Johnny Guitar

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Joan Crawford rides the range and tames the wild, wild west in this deliriously subversive, one-of-a-kind western from legendary director Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause). In the blazingly Freudian horse opera Johnny Guitar, Crawford commands the screen as the tough-talking gambling house operator, Vienna, whose arch-rival – bitter, repressed, lynch-happy rancher Emma (Mercedes McCambridge) – sets out to drive her out of town by framing her for a string of robberies. But when her back is to the wall, Vienna is more than ready to tackle anything Emma and the rest of the local townspeople can dish out. The timely arrival of Vienna’s old flame, a guitar-slinging drifter with a dark past named Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden), thwarts Emma’s dark plans, but doesn’t prevent a wild showdown between the two women that threatens to tear their windswept Arizona cattle town apart!   Filmed in Sedona, Arizona, Nicholas Ray’s highly-stylized thriller stands as one of the most original westerns of all-time – a western where the women are tougher than the men and sexual tensions drive everyone into a bullet-riddled frenzy. Also starring Ernest Borgnine, Ward Bond, Royal Dano and John Carradine, Johnny Guitar features a memorable theme song written and performed by Peggy Lee. (Dir. by Nicholas Ray, 1954, USA, 110 mins., Not Rated)