From Republic Pictures
Directed by Nicholas Ray
Starring
Joan Crawford
Sterling Hayden
Mercedes McCambridge
Scott Brady
Ward Bond
Ben Cooper
Ernest Borgnine
John Carradine
Royal Dano
Paul Fix
Frank Ferguson
Rhys Williams
I just had a ball watching this unique, camp, cult classic for the umpteenth time. It's always been astonishing to me that it was so poorly received in the States when it was first released. Additionally, Hollywood history tells us that most of those making it found it to be such a horrendous experience.
The plot is easy enough to digest. In an Arizona cattle town, an independent saloon owner, Vienna (Crawford), is awaiting the coming of the railroad which will be an enormous boon to her business. Vehemently opposing her and her business are the townsfolk, seemingly headed by an enraged and jealous spinster, Emma (MacCambridge). She has gotten the group fired up to drive Vienna from their midst, mainly by intimidation, which is all superbly outlined in an opening scene.
Vienna, in her black shirt and pants, looking very butch, is not easily intimated but she has an insurance policy in hiring a gunslinger and former lover of some five years back, one Johnny Guitar (Hayden). Emotions run higher when Johnny joins the large group and then so does The Dancin' Kid (Brady) and his cohorts (Borgnine, Cooper and Dano). It seems that Vienna and the Kid have been thisclose which puts the two men at odds and inflames Emma who has a love-hate thing with the Kid.
The plot device that drives this movie and stands as its most distinctive feature is that the two women are the main antagonists while the men are more or less reduced to costar status... very unusual for a western. How odd then that the title is Johnny Guitar.
One might expect that the film would end with Johnny and the Kid having a showdown but instead, after Johnny rescues Vienna from a lynching, it's a shootout between Vienna and Emma. I've been to a couple of retrospective showings of Johnny Guitar, and die-hard audience members are given to speaking the actresses' lines out loud for the finale.
To many people's chagrin, this was Crawford's show all the way. When novelist Roy Chanslor wrote the book, he patterned Vienna after his friend Crawford. She bought the rights before the book was even published and offered it to Republic Studios (the new home of actors whose careers were losing momentum) providing she was the star and producer.
This was Nick Ray's first directorial chore after ending his contract with RKO where he made some highly-visible films. Chore is the right word, too, because he never liked this project. He'd never done a western (although this is certainly not a conventional one) and a more personal relationship with Crawford had just ended. He probably always questioned why he accepted the assignment.
Once everyone was in place in Sedona, Arizona, the Crawford-Ray relationship just got worse. He may have been the director, but she was the producer and star and she made more money than he did. Never one to shy away from throwing her weight around, she added to it by not particularly caring what people thought about her. It is true that some sets report her as near-angelic, some on this set called her a monster. After filming was complete, Ray said Crawford was one of the worst human beings I've ever encountered.
Our star took a dislike to MacCambridge before they even met. Crawford insisted that a blonde be given the role (she was partial to Claire Trevor) so that there would be a physical contrast in their scenes together. But MacCambridge was hired behind her back and Crawford felt betrayed and the war was on.
Then Crawford claimed that MacCambridge's part had been beefed up and that she was getting preferential treatment. Ray thought MacCambridge was brilliant and he made sure Crawford knew it.
MacCambridge's best scene comes by the river with her male cohorts hanging on her every word as she tells them the way it needs to go. She needed to be strong and persuasive and MacCambridge brought up all her considerable powers resulting in the cast and crew applauding her when cut was yelled. Crawford, sneaking a peek a fair distance away, was highly annoyed. No one applauded her.
One night in a drunken rage and feeling sorry for herself, she scattered MacCambridge's costumes along an Arizona highway. Ray caught her.
MacCambridge, no wilting violet herself, had a mouth on her and she got some good ones on Crawford to her face. Both actresses were alcoholics (Crawford didn't admit it and MacCambridge was working on it) which couldn't have helped matters. There was also an issue of Crawford once dating MacCambridge's husband.
The problem between the two was made worse by the fact that cast and crew chose sides (most were with MacCambridge) which meant further divisions and gave way to that unhappy set..
