Get Me), which means one more film that won’t be lost forever. Regardless of genre, that’s reason enough. 
Thinking about the connection between 50s Westerns and film noir, I saw a few ways to approach it: Noir-ish Westerns, remakes and the co-mingling of personnel.
Noir-ish Westerns
From the fatalistic tone to the flawed heroes to the cranked-up violence to the brooding cinematography, almost every 50s Western shows some film noir influence. In pictures like Winchester ’73 (Anthony Mann was one of noir’s finest directors) and The Gunfighter, the influence is quite obvious. But even a Roy Rogers picture like Spoilers Of The Plains (1951) seems a little darker than the ones that came before it.
It’s a shift that makes sense. Audiences had been through World War II — they knew what death looked like. They’d seen the product of the darkness people carry around inside. And they’d learned that the good-guy/bad-guy thing doesn’t correspond with the color of your Stetson. These postmodern cowboys spend as much time battling their own demons as battling the bad guys. Not only does this align them with the whole noir thing, but at the time it let them offer up something TV didn’t have.
Maybe it’s a simple matter of semantics. Is the Psychological Western just film noir on horseback?
A few examples:
• The Anthony Mann/Jimmy Stewart pictures — Winchester ’73 (1950), The Naked Spur (1952) and The Man From Laramie (1955) are standouts.
• Henry King’s The Gunfighter (1950) and its distant relative The Bravados (1958), both starring Gregory Peck.
• Most of the cheap Westerns Lippert Pictures released in the 50s, with Little Big Horn (1951) being a good one to seek out.
Someone could write a book on the Noir Westerns. And should. If nothing else, it makes a great game for film fans, arguing about which Westerns are the most noir-ish.
Remakes
High Sierra (1941) is a great film, with a terrific performance from Humphrey Bogart, but its Western remake Colorado Territory (1949) is even better — and certainly one of the darkest cowboy pictures ever. Raoul Walsh (who also directed High Sierra) works hard to develop characters we care about, getting incredible performances out of Joel McCrea and Virginia Mayo, only to (spoiler) gun them down like dogs.
The Badlanders (1958) is a Western take on a film noir you might’ve heard of — The Asphalt Jungle (1950). It stars Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine, along with Anthony Caruso — who was also in Jungle.
Noir People
Trail Guide (1952) is one of the last of the RKO Tim Holt pictures. And while the RKO Holts rank among the best series Westerns ever made (I’d say they are the best), Trail Guide isn’t one of the better ones. RKO was tightening the budgets, and the films suffered for it. The chemistry between Tim Holt and Richard Martin and the direction of Lesley Selander go a long way, however, and even the weakest entry is the series is worthwhile.
I happened to be researching the Holt pictures when the Blogathon was first announced, and I became intrigued by the ties between Trail Guide (picked more or less at random from the post-war Holts) and some of the best film noirs. Here’s some of what I came across.
The cast: Any fan will tell you that character actors are usually one of the best things about any film noir or 50s Western, and Trail Guide has a supporting cast with plenty of noir credentials. Frank Wilcox’s incredible list of credits includes Out Of The Past (1947), Bunco Squad (1950) and Naked Alibi (1954). Robert Sherwood appeared in Two Dollar Bettor (1951). John Pickard’s in White Heat (1949), The Sniper (1952) and Crime Wave (1954). John Merton turns up in Parole, Inc. (1948) and The Big Heat (1953). And in 1947 alone, Kenneth MacDonald could be seen in Johnny O’Clock, Brute Force and Crossfire.
These guys appeared in hundreds of films, so this crossover isn’t unexpected. As we move behind the camera, however, things get more significant.
Screenplay: Writer Arthur E. Orloff provided the story for the interesting (and hard to find) narcotics caper picture Hell Bound (1957, which had the great working title Dope Ship).
Cinematography: This is where the picture’s noir connection really gets interesting. Trail Guide benefits from being shot by the great Nicholas Musuraco, whose noir credits include Stranger On The Third Floor (1940), Out Of The Past, The Woman On Pier 13 (1949), Born To Be Bad (1950) and The Hitch-Hiker (1953). That’s a film noir pedigree that’d be hard to beat, and it helps explain why the RKO Holts are often praised for their gorgeous location photography.
Editing: By the time he threaded Trail Guide into the Moviola, Samuel E. Beetley had cut Out Of The Past, The Big Steal (1949) and The Threat (1949). All three of these, like the RKO Holt Westerns, are marked by expert pacing.
