From Chicago to California: The Wagon Train of “Westward the Women”

Directed by William A. Wellman, Westward the Women opens in 1851 with California rancher Roy Whitman hiring veteran trail guide Buck Wyatt (Robert Taylor) to lead 139 women from Chicago across the harsh American wilderness. Whitman’s remote valley community is populated entirely by single male workers, and the women are making the perilous trek to start new lives as wives and homesteaders. Recognizing the extreme danger ahead, Buck warns the women of the brutal conditions and insists on hiring a crew of cowboys to assist them, while enforcing strict rules prohibiting any romance between his men and the female travelers on the trail.

The journey quickly turns treacherous as the group encounters severe weather, desert heat, rugged terrain, and attacks by Native American warriors. After a group of cowboys attempts to assault some of the women, Buck shoots one of the offenders, prompting the rest of the hired hands to desert the expedition with the group’s spare horses. Left stranded, the determined women step up to perform the grueling physical labor required to keep the wagon train moving. They learn to drive mule teams, repair heavy wagons, shoot firearms, and clear paths through mountainous passes, forging an unbreakable bond through shared tragedy and hardship. Among them is Fifi Danon (Denise Darcel), a spirited Frenchwoman whose tough exterior softens over the journey as she gradually earns Buck's respect.

 

William A. Wellman (1896 – 1975) was a prominent American film director known for his hard-hitting realism, energetic storytelling, and mastery of aviation and Western genres. Before his Hollywood career, Wellman served as a fighter pilot in the Lafayette Flying Corps during World War I, earning the nickname “Wild Bill” for his combat bravery. He brought that same fearless intensity to cinema, directing the first-ever Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Wings (1927), as well as classic films such as The Public Enemy (1931), A Star Is Born (1937), and The Ox-Bow Incident (1943).

Robert Taylor (1911 – 1969) was one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s most durable and striking leading men during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Born Spangler Arlington Brugh in Nebraska, he was discovered by talent scouts while attending college and quickly rocketed to stardom due to his handsome features and smooth screen presence. Over a career spanning more than three decades, Taylor successfully transitioned from photogenic romantic leads in films like Camille (1936) to rugged, hard-bitten roles in major Westerns, dramas, and war epics including Quo Vadis (1951), Ivanhoe (1952), Knights of the Round Table (1953), and The Law and Jake Wade (1958).

Denise Darcel (1924 –  2011) was a French-born actress and singer who became a popular Hollywood personality during the late 1940s and 1950s. Born Denise Billecard in Paris, she worked as a cabaret singer after World War II before moving to the United States. Known for her glamorous screen persona and lively charm, she landed major roles in prominent Hollywood productions, most notably co-starring in World War II drama Battleground (1949), Westward the Women (1951), and the classic Western action film Vera Cruz (1954) alongside Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster.

Click HERE to watch the movie on the Internet Archive.

Click HERE to join the online discussion on August 31, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time. Once you RSVP, you will receive an invitation with a link to join the discussion on Zoom.

Westward the Women Trivia

• Origin Story: The idea for the movie originated with director Frank Capra, who read a magazine article about South American women traveling to become brides for male settlers. Capra initially pitched the Western adaptation to William A. Wellman, who loved the concept so much that Capra handed him the story to direct.
• Actors’ Boot Camp: Before filming began, director William A. Wellman put the female cast members through an intensive three-week training program. They were taught real pioneer skills, including horseback riding, whip cracking, handling mule teams, firing antique firearms, and completely disassembling and reassembling heavy covered wagons.
• Unforgiving Filming Conditions: Wellman insisted on authentic locations and shot the movie over 11 grueling weeks in the deserts and mountains of Utah and California. He gave the cast a chance to back out before production started, warning them that there would be no room for “prima donnas” in the long, dirty conditions.
• Minimalist Visual Style: Cinematographer William C. Mellor purposefully used as few camera lens filters as possible to emphasize the scorching, harsh conditions of the journey, giving the black-and-white film a distinctively stark, sunbaked look.

Discussion questions

1. How does Westward the Women subvert traditional Western film tropes regarding gender roles, particularly in how it portrays female agency and survival skills compared to male-dominated Westerns of the 1950s?
2. What role does Buck Wyatt’s character development play throughout the film, and how does his changing perception of the women reflect the audience's intended journey?
3. In what ways does William A. Wellman’s realistic, location-heavy production style contribute to the overall tone and thematic weight of the pioneer struggle depicted in the film?
4. How do the interpersonal dynamics and conflicts among the women themselves (such as class differences or nationality, as seen with Fifi) influence the group's ability to unite and overcome physical obstacles on the trail?

