Yellow Sky (1948)

Anyone who likes rooting for the cowboy in the black hat will want to rent Yellow Sky. Gregory Peck, fresh from his bad-boy role in Duel in the Sun, leads a gang of bank robbing, murdering outlaws. His second-in-command is Richard Widmark, and he's always fun to root for when he's bad! After the gang robs a bank, they have two choices: submit to the law, or try and ride their horses across the notoriously fatal salt flats, in hopes that there's a town on the other side. Miraculously, there is a town—but it's a ghost town, with Anne Baxter and her grandfather as the only occupants. Now, if I were her, and a bunch of salivating outlaws arrived in town, I might not shake my hips while wearing ridiculously tight jeans, and I might not repeatedly bend over to get water where the boys always hang out. Then again, if she avoided them altogether, she wouldn't get to flirt with Gregory Peck, late at night, alone in the barn, where no one is around to help her if she needs it. . . I didn't like her character's repeatedly stupid behavior, and that kind of dampened my enjoyment of the movie. Anne Baxter aside, there are a couple of exciting shoot outs, so if you like Peck, Widmark, or westerns in general, you can rent this one. It's not the best, but you could do a lot worse.

Yellow Sky is a unusual, moody and magnificent western. I had never heard of it previously and I'm surprised it doesn't have a much higher profile. Six bank robbers on the verge of death after escaping a posse, stumble upon a ghost town inhabited by an old man and his granddaughter. They realise that they may have an opportunity to all make a fortune however group dynamics and greed take over. It makes a change from the usual western plot but this isn't the only thing that makes this film stand well above most of it's peers. The setting is great and the filming is top class with some great cinematography. The acting is excellent from all the cast. I'm not a massive fan of Gregory Peck but he is outstanding in this as the morally ambiguous leader of the gang. There is an early appearance from Richard Widmark and Anne Baxter is captivating as the feisty granddaughter. The brilliant and convincing script sparkles despite there not being an awful lot of gun play. The characters are all interesting and I liked the fact they weren't all clichéd, a failing of many westerns. Considering what has gone before the very ending is maybe a little too twee but this is a minor gripe as the rest of the film is so good. One of the best and most enjoyable westerns I've seen to date and one which is comparable to most of the perceived classic westerns.

My review title sums up the final conflict between the plans of fellow outlaw gang members Dude(Widmark) and Stretch(Peck) in regard to the bags of gold dust that Grandpa and wildcat gunslinger granddaughter Mike have been saving up for many years. Actually, I'm only assuming , from the friendly gathering on horses in the last scene, that Stretch, and probably his partners Half Pint and Walrus, have made amends with grandpa and Mike, and have decided to stay and participate in the hard rock mining of probably a moderate amount of gold near this otherwise ghost town of Yellow Sky. Also, I'm assuming that Stretch and Mike will probably get 'hitched'.At it's peak, this outlaw gang boasted 7 men. One was shot dead by the cavalry that chased these bank robbers to the edge of a vast salt flats, hemmed in by a high mountain range on either side(filmed in Death Valley). The commander remarked that if they tried to cross this waterless hellishly hot flats and then sand dunes, that would save the justice system the trouble of hanging them. He was very nearly correct in this assessment. The men and their horses were near death when they chanced upon Yellow Sky at the far edge. At first, they assumed there was no water in this apparent ghost town. But soon, a tough-talking , rifle-totting, young woman(Mike) decided to show them a spring. This decision would come to haunt her, as soon Dude, who was jockeying with Stretch for leadership of the gang, correctly guessed that the two were surviving here by finding some gold. After a powwow with the two, Stretch offers a deal. The gang would split the gold 50-50 with the two. Grandpa decided to accept this deal as the best way out, despite Mike's objection. But, the outlaws had to dig through the rubble of a collapsing mine shaft to get to it. After finding it, the outlaws disagreed as to whether to take it all or stick to their bargain. Only Stretch voted for the latter. A shootout ensued, with Mike eventually joining Stretch. Later, Dude decides he will try to run off alone with all the booty. When the others find out about this, Half Pint and Walrus switch sides, and the others try to kill Dude before he disappears. You can more or less guess how things turn out from then. Just before the final scene, there is a rather humorous scene where Stretch, Half Pint and Walrus enter the bank they robbed, pull out their guns, and return all the money they stole(presumably using some of the gold dust to replace that which had been lost or spent.) I would have included some substantial 'interest' to mitigate any lingering hostility about the robbery. Just before this scene, we have Mike discovering Stretch unconscious and barely breathing, from a bullet wound. Seems like he should have soon died, but obviously she revived him.This B&W film was mostly shot on location in the Alabama Hills , near Lone Pine, CA, which provided the ghost town and lots of big boulders and arches to play hide and seek among. Death Valley provided the extensive salt flat and probably the sand dunes. The name Yellow Sky may be derived from Stephen Cranes story "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky": the latter being a town in frontier Texas.Death Valley also provided the extensive salt flats and rugged country seen in the Technicolor John Ford western "3 Godfathers", starring John Wayne, also released in '48. Again, it's a tale of an unlikely opportunity for redemption, after a small gang of bank robbers ride onto the salt flats to escape a posse, and die or nearly so before reaching help.Veteran vaudevillian and actor James Barton made an excellent 'Grandpa', with 'Santa' charisma. Otherwise, I've seen him in a few musicals. John Russell, as horny badman Lengthy, went on to star in some TV serials, including "Lawman". Charles Kemper, as rotund Walrus, often played a sheriff in westerns. But I most remember him as the head of the sinister Clegg gang in "Wagon Master". Anne Baxter makes a convincing tomboy wildcat, knocking Stretch off his feet with a punch, after he grabbed her rifle. Widmark is OK as the wannabe leader of the pack, often at odds with Stretch. In contrast to the others, he seems to know this country intimately. Stretch is from the frontier Midwest, where he has participated in pre and actual Civil War violence. What about the character of Stretch? When it comes to protecting the virtue of the leading lady, he's clearly a hypocrite. He emphasized that the gang, including him, should not mess with her. Yet, on the sly, he grabs her, rolls around with her, lands on top of her, extracting a couple of hard kisses before she brushes him off as "stinking worse than Apaches", and grazes his head with a bullet for good measure. Eventually, she becomes accepting of his advances. In contrast, handsome Lengthy wears his horniness on his sleeve, beginning with that revealing cartoon on the saloon wall,Viewable on YouTube, at present

Greed...is the first word that comes to mind when ever, I think about this film. It's a film that makes you think about (right and wrong) as the storyline continues to unfold. Stretch played by (Gregory Peck) and his gang stumble into a town that seems to be deserted. But as they soon learn, there is still a couple of people who still live there. A very lovely girl named Mike played by (Anne Baxter) and her grandfather (James Barton) still live in this ghost town. But why?....Is the question that haunts Stretch and his band of me. As the film unfolds, the truth is revealed about 'why' these two stayed behind. Stretch..begins to have a soft-spot for (Mike) and she also begins to fall for him. But, Dude..played by (Richard Widmark) and (Half Pint) played by Henry 'Harry' Morgan have other plans in mind. But as they come to find-out (Mike) is pretty good with a shot-gun. The expression on (Richard Widmark's face are priceless.) Stretch soon comes to realize that he must do the right 'thing' rather than the wrong 'thing' to safe the woman that he now loves. It's a great tale that any movie-buff will enjoy. And (Anne Baxter) really does a good job in this film. You'll enjoy...Yellow Sky.