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| Now THIS is acting at its very best. |
Hayden said it was profoundly one of the worst experiences he ever had making a film. He detested Crawford and didn't care who knew it. There is not enough money in Hollywood to lure me into making another picture with Joan Crawford. Her treatment of Mercedes was a shameful thing. He fought with Crawford during the day (she didn't like him either) and with his wife at night. He warmed to no one on the film.
One reason Johnny Guitar feels like a different sort of western is because few of them speak like western folk. They speak lines that seem more suitable to some modern drama or perhaps like one of Ray's film noirs. Lest you think I am complaining... I am not. It's one of the things that turns me on to this film... they say the most astonishing things. Here's an example of Vienna and Johnny's cynical banter... he has a bit of longing while she is icy:
J: How many men have you forgotten?
V: As many women as you've remembered.
J: Don't go away.
V: I haven't moved.
J: Tell me something nice.
V: Sure, what do you want to hear?
J: Lie to me. Tell me all these years you've waited for me. Tell me.
V: All these years I've waited.
J: Tell me you'd have died if I hadn't come back.
V: I would have died if you hadn't come back.
J: Thanks. Thanks a lot.
In another sequence, Vienna decides to clue in Johnny on a point she thinks he's missing. A man can lie, steal and even kill but as long as he holds on to his pride, he's still a man, she spews. All a woman has to do is slip once and she's a tramp. It must be a great comfort for you to be a man. The film, however, left no doubt that Vienna had been doing a lot more than building a saloon.
The acting, all around, was exactly what it needed to be but there are only two women in the whole picture and one's eyes are always on them. Both characters are just a bit frightening... just as I imagine the actresses playing them really were. Crawford gets a little cloying and theatrical in flashes but one gets used to that. There's a physicality that is just perfect here... butch and tough. One of Vienna's croupier's says about her... never seen a woman who was more of a man. She thinks like one, acts like one. Sometimes makes me feel like I'm not.
And MacCambridge... her posse-grabbing skills are most apparent when she degrades and bullies the men she is leading. Her hostility toward Vienna knows no bounds but one wonders if there isn't just a little more left unsaid here. There has never been a western with a female character this riled up. It is a blistering performance, the film's best.
When Johnny Guitar was released, critics generally regarded it as ho-hum, another cliched western filmed in beautiful Sedona. Been there, done that. But the much-publicized, real-life feud between the two actresses who were also royally feuding on-screen brought the public into theaters in droves.
In Europe, however, there was universal applause, particularly in England and France. They regarded it then, as most critics do now, as a western masterpiece. Some purred about the hidden delights, saying that most probably folks didn't look beyond the western banalities to see all the magic of the dialogue, even mentioning poetic insights. Some said it was a western only in how they dressed and that they rode horses but how they talked and acted was of another time and place.
Note was taken, often with a second look, that the film was rife with political allegory, psychological themes, sexual maneuverings, gender-switching and offered a veiled commentary on the anti-communist hearings involving HUAC. Mob mentality, vigilantism and bullying are alive and well in Johnny Guitar. Interestingly, while Ray-favorite writer Philip Yordan is credited for adapting Chanslor's book, the screenplay was actually written by blacklisted writer, Ben Maddow.
There are those who have always taken note of the colors used in the film. Republic worked with a process called TruColor and the look was bold and evoked an emotional response in me. Not only were there the red rocks of Sedona but Crawford was a sight to behold, all ruby-lipped, in her all-black shirt and pants, especially when standing above the others on a staircase, gun drawn. Then there she is in that white dress atop a horse as MacCambridge is about to hang her. After being rescued by Mr. Guitar Man, she changes her dress, which had her looking like a beacon in the night as her two-story saloon burns, and puts on a bright, lumberjackish red shirt.
Over the years Johnny Guitar has become a cult favorite... any number of cults. It certainly hasn't escaped the attention of western fans and scholars. And it is unquestionably a gay cult favorite... it seems to have had some sort of hallucinatory effect.
It didn't hurt that a title song was also playing on the radio at the time of the film's release, a haunting little ballad, really, written and seductively performed by Peggy Lee. Like the film, it, too, has some hidden delights.
Play the guitar... play it again, my Johnny.
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