 

Barbara Stanwyck is the “Lady of Burlesque”

Lady of Burlesque (1943) is an American comedy mystery film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Barbara Stanwyck. The movie is based on the novel The G-String Murders (1941) by burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee. The supporting cast includes Michael O'Shea, Iris Adrian, Gloria Dixon, Charles Dingle, Frank Conroy, and Pinky Lee.

Set in the bustling world of a New York City burlesque house, Lady of Burlesque follows the arrival of Dixie Daisy (Stanwyck), a talented and brassy performer who quickly becomes the theater’s star attraction. As she navigates the colorful and often chaotic backstage environment, Dixie finds herself dealing with a range of eccentric personalities, from jealous rivals to a persistent comic named Biff Brannigan (O’Shea) who is determined to win her heart. Despite her initial reluctance to mingle with her colleagues, Dixie is soon drawn into the tight-knit “family” of performers who struggle to keep the show running amidst the threat of police raids and financial instability.

The atmosphere of the Old Opera House turns dark when a series of mysterious murders shakes the troupe. The victims are strangled with a peculiar weapon—a silk G-string—which casts a shadow of suspicion over everyone in the theater, including the stagehands, the musicians, and the dancers themselves. As the body count rises and the police investigation intensifies, the once-vibrant theater becomes a maze of secrets and hidden motives. Dixie, who finds herself personally targeted by the unseen killer, realizes that she cannot rely solely on the authorities to solve the crime and protect her friends.

In a race against time, Dixie utilizes her sharp wit and insider knowledge of the theater to conduct her own investigation. She sifts through the personal vendettas and romantic entanglements of her coworkers, trying to unmask the killer before they strike again. The film blends elements of musical comedy with a tense whodunit mystery, culminating in a high-stakes trap set by Dixie to lure the murderer into the light. Throughout the ordeal, the resilience of the performers shines through as they attempt to balance the “show must go on” mentality with the growing danger lurking in the wings.

 

Iris Adrian and Barbara Stanwyck

William A. Wellman (1896 – 1975) was an American film director. He started his directorial career in silent films. Wellman directed Wings (1927), which was the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 1st Academy Awards ceremony. Wellman directed two classic films released in 1937: Nothing Sacred and A Star is Born. Other important films directed by Wellman include Beau Geste (1939), Roxie Hart (1942), The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), Yellow Sky (1948), Battleground (1949), and The High and the Mighty (1954).

Barbara Stanwyck (1907 – 1990) was an American film star who got her acting start with a supporting role on Broadway in a play called The Noose (1926). The next year she had the lead in another Broadway production, Burlesque, which was a huge hit. She eventually made it to Hollywood, where her success was not immediate. Director Frank Capra saw something in Stanwyck, and he educated her in filmmaking and film acting, and the rest is history. Stanwyck was nominated four times for the Best Actress Oscar—Stella Dallas (1937), Ball of Fire (1941), Double Indemnity (1945), Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)—and remains one of the most beloved movie stars from Hollywood’s Golden Age.

 

Click HERE to watch the movie on the Internet Archive.

Click HERE to join the online discussion on January 12, 2025, at 6L30 p.m. Central Time. Once you RSVP, you will receive an invitation and a link to join the discussion on Zoom.

 

Lady of Burlesque trivia

The Censored Title: The film is based on the 1941 mystery novel The G-String Murders by the famous burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee. However, the Hays Office (the Hollywood censors of the time) found the original title too scandalous for movie marquees. They eventually settled on Lady of Burlesque, though they still expressed concern about a "G-string" being used as the murder weapon in the plot.

Stanwyck’s Genuine Skills: Long before she became a Hollywood icon, Barbara Stanwyck worked as a chorus girl in the Ziegfeld Follies and other New York nightclubs. Because of this background, she performed all her own dancing and singing in the film, including impressive physical feats like a Russian kick dance and full splits—all while wearing high heels.

A "Lark" for a Legendary Director: The film was directed by William A. Wellman, who is better known for gritty masterpieces like Wings (the first Best Picture winner) and The Ox-Bow Incident. Interestingly, The Ox-Bow Incident was released the same year; Wellman and Stanwyck reportedly viewed Lady of Burlesque as a "fun lark" to work on between their more serious projects.

Public Domain Status: Due to a failure to renew the copyright by the original holder, the film fell into the public domain. This is why you can find countless versions of it on YouTube, bargain-bin DVDs, and streaming services. A new 4K Blu-ray restoration from Film Masters with an audio commentary by our very own Karen Burroughs Hannsberry.  

 

The ladies of burlesque

Discussion questions

1. The “Show Must Go On” vs. The Murder Mystery

Lady of Burlesque is a unique hybrid of a lighthearted backstage musical and a dark, pulpy whodunit.