Along with revealing a surface relationship between the two genres, this exercise provides some insight into how the studio system worked. You went to work, you worked on the picture you were assigned, and when it was done, you started another one. It might be a future classic with a name cast, or maybe you’d find yourself in Lone Pine with Tim Holt. By working more or less nonstop, actors, writers, technicians and others were able to really hone their craft. And along the way, with such talent involved, the divide between A and B pictures became somewhat blurred.
This Studio Era edition of Six Degrees Of Separation (actually, just one degree) applies to other genres, too. Try it sometime. You can read about most of the noirs I name-dropped by trolling the other blogathon posts. I kinda doubt any of them will bring up Trail Guide.
Trail Guide isn’t a lost film. It turns up on Turner Classics every so often, looking great. But sadly, none of the post-war Tim Holt Westerns are available on DVD. They’ve been prized by 16mm collectors for years, especially non-C&C TV prints, and they deserve the re-evaluation a DVD release would bring about.
Many films aren’t as lucky, however, which is where the blogathon comes in. To find out more, head to the Self-Styled Siren and Ferdy on Films. Here are links to posts by the other blog participants, headed by the one and only Leonard Maltin.
Most importantly, here’s where you can contribute.
By the way, last year, I wrote about Joel McCrea and the almost-lost Stranger On Horseback (1955).
I imagine Noir is every bit as flexible a genre as the Western is, but in the Western there was perhaps a little less room for adult relationships between men and women, in particular adult relationships that threatened to turn the men into the chumps they always pretended they weren’t.
Lucky for most cowpokes, as soon as some Marie Windsor or Ruth Roman or Marlene Dietrich (Destry) came along to drag the hero down into his own worst impulses, some farm fresh, bible-toting sweetie would point him in the right direction.
One of the things that makes The Furies so interesting is that it’s told from the perspective of the Phyllis Dietrichson figure, who is made to seem less predatory because she’s surrounded by even worse characters–in particular, her father and his new wife.
I’ve not made a study of Noir influences in the Western, but I’d wager what makes the subject most interesting is how they differ from their contemporary urban counterparts. As I said before, the radio Gunsmoke was probably as dark as Westerns got.
Here’s a question: Is Johnny Guitar a Noir Western? Are The Ox Bow Incident or The Hanging Tree or Decision at Sundown Noir Westerns? How about the Monte Hellman Westerns or Man Of The West?
Forgive me for rambling. You know how it is.
These are the kinds of things that came to me as I thought this post through. Since it’s hard to really pin down just what film noir is, it’s hard to transfer those “rules” to another genre.
One of the main differences I found that separates noir from Westerns is that in noir, almost everybody’s a crook of some sort, even the cops. In Westerns, the good-guy/bad-guy thing usually stays in place, even when the hero is as haunted as, say, Jimmy Stewart in Winchester ’73.
So I guess the best you can hope for is a Western with a few noir-ish elements thrown in, and there’s plenty of those. Man Of The West might be the poster child.
You brought up the Hellman Westerns, which also reek of noir’s influence. And no matter what kinda tag you wanna stick on ‘em, they sure are good.
It’s been a lot of fun to try to sort out which Westerns come closest to noir. It’d be fun to argue it over coffee (or an adult beverage) someday. My inability to come up with a clear-cut answer kept my post from being as focused as I wanted it to be.
But the question that’s more frustrating the the noir/Western debate is: when does a simple Crime Picture become film noir?
And another: Anthony Mann brought a lot of noir with him when he saddled up; Phil Karlson and Jacques Tourneur did not. What gives? And how does the whole auteur thing fit in with that?
Speaking of Noir Westerns–is anybody else fond of The China Lake Murders? And does Sayles’ Lone Star qualify? No Country For Old Men does, I think, as does Blood Simple and Red Rock West. Who’ll Stop The Rain?
I better quit now.
Asked a friend of mine tonight about Noir Westerns–a guy who amazes me with his depth of recollection and Westerns knowledge, and he mentioned Ride A Violent Mile. Turns out this, like Little Big Horn, was directed by C M Warren. Anybody seen it?
It’s a John Agar Regalscope picture. And like all Regalscope Westerns, I’m dying to see it.
You asked, when does a Crime picture become Noir, but I think it’s sort of the other way around. The nightmarish intensity of the post-war film, Siodmack, Lang (Scarlet Street, Woman In The Window, later The Big Heat), Ulmer, and so on, became psychologically tamer and less sexually heated as the decade turned, except for films like The Killing.
