SnoopyStyle It's late 19th century. The small mining town of Warlock is under siege from lawless cowboys. Their sheriff is run off by the gang and the town hides in fear. Notable members of the gang include the violent Curley Burne (DeForest Kelley), leader Abe McQuown, Billy Gannon, and his older brother Johnny Gannon (Richard Widmark) who hates the group's back shooters. After the killing of the barber, a group of town people decides to hire marshal Clay Blaisedell (Henry Fonda) and his right hand man Tom Morgan (Anthony Quinn). Lily Dollar arrives in town looking to take revenge on Blaisedell and Morgan but is intercepted by stagecoach bandits.The start is a standard western and it's got big time acting names. It turns into something more complicated. The mixing of moral ambiguity makes this more complex but also a muddier affair. It does get bogged down with expositions in the first half at times. The story serves better as a darker, amoral, grittier western but this is stuck as a western of its time. It tries hard to make Johnny a white hat and I can't accept it. It may work if Johnny is a new cowboy or the town folks are blame worthy in some way. Losing his brother should affect him in a different way but he insists on being a boy scout. I wonder if this gets remade that it would be a much more compelling character study. The complex material is limited by some clean cut character portrayals. The natural heroism of Fonda and Widmark is too clear. Despite it all, this is intriguing western material with great stars.

mvsen-67629 Look, I know it was the '50s, and homosexuality was considered aberrant behavior, but this movie does play it really safe by not stepping on that subject too hard. Edward Dmytryk even claims that the homosexual references were not intentional, but in that case, one must ask, why were they in there? It's not just the deep and jealous friendship between the two men that implies their homosexuality, but many other details: when Blaisedell and Morgan first move into their new apartment in Warlock, Morgan talks of how he wants to pretty the place up. "I'll soon have it looking nice and homey for you," or words to that effect. Seems to me a clear '50s euphemism for an "effeminate" man.Later on Blaisedell (played by Henry Fonda) says to Jessie Marlow (who, by the way, is courting him in a rather aggressive– and possibly masculine way), that he may not be able to have a relationship with her, and that he might be better suited to his Colts. (As opposed to his Fillies— I thought it right to infer.) There was also a subtle masturbation implication, when she finds him practicing shooting his gun in the middle of nowhere, that she's caught him polishing his own Colt.In another scene he says something similar about being more suited to a relationship with Morgan than with her. It seemed like a straight comparison of relationships to me. Okay, we may not be talking strict homosexuality here, but certainly bi-sexuality must be a consideration.Likewise, in a scene between Morgan (Anthony Quinn) and Lily Dollar (Dorothy Malone) in which he threatens her, and orders her to leave Blaisedell alone, the expositionary dialog that ensues seems to be much less about jealousy regarding a romantic relationship between Morgan and Lily, and more like it's about a power relationship; expressly that of a pimp to his whore. Let's face it, even her name, Dollar, let's you know what she's in it for. He clearly used to be her evil gay pimp, and when she jumped ship on him to marry some guy, he manipulated his boyfriend into killing that guy in order to slap her back into line.To be fair, I have not the read the original book by Oakley Hall, but I'm on the lookout for it now. It just begs the question that if Dmytryk didn't want those inferences to be taken, why would he include them? Isn't it more likely that he did want to imply what we think he is implying, but couldn't admit it in such a sexually repressed era as the '50s was. He may even have been forced to play up the romance angle between Blaisedell and Jessie in order to appease his Hollywood overlords, and a sexually inhibited American post war society. It just seems like the movie is sending double messages by trying to simplify the painful complexity of the situation — Hollywood, I guess!Of course another possibility is that Dmytryk didn't even understand the implications from the book, and included certain details from it, not realizing how they might be taken, or what they were referring to. I don't know, as I admit I have not yet checked the book. But I cannot imagine that he would be so naive as to miss obvious plot and motivational subtexts such as the sexual orientation of his characters.Either way, we have a film in which the justifications for character actions are muddy and unresolved. Just like real life— you might say. But I would respond— more like a bad movie script. However, despite that fact, I still rather enjoyed the movie.

angelosdaughter I watched this for the first time this afternoon. It was certainly more complicated than most westerns of this period. There is no one who is really a hero All of the main characters have a dark side. It was interesting to see Richard Widmark who usually plays the good guy in the role of a man (Johnny Gannon) who is conflicted by his past with a band of rowdies of whom his brother is a member and his attempt to be on the side of law and order. I don't understand why many see the partnership between the high class gunslinger Blaisdell hired by the town, (Henry Fonda) accompanied by his lame self-appointed bodyguard/gambling enterprise partner played by Anthony Quinn, as in any way homoerotic, unlike the scene in 'Spartacus between Lawrence Olivier and Tony Curtis, instead of which it is co-dependent. I guess many who watched missed Morgan explaining his loyalty to Blaisdell (Fonda), saying, "He is the only man who never saw me as a cripple." As Blaisdell's sidekick/bodyguard, Morgan shares in his reputation and as well, Blaisdell's protection from being disregarded/pitied as a 'cripple'. Morgan has no other relationships in his life, and his dismay at Blaisdell's considering marrying Jessie and settling down is that of someone being abandoned. I think we have all heard of a close friend viewing a new relationship as a full or partial abandonment of the friendship and so displaying jealousy. I enjoyed DeForest Kelly as an agitator, albeit one who didn't really care to hurt anybody, in one of his pre-Star Trek 'Bones' McCoy roles. And it is only fitting that the new sheriff/reformed rowdy played by Widmark ends up in the arms of the former saloon girl played by Dorothy Malone.

utgard14 The town of Warlock is being terrorized by a gang of violent cowboys. So the townsfolk hire notorious gunfighter Henry Fonda and his club-footed sidekick Anthony Quinn to protect them. Later, a man (Richard Widmark) who has left the cowboys because he disapproved of their actions is appointed the deputy sheriff of Warlock. This sets up conflicts involving the cowboys, the hired guns, and the law.Strong cast in thinly-veiled version of Wyatt Earp/Doc Holliday story. The stars are all great. Fonda appears to have had an accident with ink and got a lot of it in his hair. There's solid support from the likes of Wallace Ford, Tom Drake, DeForest Kelly, and Frank Gorshin. Dorothy Malone and Dolores Michaels have the only two prominent female roles and both are fine. It's an intelligent, layered western with good performances and a quality script. The basic plot is nothing new, even for 1959, but it's handled in such a way it feels fresh. Subtext fans will have a field day with Quinn's character.