• Discussion Point: Does the film successfully balance these two tones? Do the musical numbers and comedy routines (like the “Pickle Persuader”) heighten the suspense by providing a “normal” backdrop, or do they distract from the urgency of the murders?

2. Dixie Daisy: Agency and Ambition

Barbara Stanwyck’s character, Dixie (born Deborah Hoople), explicitly mentions her desire to leave burlesque for the “legitimate” stage.

• Discussion Point: How does Dixie’s ambition influence her actions throughout the movie? Unlike many “damsel in distress” archetypes of the 1940s, she takes an active role in the investigation. Does her background as a self-made performer make her a more effective "sleuth" than the actual police in the film?

3. The Portrayal of the Burlesque Community

The film depicts the theater troupe as a “little family,” complete with internal rivalries (like the tension between Dixie and Lolita La Verne) and deep-seated loyalties.

• Discussion Point: How does the movie challenge or reinforce 1940s stereotypes about burlesque performers? Consider the scene where the producer gives the performers stock in the company—does this suggest a level of professional respect and solidarity that contradicts the “seedy” reputation of the industry?

4. Censorship and the “Unseen” Conflict

Because of the Hays Code, the film could not show actual striptease or use the book’s original title, The G-String Murders.

• Discussion Point: How does the film use “suggestion” to get around the censors? For example, consider the costumes or the way the G-string is discussed as a weapon. Does the censorship actually make the film more creative in its storytelling, or does it feel like something essential is missing from the world Gypsy Rose Lee originally described?

 

 

 

 

 

Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney are trapped behind “The Iron Curtain”

The Iron Curtain (1948) is an American espionage thriller directed by William A. Wellman and starring Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney. It is based on the memoirs of Igor Gouzenko, a Russian code deciphering expert working at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, Canada, in 1943. The supporting cast includes June Havoc, Berry Kroeger, and Edna Best. This was the first about the Cold War.

Dana Andrews plays Igor Gouzenko, an expert at deciphering codes, who arrives at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa to help set up a base of operations to spy on the Canadian government. At first, Igor is loyal to the Russian cause, but once his pregnant wife, Anna (Tierney), arrives, he begins to have second thoughts.

Is capitalism as evil as he has been taught? Does Russia deserve his loyalty?

Once it is decided that Igor is to be sent back to Moscow, he faces a difficult decision.

 

Gene Tierney and Dana Adrews

William A. Wellman (1896 – 1975) was an American film director. He started his directorial career in silent films. Wellman directed Wings (1927), which was the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 1st Academy Awards ceremony. Wellman directed two classic films released in 1937: Nothing Sacred and A Star is Born. Other important films directed by Wellman include Beau Geste (1939), Roxie Hart (1942), The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), Yellow Sky (1948), Battleground (1949), and The High and the Mighty (1954).

Dana Andrews (1909 – 1992) was an American stage and film actor. During the 1940s, Andrews was a major star and leading man in Laura (1944), State Fair (1945), A Walk in the Sun (1945), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Canyon Passage (1946), Boomerang! (1947), and Daisy Kenyon (1947) co-starring Joan Crawford and Henry Fonda. During the 1950s, film roles were harder to come by, but he had success in Elephant Walk (1954) co-starring Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Finch, While the City Sleeps (1956), and Curse of the Demon (1957). In 1958, he replaced Henry Fonda on Broadway in Two for the Seesaw.

Gene Tierney (1920 – 1991) was an American actress. Tierney got her start on the stage where she played the ingenue lead in The Male Animal. Tierney made her movie debut in 1940 in The Return of Frank James starring Henry Fonda. She worked steadily in the early 1940s but established herself as a top box office star with Laura (1944). She starred in Leave Her to Heaven the next year, which was the biggest hit of the year and Fox’s biggest moneymaking success until The Robe (1953). Other successes for Tierney include Dragonwyck (1946), The Razor’s Edge (1946), and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947).

 

The Iron Curtain trivia

• The film was shot on location in Ottawa.
• Soviet sympathizers tried to disrupt location shooting, but were unsuccessful.
• The fourth of five movies Andrews and Tierney made together.
• The film was the number one movie in America during its first two weeks of release and was a commercial success.
• New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther said the film would negatively impact U.S. Soviet relations. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck responded to Crowther’s review in a much-publicized letter to the critic.
• Twentieth Century Fox considered The Iron Curtain to be one of their biggest films of the year; the film’s score was played with the studio logo instead of the Fox fanfare.

 

Click HERE to watch the movie on YouTube.

Click HERE to join the online discussion on June 2, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time. Once you RSVP, you will receive an email with an invitation and a link to join the discussion on Zoom.

