This is one of my top favorites and frankly I'm a little nervous settling in to do this as I’ve known -- since watching WDoA -- that it’s slid down a teensy bit on my list (and sometimes I hate lists, but y’know, they’re fun sometimes), so we’ll see if I like it just as much as ever at the end. :) Also, I’ve only done this narrative style of movie review once (I think once?) before, so make sure to let me know if you like it. (And public service announcement, this will definitely be rife with spoilers, so consider yourself warned. :D)
Ok, off we go!
We start off as the credits roll with an excellent view of one of the barrenest of all barren, boulder-y, mountainsides. You can practically feel the simmering heat. Three men ride into sight round the mountainside and pretty soon we can see they’re actually going into a big deep canyon. So far, they don’t look like terribly nice characters, but of course, time will tell.
Our three men ride into town, still looking rather morose and appropriately dusty. There our worst suspicions are confirmed.
The oldest of the mystery men pulls out a pistol and without further ado, stalks to the middle of the street and calls a man, Fallon, out from the saloon. Fallon comes out and, to prove his reputation and that he’s faster on the draw, the newcomer promptly shoots him dead.
He then proudly proclaims to the world that his name is Vinnie Harold and he’s the fastest draw there is. The townspeople aren't terribly impressed and when the sheriff shows up, the three strangers are pretty much ridden out of town.
We then skip over to the little town of Cross Creek, where Glenn Ford’s character is out in the desert, shooting at rocks. And studying the notches in his pistol and generally appearing pretty somber.
When he's done, he takes off his gun belt, wraps the whole thing up, stows it down in his wagon and heads off to town. On the way in he picks up a young friend and in the course of their conversation we learn his name is (George) Temple, and he seems to prove himself a quiet minded citizen who, incidentally, has no need for a gun.
Arriving in town we find that a bunch of the other established men of the town think George, who's the local storekeeper, is just the littlest bit odd and acting even stranger than usual lately. As George is in the process of slipping his gun into the store past a fine display of house brooms, his wife, Dora, appears.
They’re one of my favorite western film couples, and this here is one of my favorite scenes. It’s cute and sweet (and quickly apparent they’re expecting a baby, so that just makes it cuter).
She soon says they ought to get busy doing inventory and he starts absolutely dragging his feet, and she starts getting upset, but it’s obvious she’s not being a forceful woman trying to take the reins and prodding and getting all bossy. There’s back story here that they both know and here’s where we start absolutely champing at the bit to find out what that is.
Seriously, this scene is so sweet… It’s clear they’ve been married for a while, and know each other very well, and are very much in love, and really care and are worried about each other. She goes off to make lunch and he quickly hides the gun in the storeroom. And so time goes on.
Next we jump to a good old-fashioned barn dance, with Russ Tamblyn doing an amazing hoedown jig that rivals anything he did on Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. It doesn’t advance the plot a whole lot, but we do find the men in town talking about what it really means to have a clear, vivid calling and purpose and pride in your work, and ribbing George for being a storekeeper, also starting to seriously think he’s a strange egg and a bit of a cold fish (which honestly, he does seem to be at this point).
(I mean, a full grown man sitting off in a corner with the saddles in his best Sunday suit while the dancing is going on? ;P)
Anyhow, Dora can tell for all his quietness that he’s really on a slow simmering burn, so she follows him outside trying to get him to talk about IT, and just spill the words out. But men generally don’t do that. She says they’ve run from Dodge City and Cheyenne and reminds him that they’ve had a good life for four years in this quiet town and begs him not to throw it away.
Next morning, looks like, the stagecoach arrives in town in a cloud of dust, bearing with it the news of Vinnie Harold’s recent deeds. A whole crowd gathers round to goggle over the tale. It’s clear this touches a nerve and stirs something up for George, but there’s no telling yet what that is.
But Dora knows.
Then one of the passengers on the stage stops George, saying he’s certain he’s seen him someplace before. Uh-oh. And despite his earlier insistence on honesty when we first met him in the wagon, it’s patently obvious that George himself is living under some sort of lie.
The men all congregate in the store to keep going over the shoot-out story and finally George blows his top (for just a second at this point), then clamps the lid down tight and awkwardly shows them all the door.
Dora’s getting more concerned.
Then comes a fairly funny little scene where we see the daily troubles he was dealing with and how quibbly customer service is NOT his thing -- the pot lid is rising.
He charges out and over to the saloon and demands a drink of whisky, which causes a bit of a stir as he’s never been in there in all the four years he’s lived there. But he says he feels like he’s going crazy. After hours, they’re all still arguing about who was the fastest gunman in history.
Finally, George has had all the braggadocio talk he can handle. He gets up and starts challenging them, asking if they’ve ever actually drawn and used a gun on anyone, or even have any knowledge of the mechanics or actual idea of the skill involved. Finally, he says that yup, he himself is the fastest draw alive. And yes, he’ll prove it. He’s had a drop too much to drink so none of them will loan him a gun and he marches on over to get his own out of the storeroom.
Dora’s Not Happy At All.
But George says they have to know who he is.
With gun belt strapped, he marches straight back down to the saloon, a sizeable crowd gathering behind him, and invites out all the big talkers for a real demonstration.
(You notice how the church is framed in this shot, and that’ll play a role in how this all develops.) Anyhow, turns out George is lightning quick with a gun and after some incredible stunt tricks, everyone's pretty much left speechless.
