Johnny Guitar

Johnny Guitar
Original theatrical poster
Directed by	Nicholas Ray
Written by	Novel: Roy Chanslor Screenplay: Philip Yordan
Produced by	Herbert J. Yates
Starring	Joan Crawford Sterling Hayden Mercedes McCambridge Scott Brady
Cinematography	Harry Stradling Sr.
Music by	Title Song: Peggy Lee Victor Young
Distributed by	Republic Pictures
Release date	27 May 1954
Running time	110 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

Johnny Guitar (1954) is a Republic Pictures feature film starring Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, and Scott Brady in an Old West tale about an Arizona cattle community facing unwanted social and economic changes and a newcomer who challenges the community's dictatorial leaders. The screenplay by Philip Yordan was based upon a novel by Roy Chanslor. The film was directed by Nicholas Ray and produced by Herbert J. Yates. Johnny Guitar was the last feature film produced by Republic Pictures in its Trucolor process. The film has been broadcast on American television, released to VHS and DVD formats, and adapted to musical theater.

In 2008, Johnny Guitar was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot and cast

On the outskirts of a wind-swept Arizona cattletown, a saloonkeeper named Vienna (Joan Crawford) maintains a volatile relationship with the local cattlemen and townsfolk. Not only does she support the railroad being laid nearby (the cattlemen oppose it) but she permits a suspected stage robber called The Dancin' Kid (Scott Brady) to share her bed, and his confederates (Ernest Borgnine, Royal Dano, and Ben Cooper) to frequent her saloon. Vienna's ex-lover Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden), a reformed gunslinger, arrives at the saloon, renews his love for Vienna, and offers her needed protection. Life is cozy for the two until one day The Dancin' Kid and his gang rob the town bank. The townsfolk suspect Vienna has played a part. Led by Emma Small (Mercedes McCambridge), a cattle rancher who has long hated Vienna, the posse descends on Vienna's saloon and burns it to the ground. Vienna and Johnny escape the posse and find refuge in The Dancin' Kid's secret hideaway. The posse tracks them. The Dancin' Kid and his men are killed. Emma Small challenges Vienna to a show-down. Though Vienna is wounded in the duel, she manages to kill Emma. A halt is called to the bloodbath by the posse leader (Ward Bond). Vienna and Johnny depart, hopeful that better days lie ahead. Cast includes John Carradine, Ben Cooper, Paul Fix, Rhys Williams, and Frank Ferguson.

Production notes

Jealous of a younger Mercedes McCambridge, Crawford fought but failed to have Claire Trevor cast in the Emma Small role. After filming, McCambridge and Hayden publicly declared their dislike of Crawford, with McCambridge labeling Crawford, "a bad egg."

Reception

Variety commented, "It proves [Crawford] should leave saddles and Levis to someone else and stick to city lights for a background. [The film] is only a fair piece of entertainment. [The scriptwriter] becomes so involved with character nuances and neuroses, all wrapped up in dialogue, that [the picture] never has a chance to rear up in the saddle...The people in the story never achieve much depth, this character shallowness being at odds with the pretentious attempt at analysis to which the script and direction devotes so much time."

The film is beloved of French critics and filmmakers, such as François Truffaut, who described it as the "Beauty and the Beast of Westerns, a Western dream". Truffaut was especially impressed by the film's extravagance: the bold colors, the poetry of the dialogue in certain scenes, and the theatricality which results in cowboys vanishing and dying "with the grace of ballerinas".

Spanish Director Pedro Almodóvar pays homage to the film in his 1988 release, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. His lead character Pepa Marcos, (Carmen Maura) a voice artist, passes out while dubbing Vienna's voice in a scene where Johnny (voiced earlier by Pepa's ex-lover Iván) and she banter about their conflicted past. Almodovovar's film also ends with a chase and an obsessed woman shooting at his lead character.

The Chicago Reader's Jonathan Rosenbaum lists Johnny Guitar as one of the 100 best American films.

Commentary

The romantic style of Johnny Guitar is very different from the realism that dominates the work of classical Western directors such as John Ford and Howard Hawks, and this expressive boldness can be looked at as a form of allegory. In particular, many critics have pointed out that the film is a hidden commentary on the McCarthy witch-hunts. The film is certainly more than just a Western — Truffaut called it "a phony Western". It is a sexual drama with obsessive personalities bordering on madness: the character played by Mercedes McCambridge is obviously the chief villain, but Joan Crawford's character is not entirely likable, scowling through much of the movie. Ray shows that Crawford's own psycho-sexual obsession affects her in equally bizarre turns; for example, she dresses entirely in white in a crucial scene where she must confront McCambridge (who dresses in black for most of the film).

The strong will and personalities of these two women effectively sideline the men. Sterling Hayden as the eponymous hero is something less of a hero as a result of Crawford's obsession (the fact that he plays a guitar and travels without a gun gives a clue to the downgrading of the Western hero stereotype that is implicit in the title). He is a secondary character, given to indecisiveness. He mostly functions as a passive observer: his tag line is "I am a stranger here myself", which can also describe Nicholas Ray himself (indeed, the line was used as the title of a 1975 documentary about the director).

The other male principals also take a secondary role to the women; none of the posse, not even Sheriff McIvers, its purported leader, can bring himself to veto McCambridge's Emma, even when lives are at stake. The Dancin' Kid bases many important decisions (especially whether to rob the bank) on whether Vienna will continue to return his affections instead of leaving him for Johnny. Johnny and the Kid are both unusually sensitive cowboys compared to the icons of the time, including the fact that each has an artistic skill (dancing, guitar playing) which is a part of his name, and that both generally let the female characters make the decisions and are willing to abide by them.

Adaptations

Johnny Guitar was adapted into a stage musical, which debuted Off-Broadway in 2004, with a book by American television producer Nicholas van Hoogstraten, lyrics by Joel Higgins, and music by Martin Silvestri and Joel Higgins. It starred Ann Crumb, Steve Blanchard, and Robert Evan, and was the recipient of the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, as well as a nominee for the Lucille Lortel Awards and the Drama Desk Awards. The musical adaptation favored a more "camp" approach toward the material, which seemed to work in its favor, at least among the critics. The musical version is now being staged in regional theaters across the United States.

See also

• Joan Crawford filmography

External links

• Johnny Guitar Musical official website
• McCarthyism and the Movies
• Grant Tracey in images journal
• Burton in pif magazine
• Brian W. Fairbanks in angelfire