 

Discussion questions

1. Considering this film was made at a time when the Cold War was just beginning, does it hold up as entertainment?
2. Did the film’s documentary-style narrative appeal to you?
3. Do you think the film was realistic in its portrayal of the Russian spies?
4. Did the on-location filming at to the film’s realism?
5. How do you think the film was received by audiences in 1948?
6. Did the film remind you of other movies you’ve seen?
7. Forgetting that the film is based on a true story, does it work as a political thriller?
8. The film was criticized for using music from Russian composers. What did you think of the film score? Does it work?

Henry Fonda and Dana Andrews in "The Ox-Bow Incident"

The Ox-Box Incident (1943) is an American western film directed by Wiliam A. Wellman, starring Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, and an extraordinary supporting cast that includes Anthony Quinn, Harry Morgan, Mary Beth Hughes, and Jane Darwell. The film is based on the novel by Walter Van Tilburg Clark published in 1940.

Cowboys Art Croft (Harry Morgan) and Gil Carter (Henry Fonda) ride into Bridger's Wells, Nevada in 1885. Immediately the two are suspected of being cattle rustlers. While at Darby’s Saloon a man comes in and announces that rancher Larry Kinkaid has been murdered.

Almost immediately, a posse if formed lead by Major Tetley (Frank Conroy) and his son Gerald (William Eythe). Art and Gil, originally resistant to joining the posse do so in order to deflect suspicion from themselves.

The posse comes across Donald Martin (Dana Andrews); a Mexican, Juan Martínez (Anthony Quinn); and an old man, Alva Hardwicke (Francis Ford). Martin is accused of killing Kinkaid and stealing his cattle by the posse. Martin claims that he purchased the cattle from Kinkaid but no one believes him. What will the posse do? Will Martin, Martinez, and Hardwicke receive justice at the hands of the posse?

Victor Killian, Henry Fonda, and Harry Morgan

William A. Wellman (1896 – 1975) was an American film director. He started his directorial career in silent films. Wellman directed Wings (1927) which was the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 1st Academy Awards ceremony. Wellman directed two classic films released in 1937: Nothing Sacred and A Star is Born. Other important films directed by Wellman include Beau Geste (1939), Roxie Hart (1942), The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), Yellow Sky (1948), Battleground (1949), and The High and the Mighty (1954).

Henry Fonda (1905 –1982) was an American stage and film actor. Fonda came to Hollywood in 1935 and became a star overnight. Early starring roles include Jezebel (1938), Jesse James (1939), Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), and The Grapes of Wrath (1940) for which he received his first Best Actor nomination for playing Tom Joad. Fonda played opposite Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve (1942), My Darling Clementine (1946), and Mister Roberts (1955). In 1981 he finally won the Best Actor Oscar for his role as Norman Thayer Jr. in On Golden Pond.

Dana Andrews (center)

Dana Andrews (1909 – 1992) was an American stage and film actor. During the 1940s, Andrews was a major star and leading man starring in Laura (1944), State Fair (1945), A Walk in the Sun (1945), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Canyon Passage (1946), Boomerang! (1947), and Daisy Kenyon (1947) co-starring Joan Crawford and Henry Fonda. During the 1950s, film roles were harder to come by, but he had success in Elephant Walk (1954) co-starring Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Finch, While the City Sleeps (1956), and Curse of the Demon (1957). In 1958 he replaced Henry Fonda on Broadway in Two for the Seesaw.


The Ox-Bow Incident Trivia 

• Henry Fonda considered this, along with The Grapes of Wrath as his two best films. 
• Completed in 1942, the film wasn’t released until 1943. 
• Clint Eastwood told the American Film Institute (AFI) that this was his favorite film. 
• Henry Fonda’s role was originally offered to Gary Cooper. 
• The film was a box office failure, but it was still nominated for Best Picture. 
• The opening scene in the saloon is almost identical to the one in Yellow Sky, also directed by William A. Wellman.
• Francis Ford who plays the old man Hardwicke was director John Ford’s older brother.

To watch to the movie on YouTube, click the link below. Be sure to use this link because there are other versions on this channel that are not of the same quality.



After you’ve watched the movie, join us for a discussion on Zoom September 1, 2020, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time. Zoom invitation and the link are below.

Stephen Reginald is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Discussion of "The Ox-Bow Incident"
Time: Sep 1, 2020, 06:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/78506166194?pwd=MGtuUDZVckRDcTl1VFpJN21aSmVOdz09

Meeting ID: 785 0616 6194
Passcode: 9wQ0G8


Questions for discussion:
1. Do you think the posse would have been organized without the Major’s leadership?
2. Why do you think Art and Gil join the posse? Is it out of fear or excitement?
3. What about the other men and “Ma?”
4. What did you think of Donald Martin’s (Dana Andrews) character? The old man Hardwicke (Ford), and Martinez (Anthony Quinn).
5. Arthur Davies (Harry Davenport) seemed to be sympathetic to Martin and his companions. What do you think his motivation was?
6. The way Henry Fonda is photographed reading Martin’s letter is quite unusual. Did you think it was effective? Would you have filmed it that way?

