3/28/08: Warlock (1959)A comment in our entry for
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers notes that co-writer Bernard Gordon led the protest against Elia Kazan’s honorary Oscar in 1999. Kazan directed a lot of great films, but Gordon was upset that the Academy was saluting a man who’d given up names to the House Un-American Activities Committee. As that comment mentions, Gordon never felt compelled to apologize for gladly supporting genocidal tyrants.
Anyway, you get to thinking about Elia Kazan, and then you get to thinking about the equally great director Edward Dmytryk—who also cooperated with the HUAC—which reminds you that the late great
Richard Widmark made a couple of fine films that make up for the Cold War cravenness of 1965’s
The Bedford Incident. One of those is
Pickup on South Street, which we’ve already saluted as
The Cape Town Affair. The other is
Warlock, as directed by Edward Dmytryk.
Dmytryk, of course, would find himself on the other side of a blacklist. That’s one of the reasons it took years for
Warlock to be recognized as a legendary Western. It’s certainly not an easy film to explain. The strange structure keeps the audience from even figuring out who’ll end up as the good guys. Widmark plays Johnny Gannon, who we first see as part of a gang terrorizing the town of Warlock. The locals finally hire gunman Clay Blaisedell (Henry Fonda), who’s accompanied by adoring sidekick Tom Morgan (Anthony Quinn).
Things get complicated when Gannon gives up on crime and becomes Warlock’s sheriff, at a small fraction of what the town pays Blaisedell. There’s also women trouble in the form of Dorothy Malone and Dolores Michaels. (Many critics would add that Blaisedell and Morgan seem to be cowpokes of the brokeback bent.) The script goes off into some bold territory, and you’ve got a stellar cast outside of those leads. The gang of bad guys includes troubled DeForest Kelley, a wholesome Gary Lockwood, and Frank Gorshin—smartly cast as Gannon’s brother.
In one way,
Warlock is merely part of the classic sub-genre of gunmen facing the modern West. Dmytryk, however, has a personal stake in this tale of injustice.
Warlock is up there with Kazan’s
On The Waterfront as an examination of when a person has to defy peer pressure and rationalizations for the true common good. There’s nothing subtle about the film’s bizarre ending, but it’s gracious in depicting how the moral high ground isn’t claimed through empty gestures and good intentions.
Also, Gannon makes it clear that he’s no
High Noon brand of sheriff. He won’t have innocent townspeople risk their lives on his behalf. And while we’re dredging up old entries, let’s note that parts of
Warlock will remind you of
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
Make it your own: Warlock got a perfectly fine
DVD release a few years ago. The film deserves more special features, but maybe it’s better not to hear any commentaries from critics on this one.