Ok, so thus far, the whole thing probably seems pretty simple. Seemingly a man who’s pride has been hurt finally blowing his top and doing a demo for the townsfolk and his wife’s not happy about it (mainly for reasons still unknown). Pretty much fun and games. Like kind of interesting, but who cares how good he really is and all that, and what does this really have to do with anything, right? Well now that you have the whole set up, we’ll jump forward a bit. Because the bad guys have been busy. They’ve robbed a bank in Yellow Fork and killed the sheriff’s brother to boot (which is actually a pretty sad moment).
They round up a posse and head out on the bad guys’ trail.
Meanwhile, there’s a husband-wife debate going on as Dora’s attempting to make George acknowledge that the whole reason the sharpshooting cycle keeps repeating (i.e. their cover's blown and they have to keep moving) is the guilt he feels for his father’s death.
He says no matter, they have to leave, and she does end up playing the I-have-to-stay-here-now card, so things aren’t going well.
With the posse on their trail the bad guys need horses and head for Cross Creek (as they’re too small to even have a sheriff). Meanwhile, at the back of their store, Dora is ready for church and George is packing up for his departure for the foreseeable future. Basically, (to paraphrase Bertie Wooster) she says she won’t be a party to this craven scooting. He’s running from the awful thing inside him -- which we still don’t quite understand. (But bear with me, we soon will. Oh yes we will.)
She’s not against guns or the lawful use of force, but that particular gun stands for something else and she wants him to lay it down and be free.
As the church service is concluding, George suddenly appears, wrapped pistol in hand. And he lays it down.
He says he’s leaving, for the good and protection of the town itself as gunslingers will soon be riding in, wanting to knock his door down and shooting up the entire town. It’s happened before.
The good news though, is that Dora’s now going to go with him.
But the whole problem is that they can’t go it alone -- they need community, friends, someone to have their back and they to have theirs. And then that’s what happens. The whole community rallies round them, insisting they can’t leave and everyone will keep it hush hush. It’s really an It’s a Wonderful Life-ish moment. Buuuuuuuut, here it doesn’t end there. Not by a long shot.
Everyone has sworn to protect them. The problem is, George still hasn’t told them EVERYTHING.
And… in the midst of all this, the three Bad Guys ride into town and set up shop in the almost deserted saloon. They’re just in search of fresh horses and food, but then Vinnie, despite everyone’s noble though slightly improbable plan of absolute silence, ends up hearing about this mysterious fast drawing gunslinger.
He determines to challenge him and then everyone in the church, basically everyone in town, becomes hostage, until George will come out and meet him.
There’s a bunch of back and forthing between the saloon and the church, after a bit of which, the bad guys start preparations to burn the town down. And George has to finally come face to face with the Real Problem.
It’s not a question of ideals. It's that he's afraid. Afraid to die. His father, George Kelby, was the fast drawing sheriff who cleaned up Abilene. And in his hour of greatest need, George Jr. failed his own father. He’s never drawn against a man and deep down he hates weapons, hates and fears using them because he’s scared deep down to the marrow of his soul. He couldn’t even seek proper justice on the men who killed his father.
But now there’s a snake of a man outside and everyone around him, tied together in community, will lose everything, if someone doesn’t stand up in the breach and take the heat.
As they’re on the clock, the bad guys start having a falling out amongst themselves and ultimately Vinnie’s two henchmen ride out of town, where they’ll end up meeting the posse, still hard on their trail. But the town fire is still imminent. Leo, the friend who has tried to bolster and believe in George all the way through, shows his true colors and, though he doesn’t stand a chance, says he’ll go out.
And then This Happens. Which is all of a sudden why I love it so much. Because real courage knows the consequences of a brave stand, knows the inevitable possibilities, and is scared to death of the risk and taking such responsibility upon one’s own shoulders, but then does it anyway.
And George walks out.
Vinnie comes out into the street and the showdown begins.
(Side note: I just noticed how Vinnie has the darker shirt etc. and George is in white, coming down out of the church.
Coincidence, do you think?)
And here George finally identifies himself by his true name, as the son of his honorable father.
Then all of a sudden it’s all shots and gunsmoke, and everything happens really fast.
**And final warning, this does have a twisteroo at the ending, so if you don’t want to know about that, I guess… well, avert your eyes and scroll to the very bottom where I have some concluding thoughts**
Because, as the sheriff and posse ride up (with the bodies of Vinnie’s two friends), the townspeople are burying George Kelby, Jr.
But then… we can all breathe easy again because everything really ends happily after all!
And George Temple and his wife are finally full, in-grafted members of the community in Cross Creek.
Final thoughts
I will say that I think it’s a little harder to think objectively about where this falls on my favorites list (it’s kind of like the book editing process, where you feel kind of done with everything and pretty sure whatever you’re about to publish is the Worst Thing Ever v. the high of the creative writing portion ;)), but this does still sit snugly somewhere among my top favorites.
One thing I was noticing with this particular rewatch was all the long, agonizing pauses (in a good storytelling way). I don’t think you could quite call it film noir, though there is a little thread of that pessimism/fatalism/menace that comes out in noir. And the script and acting are so understated, there’s so much carefully packed into every little gesture and glance and action between the leads. It’s the little things which might make it sound boring on paper, but when watching makes the tension just snowball. In conclusion, if you like deceptively simple, intense slow burn plots with a smoldering hero tormented by old ghosts, then this might be right up your alley as well. :)
Let me know what you think and if you’ve seen this or would like to!