Carole Lombard and Fredric March star in “Nothing Sacred”

Nothing Sacred (1937) is a screwball comedy film directed by William A. Wellman, produced by David O. Selznick, with a screenplay by Ben Hecht. Oscar Levant wrote the original music score.

New York newspaper reporter Wally Cook (March) was demoted to writing obituaries due to a scandal involving a phony African nobleman and a charity event in the nobleman’s honor. Wally begs his boss Oliver Stone (Walter Connolly) for a second chance.

Wally points out a story about Hazel Flagg (Carole Lombard), a young woman dying of radium poisoning. Wally convinces his boss that a story on the dying girl could boost the circulation of his paper the Morning Star. Wally is off to the fictional town of Warsaw, Vermont in pursuit of Hazel Flagg and her story. Wally meets Hazel and he invites her and her doctor to New York as guests of the paper. Unknown to Wally is the fact that Hazel isn’t dying of radium poisoning and that her original diagnosis was a mistake. Hazel anxious to leave the sleepy town of Warsaw for a trip to New York doesn’t let on that she’s not dying.

Will Hazel’s secret be found out and will Wally be sent back to writing obituaries once again?

William A. Wellman (1896 – 1975) got his start in the movies as an actor but decided he’d rather work behind the camera as a director. He directed his first picture in 1920. Seven years later, Wellman directed the World War I epic Wings. His other notable films in the sound era include The Public Enemy (1931), A Star Is Born (1937), Beau Geste (1939), and The Ox-Box Incident (1943).

Carole Lombard (1908 – 1942) was an American film actress best know for starring in a string of screwball comedies. So popular was she in the genre that Life magazine dubbed her “the screwball girl.” Lombard began her career in silent films, but her career was stalled when she was in a car accident that scarred her face. After the accident, she was dropped from her Fox Film Corporation contract. She underwent plastic surgery, which was relatively new at the time, hoping it would help jumpstart her career. The surgery was a success resulting in a minor scar that was hardly noticeable on screen. She made almost 40 films before her breakout role as Lily Garland opposite John Barrymore in Twentieth Century. Now a bona fide star, Lombard would be the highest-paid actor in Hollywood by the late 1930s. Lombard was Oscar-nominated for My Man Godfrey (1936) and starred in Alfred Hitchock’s only screwball comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith. In 1939, Lombard married Clark Gable and the two were the most famous couple in Hollywood. Lombard died tragically in a plane crash on January 16, 1942. She was 33 years old. Her final film was the Ernst Lubitsch comedy To Be or Not to Be (1942) which was released after her death.

Frederic March (1897 – 1975) was an American actor of both stage and film. He started his career as an extra in silent movies and by 1926 he appeared on Broadway and by the end of the decade, he was in Hollywood. March was one of the most successful actors working in Hollywood during the 1930s and 1940s. He starred in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932) a role for which he won a Best Actor Oscar, Design for Living (1933), Les Miserbles (1935), Anna Karenina (1935) with Greta Garbo, and A Star is Born (1937) with Janet Gaynor. In the 1940s, March starred in I Married a Witch (1942) and The Best Years of Our Lives, which brought him his second Best Actor Oscar. March was also a major star on Broadway. He won Tony Awards for Best Actor for his performances in Years Ago (1947) and Long Day’s Journey into Night (1956).

Nothing Sacred is a who’s who of 1930s character actors including Charles Winninger, Walter Connolly, Sig Ruman, John Qualen, Hattie McDaniel, and Margaret Hamilton.

Nothing Sacred has a creative title sequence.

Nothing Sacred trivia:

• This was the first screwball comedy filmed in Technicolor and Lombard’s only color film. 
• Frank Fay who plays the master of ceremonies in the film was Barbara Stanwyck’s first husband. His film career was basically over at the time of the film’s release, but he went on to Broadway fame as Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey (1944).
• The film was not a hit upon its release and recorded a loss of $400,000 at the box office.
• Lombard starred in True Confession (1937) with Fred MacMurray, the same year as Nothing Sacred. True Confession, almost forgotten today, was a huge box office success.

For more information on True Confession, which also starred John Barrymore, click here.

Fred MacMurray, Carole Lombard, and John Barrymore in True Confession

To watch the film, click on the YouTube link below. Please use this link because there are other versions that are on the channel that isn’t as good.



After you’ve watched the film, join us for a discussion on Zoom at 6:30 p.m. on August 11, 2020. The links for the Zoom meeting are below.

