Ramrod (1947)

I first saw this curious western many years ago, at the time I found it rather boring. After reading several other reviews on IMDb, knew it was time to re-evaluate. Pleased I did, this time seeing a totally different show (well at least by now, I was seeing things through different eyes)It still seems odd that it opens in the mist of a story situation that has not been established. Only the ensuing dialog sets you up with what's happened before the opening scene. This gives the film the look and feel of a finished work that may have endured post production edits for over-length. While I can't confirm if this was the case, it could still have been the intention of the film makers to do something different. In fact, the whole approach to this film is different. Here is a work that credits the audience with the ability to think --to read between the lines-- The pace is slower than normal, another sign the producers may want the audience to study each situation. For the patient, mature viewer this should pay entertaining dividends. As the first feature to come from John Garfield's independent Enterprise production company it's a worthy effort. The cast seem as if they all want this to be a success, even bit players work enthusiastically. Many of the main leads are playing out of their established roles. Charlie Ruggles and Don De Fore do well with their mainly dramatic characters and Veronica Lake (under direction from her husband) is surprisingly ruthless (don't think I was ready for any of this first time round) Interesting Director, Andre' De Toth and his remarkable Director of Photography: Russel Harlan (who's worked on such a vast range of varied topics) create several mesmerizing 'story without words' type situations throughout. Joel McCrea is marvellous to watch, as one of the most believable righteous men to grace the screen (no doubt about it, the world needs more).Luke Short (real name Frederick Glidden) creates realistic characters and gives them situations to match. It's a tad brutal, and not a western for everyone, but it's well worth staying with ~ you may end up being entertained. The Olive DVD release is not bad, while not a full re-mastering, the sound and B/W imagery are crisp (although the night scenes have some fluctuations.) Like me, you may need a second time round.

I mentioned the casting director in the summary because the odd casting decisions severely impacted this movie. While it starred Joel McCrea (who made quite a few nice westerns), the rest of the cast was just bizarre--so bizarre you almost think that the studio deliberately picked the worst possible actors for the film! First, the petulant and very strong-willed woman of the west is played by Miss Peek-a-boo herself, Veronica Lake. Not only is she too small for such a role, but she still sports a variation on her fashion-setting 1940s hair--which looked totally out of place in the old West Second, her father was played by, of all people, Charlie Ruggles! The very British Donald Crisp is on hand to try to keep order as the town sheriff. And, finally, Don Defore (Mr. B from "Hazel") was cast as a bad-man--a guy who liked to shoot first and ask questions....well, never! This just seemed weird from a guy with lovely manners and such a nice-guy persona! What were they thinking?!?! As for the plot, it is quite different--and considering they made a billion or more westerns, this is a very good thing! The film begins with Ruggles magnanimously having his daughter's fiancé beaten up and chased out of town. It seems that Ruggles already has a man picked out for her. Unexpectedly, this unleashes the she-devil in Veronica--who decides to start her own competing ranch AND use evil as her guide. Too bad that the virtuous Joel McCrea is working for her and is pulled right into the middle of this mess. Soon, bodies start piling up and it's particularly surreal to see Defore is responsible for many of them!! Weird...very, very weird! I wasn't sure fond of this film, however, because of its odd-ball plot--the odd-ball casting that made the characters tough to believe. Probably the worst wasn't Defore (he was a close runner-up) but Lake, as whenever she got mean and angry, she made you want to say "....awww...ain't she cute...I love it when she makes that pouty expression!". It just didn't work for me despite McCrea's excellent (as usual) acting. An odd little curio.

I looked this up on Comcast and the title suggested it might be interesting with a title that smacks of sexual symbolism. The description talked about cattle barons and a hard time, so I thought it might be another Brokeback Mountain.Well, it wasn't that at all It was about evil and out of control cowpokes. Joel McCrea (the ramrod) 1s the honest cowpoke who comes out of his drunken stupor after losing his family to find his own way. But his costar, Veronica Lake as Connie Dickason, steals the film as a strong-willed butch-type, who goes against the wishes of her rancher father Ben Dickason (Charles Ruggles) and refuses to marry his choice--the evil Frank Ivey (Preston Foster) and goes for a sheep man. GASP! Evidently, she wants someone she can whip.Well, somehow sheep boy skedaddles out of town and leaves his sheep ranch to his fiancée, who proceeds to fight daddy and Ivey.This is NOT a misogynist Bond movie! It is a western done by a Hungarian director, which had an interesting script with a lot more than you usually see in a cowboy movie.

Contrary to previous reviews of Ramrod, de Toth's film is much more interesting than a "simple cattle vs. sheep" plot-driven western. Just look at Lake's Connie Dickinson. This is a typical femme fatale archetype taken straight from film noir (realistically, the character derives from hard-boiled pulp literature which Luke Short fused with his western story). Sexually alluring Connie uses her potent sway over men to achieve her greedy ambitions of wealth and power, and is unafraid to send men to their deaths for her cause. Connie's strength of character is atypical of the western genre at this stage, and her strength seems to come from the relative weakness of the film's hero, played by Joel McCrea; who seems to lack the strong sense of moral certainty that the typical westerner was founded upon. Along with Raoul Walsh's Pursued (1947), and Robert Wise's Blood on the Moon (1948), Ramrod stands as one of the few hybrids between film noir and the western. Regardless of your standpoint on the status of film noir, all of these films contain typical elements from the pessimistic noirs of the 40's and 50's, particularly formal and stylistic devices, as well as recurring personnel, especially directors, stars (ie. Robert Mitchum), and cinematographers. Crucially though, the western genre before this stage was a particularly optimistic one; look at Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939), Dodge City (Michael Curtiz, 1939), or even My Darling Clementine (Ford again, 1946); the three films I mentioned beforehand, including Ramrod, all offer instances of pessimistic worldviews, and morally ambiguous characters and situations, even though they all end with the hero getting the girl and riding into a westward sunset.