Three worthy oaters that have been trampled under the hoof beats of indifference
Among true Western aficionados (and I count myself high in the saddle in this category), a feeling exists that there's been a mix-up in reputations.
While there's no denying that Shane, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance are significant contributions to the genre, there are entries that are in many ways better, and yet, due to a Jack Elam-like critical eye, have been unjustly trampled under the hoof beats of indifference
Pursued - 1947
Exhibit A in this argument, Pursued, the 1947 Raoul Walsh production mixing elements of Greek tragedy, Freudian psychology, and the best qualities of the B Westerns. Robert Mitchum stars as Jeb Rand, a tortured soul who, via flashback, remembers the unwitting killing of his half-brother. The film moves at Walsh's usual horse-at-full-gallop pace, and features outstanding cinematography by the great James Wong Howe, in which horsemen are dwarfed to the size of ants against Ansell Adams-esque rock faces.
3:10 to Yuma - 1957
Equally overlooked is 1957's 3:10 to Yuma, based on one of the many Western stories by thriller author Elmore Leonard. Dramatically, the film falls somewhere between High Noon and Unforgiven, with its tale of a cowardly community shirking from helping an impoverished family man deal with an unscrupulous criminal. If the film's first half-hour is not much more than a fatuous prologue to Leonard's story, the following hour stays excitingly true to it, as the good man, Van Heflin, struggles to keep the baddie, Glenn Ford, under guard until he can get him to justice. Ford gives one of his most effective performances, using his usual laconic quality to create high tension as he piles mind game after mind game atop Heflin's crumbling conscience.
One Eyed Jacks - 1962
Last but not least, I give you 1962's One Eyed Jacks, Marlon Brando's only directorial foray. If this tale of revenge lacks the polish its original director, Stanley Kubrick, might have provided, it is also free of his trademark flaws: an over reliance on odd lenses, an irrepressible need to puzzle or offend, and a sealed-in quality that's there even in his epics. Brando stars as Johny Rio, a no-goodnik who's been double crossed by partner in crime Dad Longworth (played by Brando buddy Karl Malden), soon a lawman with an attractive stepdaughter - the pawn in Rio's high-stakes game of an-eye-for-an-eye. Both Brando's performance and direction are low-key; what truly fires up the piece are its action sequences, particularly a memorable moment of masochism in a town square.
Get out of Dodge, then, that mythical onscreen city where the Fordian and Hawksian heroes play. Ride on out to the outskirts. More dimensional men of action are acting out adventures just as worthy.