Stephen Reginald is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Discussion of "Nothing Sacred"
Time: Aug 11, 2020 06:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/74847286053?pwd=aFdsaElXcEdqcmZHVGthMTE0aUJyUT09

Meeting ID: 748 4728 6053
Passcode: ck2W1Q


Questions for discussion:
1. Were you surprised to see such an old film in color? Did color add anything to the narrative?
2. What did you think of Carole Lombard’s performance?
3. What did you make of the town of Warsaw? Did you understand why Hazel wanted to leave it?
4. Was Frederic March convincing as a newspaperman?
5. Was there a message or meaning behind the comedy? If yes, what was the message?

Yellow Sky—Classic Western with Gregory Peck, Anne Baxter, and Richard Widmark

Yellow Sky (1948) is a western directed by William A. Wellman that stars Gregory Peck, Anne Baxter, and Richard Widmark.

Anne Baxter confronts Gregory Peck in Yellow Sky

The plot centers on Peck and his band of outlaws who rob a bank and flee the law by riding into the desert. Desperate and out of drinking water, they come upon a ghost town inhabited by a young woman named Mike (Baxter) and her grandfather (James Barton). They are Yellow Sky’s sole inhabitants. The old man has been prospecting for gold and the gang sees a chance for them to make some easy money by intimidating Mike and her grandfather out of the estimated $50,000 in gold he has mined thus far.

Yellow Sky is based on an unpublished novel by W. R. Burnett. Burnett is the best-selling author of Little Caesar, Scarface, and High Sierra. Many of his novels were turned into films, which led to a career as a scriptwriter in Hollywood. Burnett worked with the top directors, writers, and actors like Raoul Walsh, John Huston, John Ford, Howard Hawks, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Steve McQueen, and Clint Eastwood. As a scriptwriter, he wrote This Gun for Hire (1942), Action in the North Atlantic (1943), San Antonio (1945), and The Great Escape (1963).

Some exteriors for Yellow Sky were filmed at Death Valley National Monument. The ghost town of Yellow Sky was an old western set that actor Tom Mix had built in 1923. The crew hired by Twentieth Century-Fox basically demolished the movie set located near Lone Pine, California.

William Wellman directed the original version of A Star Is Born.

Director William A. Wellman (1896 – 1975) got his start in the movies as an actor but decided he’d rather work behind the camera as a director. He directed his first film in 1920. Seven years later, Wellman directed the World War I epic Wings. His other notable films in the sound era include The Public Enemy (1931), A Star Is Born, Nothing Sacred (both 1937), Beau Geste (1939), and The Ox-Box Incident (1943).

By 1948, Gregory Peck (1916 – 2002) was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. He had three Best Actor nominations under his belt, including one for Gentleman’s Agreement (1947). Besides Gentleman’s Agreement, Peck starred in three other films that year, including Alfred Hitchcock’s The Paradine Case. He had non-exclusive contracts with David O. Selznick and Twentieth Century-Fox which gave him great flexibility in the roles he chose to play. Yellow Sky was Peck’s only film released in 1948.

Lobby card for The Valley of Decision (1945) starring Greer Garson and Gregory Peck

Anne Baxter (1923 – 1985) won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Sophie MacDonald in The Razor’s Edge (1946). She was signed to a contract with Twentieth Century-Fox in 1940. In 1948, Baxter starred in four movies, with Yellow Sky being her most prominent role to date. She went on to have a prolific career in film, television, and theater. She is probably best known for her Oscar-nominated performance as Eve Harrington in All About Eve. Frank Lloyd Wright was Baxter’s grandfather.

Anne Baxter as Eve Harrington in All About Eve (1950)

Richard Widmark (1914- 2008) had a sensational movie debut playing the crazy villain Tommy Udo in director Henry Hathaway’s Kiss of Death (1947). In the film’s most notorious scene, Widmark’s character pushed an old lady in a wheelchair down a flight of stairs. His performance won him a Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year – Actor. He was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Udo. Widmark was also under contract to Twentieth Century-Fox where he played mostly villains (Yellow Sky is no exception). Later in his career, he started playing more heroic roles in films like Slattery’s Hurricane and Down to the Sea in Ships (both 1949).

Richard Widmark stands between Cornell Wilde and Ida Lupino in Road House (1948).

Join us on May 5 as we discuss Yellow Sky on Zoom. Watch the film on YouTube first and be ready to discuss it on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

Your Zoom invitation link is below.

