From Republic Pictures
Directed by Allan Dwan
Starring
John Lund
Brian Donlevy
Audrey Totter
Joan Leslie
Ben Cooper
Nina Varela
Jim Davis
Reed Hadley
I don't recall how I ever came across this one but I have always been thankful I did because it introduced me to Joan Leslie, an actress who charmed me for a number of years and who I had the good fortune to see in person a number of times. She was a sweet-faced redhead with an adorable personality who, when she raised an eyebrow, could just touch the edges of that tough dame sort of actress I was always drawn to.
Woman They Almost Lynched takes a broad swipe at the western genre by embellishing it with a frenzy involving two female protagonists, a dash of irony, parody and fun. There is not one slow moment, the pace is electric from start to finish. Now, if anywhere in there you read that it is a good movie, you would be wrong but it is entertaining and for me, a childhood favorite. One never wants to pick at someone's childhood favorite movies. They simply cannot be explained.
I am not so sure that the female protagonist thing wasn't the first of its kind? A year later it would be done better when Johnny Guitar shook up the western again with its two cowgirl enemies (onscreen and off), Joan Crawford and Mercedes MacCambridge. That same year Leslie (again) and Vera Ralston would head a western, Jubilee Trail, but they were friends rather than adversaries. Solo women also took over the reins in the form of Marlene Dietrich in 1952's Rancho Notorious and of course Barbara Stanwyck, queen of the western genre, headlined many an oater. As late as 1995 it was fun to see Sharon Stone strap on her guns for The Quick and the Dead. Of course, over the years there have been other women toplining the male-dominated western.
Woman They Almost Lynched takes place near the end of the Civil War in Border City, high in the Ozarks, right smack on the border of Missouri and Arkansas. It declares itself a neutral zone. Its tough woman mayor (Nina Varela) who won't permit anyone in her town, whether a resident or passing through, to wear any uniform. Well-meaning though some may be, the town has become a sanctuary for deserters, cutthroats, rebels and outlaws of all stripes.
Coming into town at the same time are Brian Donlevy, Audrey Totter. Ben Cooper, Jim Davis and others who are respectively confederate raider Quantrill, his vicious wife Kate, Jesse James and Cole Younger. They are there briefly to conduct some shady business and fly under the radar of some military spies. They have commandeered a stagecoach with Leslie as its only passenger. She is coming to Border City to surprise her brother (Reed Hadley) who runs a saloon.
Totter used to work as a singer at the saloon but was kidnapped by Donlevy two years earlier. She left Hadley bereft but now she is so cruel to him that she forces him into gunplay which results in his death. Totter and Leslie become bitter enemies particularly after Leslie takes over the management of the saloon, much to Totter's annoyance. The rivalry between the two comes out in what I would consider to be the film's message... what it means to be a woman.
One of the fun scenes comes when the pair gets into a brawl throughout the saloon with Leslie coming out the winner. I do not question that this single scene originally endeared me to the film. All red-blooded dudes, regardless of age, love to see two women duke it out. Why is that? Of course it feels like an homage to the similarly-staged battle between Dietrich and Una Merkel in Destry Rides Again (1939).
Leslie and Totter, in real-life, got on well. Leslie has said that she had a helluva time punching Totter in the face despite the fact the latter told her repeatedly to do it. Leslie had to stop filming for the day to compose herself.
Later the two end up in the dusty street, guns strapped on, ready to deliver their version of one of the great western staples. Again Leslie comes out the victor.
Top-billed John Lund, bland as always, actually has a supporting role as a confederate spy who wants to keep Quantrill from access to the city's lead mines. He is also the man who killed Leslie's brother in self-defense and the fact that they fall in love seemed a bit far-fetched.
Equally far-fetched is that toward the finale the two women become friends after Totter is shot on the street by union soldiers and Leslie drags her into the saloon and safety. The fact that Totter then gets on the mend and sings for the union captain is such a howl.
