Category: 1950s

The biggest conflict in the small town of Bitters, Wyoming is between rancher Robert Ryan and the homesteaders who have taken over the land. That is until an injured Burl Ives and his gang of bank robbers arrive and take the town hostage. Ryan is brooding and introspective as a not-so-good guy who searches for some internal honor to save the town from guys worse than him. I always enjoy seeing Ives as a bad guy even while getting Big Rock Candy Mountain in my head every time. It’s unusual to see a western set in snow, but the cold, covered mountains are a character themselves and adds to the atmosphere and tension. 

In 1950s Saigon, undercover American agent Audie Murphy and British journalist Michael Redgrave form a romantic triangle with a young Vietnamese woman, played by Giorgia Moll. The idealistic American’s view that he can somehow find a third option in the battle between Communism and colonialism also rankles the Brit’s cynicism. I’d been wanting to watch more Audie Murphy films after Kansas Raiders and was excited to find one that wasn’t a Western. He’s again appealing in this role, though I found the story a bit unfocused and it made me want to rewatch the 2002 version of the story.  

Champion boxer turned humble cabbie John Payne’s wife Peggie Castle is having an affair with jewel thief Brad Dexter. When Dexter frames Payne for her murder, John teams up with his friend Evelyn Keyes to clear his name. Growing up watching Miracle on 34th Street, as an adult I’ve been intrigued by John Payne’s filmography and what he brings to his roles. Here he comes across as generally good guy broken by the dissolution of his chosen career due to injury and that brokenness leads to further cracks in his life, namely the relationship with his wife butting against her own expectations for her life. He has an array of friends who believe in his goodness and are willing to help him out and there’s just that twinge of hope that he and Keyes will find a way out of his predicament.    

Lizabeth Scott is looking for the perfect patsy to impersonate a rich couple’s lost son and finds him in Edmond O’Brien. Despite all the hard work of her and her partner Alexander Knox, their scheme does not proceed as planned. The story unfortunately throws in the distraction of Terry Moore as a ditzy cousin of the lost boy and the ending wraps up in some too convenient ways, but the bits where Scott plays the manipulative femme fatale mostly makes up for the film’s weaknesses in its short runtime.    

Evelyn Keyes returns to New York City from Cuba, smuggling diamonds for her ne’er-do-well husband. Unfortunately diamonds aren’t the only things she’s smuggled into the country and officials must race to find her before the entire city is infected with smallpox. Loosely based on the real 1947 smallpox outbreak in New York, the film is a surprising mix of film noir with medical propaganda. Watching during a pandemic, it’s amazing to process that they managed to vaccinate 5 million people in just 2 weeks. Less amazing is noting that even with smallpox, there were anti-vaxxers and people protesting reasonable medical protocols.  

A Mormon wagon train, led by Elder Ward Bond, hires horse trainers Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Jr. to lead them to the San Juan River valley. Along the way they add more members to the caravan: a medicine show troupe and a family of murderous robbers. I liked this one a whole lot better than my previous John Ford watch. His cinematic vistas seem to be more majestic in black and white. There’s also a wonderful casual camaraderie between Ford regulars Carey and Johnson, lending credibility to their characters’ relationship. 

It’s difficult to make a noir film work in a brightly colored landscape, but this one does even while much of the film is presented as an advertisement to visit the Falls, rainbows included. Jean Peters and Max Showalter are on a delayed honeymoon where they become acquainted with philandering Marilyn Monroe and her older, troubled war veteran husband Joseph Cotten. There’s great use of the locations around the Falls to create atmosphere, weaving a dark thread through the naturally bright vacation destination. From her figure and pert nose to her platinum hair and soft voice, Monroe looks unnaturally beautiful, especially when contrasted with the still-cute, but sexed-down Peters.