Stephen Reginald is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Discussion on  "Yellow Sky"

Time: May 5, 2020 06:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/78225892657?pwd=QXRRUWtoeWYvS2tEdmFvSmFUN3QyZz09

Meeting ID: 782 2589 2657

Password: 0mZXAG

Questions for Discussion:

1. What were your overall impressions?

2. Did the movie remind you of any other movies you’ve seen?

3. What did you think of Anne Baxter’s character?

4. Did anything about the movie surprise you?

5 Was the ending satisfying? Was it realistic?

10 Things You May Not Know About Ida Lupino

Ida Lupino (1918 – 1995) was a London-born actress and director; she became an American citizen in 1948. As a contract player at Warner Brothers, Lupino starred opposite some of their top male stars, including Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, and John Garfield. In the late 1940s she embarked on a career as a director and independent filmmaker.

Ida Lupino, Raoul Walsh, and Humphrey Bogart on the set of High Sierra

1. Her parents both had theatrical backgrounds; her father’s family’s theatrical roots date back to the Italian Renaissance.

2. She was signed to a five-year contract with Paramount Pictures in 1933 where she was dubbed “the English Jean Harlow.”

3. Wanting to be more than just a pretty face, Lupino begged director William A. Wellman to test her for the role of Bessie Broke in The Light That Failed (1939).

4. She next played the femme fatale role in They Drive by Night (1940) where she stole the picture from such established stars as George Raft, Ann Sheridan, and Humphrey Bogart.

Beautiful color studio publicity photo of Ida Lupino

5. In 1941 she starred in three movies: The Sea Wolf costarring Edward G. Robinson and John Garfield, Out of the Fog costarring with Garfield again, and Ladies in Retirement costarring with her then husband, Louis Hayward.

6. During her years as a film director, she was a pioneer of product placement to help with financing.

7. She directed dozens of television episodes for popular series, during the 1950s and 1960s, including The Donna Reed Show, 77 Sunset Strip, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Have Gun Will Travel, Thriller, The Fugitive, Dr. Kildare, The Twilight Zone, and Bewitched. She is the only woman to have directed an episode of the original Twilight Zone and star in one as well.

8. Lupino learned about directing and other behind-the-scenes aspects of filmmaking while she was on suspension at Warner Brothers. When an actor under studio contract turned down a movie role, they were put on suspension. They received no salary during the time the movie they refused to act in was in production. Instead of sitting at home, Lupino visited movie sets and befriended directors like Raoul Walsh and Don Siegel.

Ida Lupino (third from left) on the set of The Trouble With Angels with Rosalind Russell (second from left)

9. She won the National Board of Review award for Best Actress in 1941 (High Sierra and Ladies in Retirement) and 1942 (Moontide) and a New York Film Critics Circle Award in 1943 (The Hard Way), but she was never nominated for an Academy Award.

10. Her last directing job was for the 1966 comedy The Trouble With Angels starring Rosalind Russell and Haley Mills.

New Barbara Stanwyck biography out this month

A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940 by Victoria Wilson comes out this month. I’m looking forward to reading and reviewing it, but thought I’d post the description of the first part of the two-part biography from Amazon for your review. At the end of this post is a video of Wilson describing how this project (a work that took her 15 years!) came together and what sets it apart from other Stanwyck biographies. Anyone who reads this blog knows that I'm a huge Stanwyck fan. You can pre-order Wilson’s biography by clicking here.

Frank Capra called her “The greatest emotional actress the screen has yet known.” She was one of its most natural, timeless, and underrated stars. Now, Victoria Wilson gives us the first full-scale life of Barbara Stanwyck, whose astonishing career in movies (eighty-eight in all) spanned four decades beginning with the coming of sound, and lasted in television from its infancy in the 1950s through the 1980s—a book that delves deeply into her rich, complex life and explores her extraordinary range of motion pictures, many of them iconic. Here is her work, her world, her Hollywood.

We see the quintessential Brooklyn girl whose family was in fact of old New England stock . . . her years in New York as a dancer and Broadway star . . . her fraught mar­riage to Frank Fay, Broadway genius, who influenced a generation of actors and comedians (among them, Jack Benny and Stanwyck herself ) . . . the adoption of a son, embattled from the outset; her partnership with the “unfunny” Marx brother, Zeppo, crucial in shaping the direction of her work, and who, together with his wife, formed a trio that created one of the finest horse-breeding farms in the west; her fairy-tale romance and marriage to the younger Robert Taylor, America’s most sought-after— and beautiful—male star.

Here is the shaping of her career with many of Hol­lywood’s most important directors: among them, Frank Capra, “Wild Bill” William Wellman (“When you get beauty and brains together,” he said, “there’s no stopping the lucky girl who possesses them. The best example I can think of is Barbara”), King Vidor, Cecil B. De Mille, and Preston Sturges, all set against the times—the Depression, the New Deal, the rise of the unions, the advent of World War II—and a fast-changing, coming-of-age motion picture industry.