As the film hurtles along to its conclusion, all the drama is sucked out, unfortunately. Leslie has allowed herself to be labeled a traitor in an effort to throw suspicion off Lund. The bombastic mayor has her hauled off to the nearest tree for hanging. But gee, there's that wretched title (truly, one of the worst ever) that eliminates all suspense for the ending. Doncha hate that?
As the noose goes around her neck and the horse is about to be swatted, Totter comes riding up with some urgency. She announces to the soldiers who she is (and they want her badly) and clears the air of all lies and misconceptions. Off she gallops with a few soldiers in hot pursuit. We learn she's made it to New Orleans where she is now a saloon singer.
We get another good laugh when the mayor yells out to get that girl off that horse when it was she who was behind the lynching in the first place.
It is announced the war has ended and when the camera finds Leslie and Lund locking lips in front of the saloon and the townsfolk are whooping it up, you know the movie is ending, too. Bring on the sunset.
Republic, you may recall, was not one of the big studios, not then or before or later. Its main contribution was the B western at which it excelled and was determined to continue. The movies were never award winners but I usually found them entertaining and I got my money's worth. Their contracted stars were in one movie after another and as long as one liked these folks, there was a wonderful familiarity movie by movie.
Despite an odd fourth-place billing, Leslie is clearly the star here. She and the three billed above her were close to the ends of their movie careers. All can thank the 40's for the fame they achieved. She had a wonderful career at Warner Bros (Yankee Doodle Dandy, High Sierra, The Hard Way, Sergeant York) but their parting was so acrimonious that she was more or less blacklisted at other studios. She did a single film at MGM, Universal and Columbia and then ended up at lowly Republic for a handful of movies. The best is Jubilee Trail. She then had a thankless bit part in The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956) at 20th Century Fox which ended her movie career.
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| A publicity shot not in the film |
Audrey Totter was a film noir queen in the 40's. She never had a big career because Hollywood just didn't know how to fit her in. Too bad. I never found her to be beautiful but she had a look that was most attractive and she knew how to work that face to appear so mean. No wonder she was so perfect as Kate Quantrill.
Brian Donlevy has little to do here but he huffs and puffs in the few scenes he has to make one think he's filled the whole film. He was never appealing in romantic roles but his generally gruff exterior made him shine as a villain. Just a couple of years earlier, he also played Quantrill in the Audie Murphy western, Kansas Raiders.
John Lund was rarely an interesting actor. No matter what movie I saw him in, I could always easily imagine someone else in the part. Leslie, however, once said that after all the powerful and high-minded actors she'd worked with, it was a pleasure working with someone as nice as he was.
There is also a fine supporting cast. I've only seen former operatic singer Nina Varela in three movies but her robust performances were always memorable. Jim Davis, who would later acquire fame as Jock Ewing, the patriarch of TV's Dallas, had a good role as an outlaw in love with Leslie and determined to steal her just as Donlevy had done earlier with Totter. A special mention, too, to Ben Cooper as Jesse James. He was so memorable the following year in Johnny Guitar. His perennially-youthful looks often betrayed tougher characters but he always found the humanity in them.
Allan Dwan had been around since the silents and had his best years behind him. But he, too, was a good fit for the director of this film. He loved directing women in strong leading roles in westerns... Leslie in Northwest Outpost (1948), Jane Russell in Montana Belle (1952), Lizabeth Scott in Silver Lode, Stanwyck in Cattle Queen of Montana and Yvonne de Carlo in Passion, all 1954, and Coleen Gray in Tennessee's Partner, 1955. He also managed to showcase a pair of beautiful redheads, Rhonda Fleming and Arlene Dahl, as sisters in the 1956 film noir, Slightly Scarlet.
Woman They Almost Lynched is a perfect entry in my guilty pleasures sweepstakes. I can file this in three ways for future viewings... (1) Joan Leslie, (2) westerns (3) childhood favorites. What else is there to say?
Here's a poor copy of my favorite scene:
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The Directors
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