1950 Westerns
In this month’s column, as we turn the corner into the new year, I want to particularly focus on several Westerns celebrating their 75th anniversaries in 2025.
1950 was a key year in the Western genre. Important new directors emerged on the scene, and their films demonstrated the continued evolution and maturation of the genre. A number of Westerns now considered classics broke new ground, featuring psychologically troubled heroes or heroines and boldly tackling racism toward Indians.
Meanwhile, the great John Ford released two of his loveliest works in 1950.
Troubled Heroes
Director Anthony Mann had been learning his craft in “B” films and crime movies throughout the ’40s; his career took a major step forward in 1950 with the release of three major Westerns. The first of those films, Winchester ’73 (1950), was also the beginning of his noteworthy eight-film collaboration with James Stewart.
In Winchester ’73 Stewart plays Lin McAdam, who travels the west in search of a man named Dutch Henry Brown (Stephen McNally) and the titular rifle. Stewart continued his postwar character evolution first glimpsed in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946): He’s likeable as always, yet with a substantially darker side. Viewers don’t learn the reason for Lin’s trauma until late in the movie; the script is remarkably well-written (by Borden Chase and Robert L. Richards) and performed by Stewart. When Lin gets angry, he can be downright terrifying, yet he also has a tender side, gallantly looking after a young woman played by Shelley Winters.
Mann’s next Western was The Furies (1950), in which Barbara Stanwyck plays Vance, a very, well, messed-up woman. Vance has masochistic tendencies, which become apparent in her relationship with Rip (Wendell Corey), and she also has a strangely physical and possessive relationship with her father (Walter Huston) which leads her to violence against her new stepmother (Judith Anderson). Meanwhile Vance rejects a permanent, healthier relationship with the ill-fated man who truly loves her (Gilbert Roland). This film laid the groundwork for later Western melodramas featuring significant female leads such as Rancho Notorious (1952), Johnny Guitar (1954), and Forty Guns (1957).
From director Henry King that year came The Gunfighter (1950), one of Gregory Peck’s best-known Westerns. Gunfighter Jimmy Ringo (Peck), the fastest gun in the west, is tired of constantly being challenged by foolish men hoping to beat him to the draw. He visits his estranged wife (Helen Westcott) on the way to what he hopes will be a new, anonymous life in California, but several men are on his trail and it seems his quiet life is not to be. Peck is moving as a man who can’t even drink a cup of coffee without carefully positioning himself with his back against a wall, demonstrating that commonly accepted Western violence had an unhappy dark side. The story by William Bowers and Andre de Toth was nominated for the Oscar.
Injustice Toward Indians
Returning to director Anthony Mann, his third Western released in 1950 was Devil’s Doorway (1950), one of a couple very significant films about the treatment of American Indians. The other key 1950 title viewing Indians in a sympathetic light was Broken Arrow (1950), the first Western directed by Delmer Daves, who would become an important writer and director in the genre. Daves’ later Westerns included The Last Wagon (1956) and 3:10 to Yuma (1956).
It’s interesting to note that leading up to 1950, Devil’s Doorway and Broken Arrow were preceded by “B” films which expressed greater sympathy toward Native Americans, such as Tim Holt’s Indian Agent (1948) and Gene Autry’s The Cowboy and the Indians (1949). With Devil’s Doorway and Broken Arrow, issues of bigotry and injustice toward Indians moved front and center in major studio releases with top stars.
In MGM’s Devil’s Doorway, Robert Taylor plays Broken Lance Poole, who returns to his Wyoming home after serving in the Civil War. He discovers that his having been awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor doesn’t impress his neighbors, who have become hostile in his absence and are using homesteading laws to steal his longtime home. Taylor is superb in a searing film which is almost hard to watch, as bit by bit an honorable man’s life is torn asunder for no reason other than his ethnicity. Intriguingly, I’ve read more than one reference to this film being a forerunner of Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon (2023).
In 1950 James Stewart followed his work in Universal Pictures’ Winchester ’73 with 20th Century-Fox’s Broken Arrow, in which his character tries to broker peace between white settlers and Apache Indians, only to suffer an enormous personal loss due to hatred of Apaches; though Stewart’s character is initially less dark than in Winchester ’73, he again finds himself in the midst of tragedy. Broken Arrow was nominated for three Oscars, including screenplay. Director Delmer Daves would return to the subject of Indians and peace a few years later in Drum Beat (1954) with Alan Ladd.
Classics From the Master
Director John Ford made two of my all-time favorite films in 1950, Rio Grande (1950) and Wagon Master (1950).
Rio Grande, the last of Ford’s Cavalry Trilogy, is a more traditional Western in terms of the clash between frontier soldiers and Indians; the Indians kidnapping children near the movie’s climax shows them in a very bad light indeed.
At the same time, the movie has a beautiful theme of postwar reconciliation, as John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara play a couple estranged for many years due to events which took place during the Civil War. It’s a lovely story as they find their way back to one another. The exuberance and bravery of young cast members Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., and Claude Jarman Jr. adds to an optimistic picture of Americans settling the West.
Wagon Master, in which Ford cast young actors Johnson and Carey in the leads as wagon train trail guides, is to my thinking one of the most beautiful Westerns ever made. Everything about it, from the casting to the music to the locations, is exquisite, and I love the film’s naturalistic feel, incorporating unexpected incidents such as a horse fall and Ward Bond’s pants being ripped by a dog. It’s another ultimately upbeat film about the courage of pioneers in our nation’s westward expansion.
Other Significant Films of 1950
1950 was also an important year for Audie Murphy, who became a Western star with the release of three films, including Sierra (1950). Joel McCrea had a quartet of Westerns in 1950, including the lovely Stars in My Crown (1950) – which perhaps more fairly might be called a “frontier settler” film – and one of my personal favorites, Saddle Tramp (1950). It was also a good year for Randolph Scott, with three Westerns including The Nevadan (1950) and The Cariboo Trail (1950). Short Grass (1950) with Rod Cameron was another favorite Western released in 1950, one of three Cameron Westerns released that year.
The impact of television on “B” Western production was still a few years off, and they continued to be released at a fast pace in 1950, with half a dozen films apiece for stars Tim Holt, Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers. Rogers’ releases included the fondly recalled Christmas Western Trail of Robin Hood (1950).
I invite Western RoundUp readers to celebrate the 75th anniversary of all these films by viewing as many of them as possible in the year ahead. Happy New Year!
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– Laura Grieve for Classic Movie Hub
Laura can be found at her blog, Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, where she’s been writing about movies since 2005, and on Twitter at @LaurasMiscMovie. A lifelong film fan, Laura loves the classics including Disney, Film Noir, Musicals, and Westerns. She regularly covers Southern California classic film festivals. Laura will scribe on all things western at the ‘Western RoundUp’ for CMH.
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