There can't be any such thing as civilisation unless people have a conscience. The Ox-Bow Incident is directed by William A. Wellman and adapted to screenplay by Lomar Trotti from the novel of the same name written by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. It stars Henry Fonda, Henry Morgan, Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes, Anthony Quinn, William Eythe and Jane Darwell. Music is scored by Cyril J. Mockridge and cinematography by Arthur C. Miller. Gil Carter & Art Croft ride into the town of Bridger's Wells, they hit the local saloon to imbibe after a log hard cattle drive. Whilst there a man runs in and announces that a popular man from the town has been shot by rustlers. The sheriff is out of town and a lynch mob quickly forms to bring what they see as swift justice to the culprits, Gil & Art join the posse so as to make sure they themselves don't get blamed for the shooting. The posse finds three weary workers and convince the majority that these guys are guilty and that instant hanging is the only way to do things. There are, however, one or two dissenting voices...... What a fabulous movie this is, a powerful indictment of how the lynch mob mentality can grip and lead to pain for many. William Wellman directs superbly, with a big ensemble in such a small area (Ox-Bow), he manages to get the right blend of emotive reactions from the leading players. Henry Fonda as Gill Carter is perfectly sedate and compassionate, even though he is far from being a flawless character, Dana Andrews as Donald Martin is heart achingly real, while others like Frank Conroy as Major Tetley are suitably full of ignorant bluster. It's quite an experience to see Wellman pull them all together with so much style. The photography from Miller is excellent, shadowy low tone black and white that is in keeping with the downbeat nature of the film, it infuses the picture with a gritty hard bitten noirish look. While Mockridge scores it suitably as sombre. Ultimately it's the story that triumphs the most, claustrophobic in nature, it is simple yet tragic as it spins out to tell us how a group of seemingly sane individuals turned out to be a mass of incoherent reasoning. When a letter is read out during the finale, it is devastating in its effect, we see men broken, heads bowed in shame, others heavy in heart, their lives never to be the same. The emotional whack is hard hitting, and rightly so. For this is unashamedly a message movie, and a worthy one at that, so much so its reputation has grown over the years, where both the film and novel have made it into some educational curriculum's. It's very much a landmark Western, by choosing to forgo action for dark characterisations, it opened up the Western genre to being more than just shoot-outs and trail blazing. Had it been made seven or eight years later I think it would have garnered higher critical praise. In spite of being one of Fonda's favourite movies that he made, the film didn't make money. The public were not quite ready for such sombre beats (Orson Welles, tellingly I feel, loved it), the critics of the time were irked by Wellman's decision to film the key trial and lynching sequences on the stage. Yet the closeness this gives the narrative serves it well, thrusting the many characters close together so they, and us, can see the whites of everyone's eyes, this is about focusing on the faces of those about to commit a capital crime. The close confines also gives off a pervasive sense of doom, where pessimism seeps through, there is no short changing here, the makers are dealing in bleakness and the right choices are made to produce one of the finest and most upsetting exponents of mob mentality played out on film. 9/10
When "Larry Kincaid" is shot, the townsfolk rise up and decide to pursue the killers. Led by Confederate officer "Tetley" (Frank Conroy) they alight on three folks in the wilderness moving some cattle. It seems that these three had recently been with "Kincaid" and so a kangaroo court is duly assembled with a view to lynching them. William Wellman now develops one of the most tautly presented half hours of cinema I've ever seen. The posse have no evidence, but will they be persuaded by the protestations of innocence from "Martin" (Dana Andrews) and his companions, including Anthony Quinn's "Martinez"? The tension is palpable as old man "Davies" (Harry Davenport) tries to be the voice of reason and "Art" (Harry Morgan) and "Carter" (Henry Fonda) wrestle, too, with their consciences. It's a shocking indictment of mob justice, and the dialogue and overall look of the film really build well as what seems inevitable edges nearer and nearer. The ending has a twist that provides food for thought for all concerned (including the audience) and has something of the "Forgive them father..." about it, too. Fonda takes top billing, but Conroy's performance is probably the most enthralling - brutality in a finely tailored uniform.