The Crime picture, to me, is like the mid-Thirties Warner movies (G-Men) 15 years after the fact. Stylistically to me, I can’t help thinking about the first season of Superman–full of nasty thugs in cheap suits, in that flat B&W style, all medium shots. (it also had the best Crime movie score)
You’re right about the good-guy/bad guy thing–the great Noir are too subjective–they’re projections of the inner turmoil or helplessness of the protagonist. That’s why it lends itself so well to Weimar-era visual tropes. There’s something about Noir that is at its heart about lifting the lid and watching the vermin scatter and the worms writhe.
You mention Karlson–he seems like a Crime picture director to me–Five Against The House. Maybe The Big Heat is the perfect mix of Crime picture and Noir. Tell me, what’s The Asphalt Jungle?
By the way, ever see Stranger On The Third Floor?
Excellent! I also had stuff about noir Westerns and pulp influences on my place for the Blogathon. I’ve a second installment going up tomorrow.
http://vanwall.blogspot.com/2011/02/donate-right-here-pilgrim-personal.html
Wonderful post!
I’m not sure about the goodness/badness of the characters in westerns being more clearly defined than in classic film noir. In the better westerns, and especially in the darker ones, the protaganists are rarely conventional heroes. There’s often a very ambiguous streak running through them.
Also, although the western and noir seem, superficially at least, to be polar opposites in terms of location and style there’s some common themes. The femme fatale thing is a bit of a straw man argument – not every noir has such a character and many feature “girl friday” types to haul the guys back from the brink. Really classy westerns, like noir pictures, offer a man who’s isolated or removed from society for one reason or another and driven to take a certin path by factors that are frequently out of his control. The late 40s and into the 50s saw a lot of dark westerns, and it’s no coincidence that many of these were made by people who either started off in noirs or made some notable films in that style.
“Ride A Violent Mile” is dreadful like the rest of Warrens
Regalscope westerns.
His Regalscope spooker “Back From The Dead” is worth
checking out though.
“Ramrod” is a very good Noir Western although De Toth
and McCrea did not get on.(De Toth wanted Gary Cooper
to play the lead;McCrea wanted Raoul Walsh to direct.
They never worked together again.)
“Jack Slade” which I only finally caught up with recently is
the bleakest most disturbing Western I have ever seen.
I found a copy of Jack Slade, but haven’t had a chance to watch it yet. Really looking forward to it.
Ramrod is terrific.
It’s true that I rankle when I hear people talk white hats/black hats when they discuss Westerns–I think Westerns, esp the post-war Westerns, were often far more sophisticated than that, but I think that while the darkest Noirs allowed downbeat endings, Westerns were a little shyer about letting the hero go to his grave unjustified.
Ramrod pops up a lot. Terrific picture.
I know it’s not a fifties western, but what about the Robert Wise / Robert Mitchum film Blood on the Moon? Two Icons of Noir!
What do we think of Lust For Gold? That’s pretty bleak stuff IMO.
A great post — love all these connections and the examination of the eternal question “What is noir?”
Two candidates for Western noirs: PURSUED and BLOOD ON THE MOON, both starring noir hero (antihero?) Robert Mitchum.
I’ve seen a lot of JACK SLADE, though not from start to finish yet, and found a couple aspects of it fairly jaw-dropping. An interesting movie.
Best wishes,
Laura
So, I’m guessing the Tim Holt Western set available on Tuesday is recommended? Encouragingly designated as ‘Vol. 1′ surely means we’ll get to those post-war films at some point.
Another “Noirish” Western worth checking out is Alfred
Werkers “Rebel In Town”
Werkers background was mainly in Noir and Thrillers yet
in the Fifties he directed a batch of Westerns back to back.
“The Last Posse” is excellent;and “Rebel” gives John Payne
yet another anti-hero role.The film is very dark and downbeat sometimes too much so!Nevertheless despite its
low budget it is far superior to most of the flabby big-budget things Payne did for Pine-Thomas a few years earlier.
“Jack Slade” still knocks me out after repeated viewings;
I am amazed that the film has not found a cult following!
I agree that RAMROD is definite noir western and PURSUED also is, with R. Mitchum and Teresa Wright. If you want some definitions of noir obtain a book on noir films. I have a very good book on them and it gives definition so you have some pointers to by for definition. The book also lists some westerns as noir films and the two mentioned above are both listed.