And here is Stanwyck’s evolution as an actress in the pictures she made from 1929 through the summer of 1940, where Volume One ends—from her first starring movie, The Locked Door (“An all-time low,” she said. “By then I was certain that Hollywood and I had nothing in common”); and Ladies of Leisure, the first of her six-picture collaboration with Frank Capra (“He sensed things that you were trying to keep hidden from people. He knew. He just knew”), to the scorching Baby Face, and the height of her screen perfection, beginning with Stella Dallas (“I was scared to death all the time we were making the pic­ture”), from Clifford Odets’s Golden Boy and the epic Union Pacific to the first of her collaborations with Preston Sturges, who wrote Remember the Night, in which she starred.

And at the heart of the book, Stanwyck herself—her strengths, her fears, her frailties, her losses and desires; how she made use of the darkness in her soul in her work and kept it at bay in her private life, and finally, her transformation from shunned outsider to one of Holly­wood’s—and America’s—most revered screen actresses.

Writing with the full cooperation of Stanwyck’s family and friends, and drawing on more than two hundred interviews with actors, directors, cameramen, screen­writers, costume designers, et al., as well as making use of letters, journals, and private papers, Victoria Wilson has brought this complex artist brilliantly alive. Her book is a revelation of the actor’s life and work.

For you chance to win a copy of the new Victoria Wilson biography click here. 

From star to superstar: Carole Lombard Breaks Out

If 1936 was a watershed year for Carole Lombard, 1937 wasn't too bad either. Lombard starred in three films released in 1937, all of which were critical and box office successes. Swing High, Swing Low was the highest grossing film for Paramount Studios in 1937 as well as being one of the biggest box office hits of the year.

Lombard and MacMurray: Together again
Swing High, Swing Low was directed by Mitchell Leisen and costarred Lombard, once again, with Fred MacMurray. Not well regarded today because it seems to be one part screwball comedy, one part melodrama, and one part musical. What seemed innovative and inventive when first released seems a bit muddled and confusing to modern viewers. Frank S. Nugent in the New York Times wrote, "Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray skip through the formula devices of "Swing High, Swing Low" (nee "Burlesque") with their usual ease at the Paramount, raising a routine story to a routine-plus picture. The plus is extremely small, sometimes being almost invisible." Nugent ended his review by stating, "Its players really are worthy of better treatment." Still it has its moments and the Lombard/MacMurray chemistry delighted film-going audiences and most other contemporary film critics.

Lombard's next film for 1937 would be the much-heralded Nothing Sacred, costarring Fredric March with a script by Ben Hecht and direction by William A. Wellman. Produced by David O. Selznick, the film was given the A-treatment. Selznick spared no expense when it came to the film's production, including filming it in Technicolor, still a rare event in the late 1930s, especially for comedies. Nothing Sacred has the distinction of being the only color film Lombard ever made. The story goes that some people went to see the film just to get a glimpse of Lombard's beauty in color and they weren't disappointed: she looks luminous.

She's the top

One of the ironies of Lombard's career is how quickly she began to eclipse the stars that she used to support. In 1934, Lombard appeared with Fredric March in The Eagle and the Hawk, a film in which he received top billing. In less than three year's time, Lombard was the bigger star when they made Nothing Sacred, with her name above March's. Cary Grant, who also starred in The Eagle and the Hawk, billed above Lombard, but below March, would be billed under Lombard in In Name Only, released in 1939. In a relatively short period, Lombard was becoming one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.

Liar, liar
Lombard's last release of 1937 was True Confession,  with MacMurray and John Barrymore, her costar (again she's the bigger star now) from her breakthrough film, Twentieth Century. True Confession stars Lombard as a struggling fiction writer and habitual liar. MacMurray, her husband, is a straight-arrow lawyer who will only defend people he knows aren't guilty. Since they're both working hard to make ends meet, Lombard just doesn't understand how her husband can be so choosy about who he represents. To help out with the finances, Lombard secretly takes a job that doesn't require any skills, but pays a remarkable $50 for not even a full week's work! It doesn't take long for Lombard to realize that the job is mistress to the boss. Being an honorable, if a bit daffy wife, she quits almost immediately. When her boss ends up dead, with Lombard implicated in his murder, she concocts a story that helps get her acquitted of the murder and generates publicity to further her husband's law career.

True Confession was directed by Wesley Ruggles, who directed Lombard in No Man of Her Own. Ruggles was an early champion of Lombard's, considering her an actress of great depth and potential. Unfortunately for Lombard, Ruggles didn't run the the star factory at Paramount, where she was under contract, or her star might have risen sooner.

With three hit films, both commercially and critically, it seemed as if anything Lombard touched would turn to gold. Her relationship with Clark Gable was blossoming and her film career was approaching its zenith. But for Lombard, there were still more things she wanted to accomplish as a star and as an actress. The next few years would test her talent, resolve, and resiliency.