Outlaws plan a robbery to take place during a championship prizefight in Carson City, Nevada.
Movie Star Rating : 5.8 Read More
After her mother is killed by a car bomb, a 17-year-old girl lives a reckless and decadent lifestyle. She begins having sex with a boy who works at a local ski resort. He falls in love, and she tells him of her suspicions that her strict father was responsible for her mother's death and wants him to help her out of her situation. He must decide whether she's telling the truth or using him to her own ends.
Movie Star Rating : 6.1 Read More
World War II is raging and the manpower shortage has hit the range since every able-bodied cowboy of military age is off fighting for Uncle Sam. Dad Mathews, a rancher with a huge government contract order for beef, has trouble with the cattle rustlers, led by Henry Judson and Lefty Lewis, who are taking advantage of the situation to steal his herds. John Paul Revere, Special State Investigator, arrives, and upon meeting Mathews' daughter, Betty, gets the idea of recruiting the hard-riding daughters of the district into the WAPS, an organization which will be to the cattle country what the WACS and WAVES are to the Army and Navy. He trains them in military procedure and provides them with radio sending-and-receiving sets. Johnny's sidekick, Frog Millhouse, finds himself the possessor of a "walkie-talkie" which he considers just a "doo-dad" at first, but which is instrumental in the end, in helping Johnny and the WAPS trap the gang of rustlers in their hideout.
Movie Star Rating : 0 Read More
Old Mexican-American sheriff Bob Valdez has always been a haven of sanity in a land of madmen when it came to defending law and order. But the weapon smuggler Frank Tanner is greedy and impulsive. When Tanner provokes a shooting that causes the death of an innocent man and Valdez asks him to financially compensate the widow, Tanner refuses to do so and severely humiliates Valdez, who will do justice and avenge his honor, no matter what it takes.
Movie Star Rating : 6.2 Read More
Kingdom of Hawaii, 1866. Fearful that leprosy would spread throughout the archipelago, the king banishes the sick to the island of Molokai. In 1873, the Belgian Catholic missionary Damien de Veuster arrives on the island to help improve the lives of its unfortunate inhabitants.
Movie Star Rating : 4 Read More
Bank robbers and killers cause mayhem in a small western town.
Movie Star Rating : 4 Read More
Cattlemen Protective Agent Reb Russell arrives to try and stop the cattle rustling. He gains a friend when he saves Jack Thorn from Lenahan and his men. They hire on at the Lund ranch and when her cattle are rustled and she is kidnaped they follow the trail, It's Lenahan and his gang and Reb soon finds himself a prisoner.
Movie Star Rating : 0 Read More
A rancher, frustrated with constant cattle rustling and the inability of the local sheriff to stop it, is accused of murder when the sheriff is found dead.
Movie Star Rating : 0 Read More
Inspired by true stories, a lighthouse keeper’s wife struggles with her work and her sanity as she cares for her sick husband in 19th century Maine. When a mysterious stranger washes up on shore, secrets buried in deep waters come to light, and she confronts both her past and her future.
Movie Star Rating : 6 Read More
An outwardly confident but unmarried woman on the verge of her fortieth birthday reflects on her past suitors and the choices she once made while attempting to help her marriage minded niece choose between a number of potential suitors in this tale inspired by the life and letters of Jane Austen. Jane Austen is about to turn forty, but she still hasn't found her ideal man. When Jane is approached by her niece Fanny and asked to help select the perfect husband for the young girl, the aging spinster begins to wonder why it is that she never found a man to share her own life with. Perhaps if Jane had accepted the proposal of a wealthy landowner she could have saved her family from financial ruin, and what of the handsome young physician who once warmed to Jane after tending to her ailing family members?
Movie Star Rating : 6 Read More
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