The Great Movies III

Somebody has to spin it. Throughout the film, the saloon attracts no ordinary customers, only characters in the plot. Has a Western ever been more casual about its male leads? Johnny Guitar is about the hatred between Vienna and Emma, and Sterling Hayden seems to know it. Brought into town as firepower when Vienna fears gun trouble, he claims to have given up guns, speaks softly, talks of his onetime love of Vienna with only barely convincing regret, and is laidback, as Sterling Hayden rarely ever is. The critic Dennis Schwartz recalls: "Francois Truffaut said it reminded him of The Beauty and the Beast, with Sterling Hayden being the beauty."

The plot. Ridiculous. Vienna owns the saloon in a choice location outside town. We are not sure how a single woman without means paid for it, but are reminded by Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express that "it took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily." Appar ently Vienna is now all paid up, but the railroad is coming through, and the townsfolk fear it will run past her door and put them out of business.

The town is led by Mclvers (Ward Bond) and his tool, the sheriff (Frank Ferguson), who are led by Emma as they demand what Vienna knows about a stagecoach robbery. The stolen cash was intended for her brother's bank. Since the Dancin' Kid has rejected Emma's love, it stands to reason, doesn't it, that he stuck up the bank, along with his tough sidekicks (Ernest Borgnine, Ben Cooper, and Royal Dano)?

Johnny Guitar arrives at about the same time. Coincidence? Imagine the notoriously deadly Old West and an unarmed cowboy with only a guitar. Well, he does play it once. But there is a secret: Guitar is the pseudonym for Johnny Logan, a notorious gunslinger who retired five years ago. Vienna was Guitar's lover until he "wasn't ready" for marriage (not to her, for sure). And the sheriff, Mclvers, etc. are trying to frame someone-the Kid, maybe, for sticking up the stagecoach. Their suspicions are not unfounded, since there are literally no other characters in the movie, except for the faceless coots who crowd into doorways behind Mclvers.

The dynamic of their investigation and their attempts to force townsfolk to testify against one another form an allegory squarely aimed at the House Un-American Activities Committee, which in 1954 was trying to force alleged communists to "name names" of other alleged communists; the screenplay was ghosted by the blacklisted Ben Maddow. A significant moment comes when Johnny Guitar acknowledges his own name.

There are extraordinary moments in the movie, not least when Crawford, who has been dressed entirely in black, suddenly appears on the balcony in a stunning white gown and cows the men with her presence and a piano recital(!).

It is also fascinating to watch her and Johnny use words as love weapons. This dialogue could have appeared in the laconic Broadway social dramas of the period:

Johnny: How many men have you forgotten?

Vienna: As many women as you've remembered.

Johnny: Don't go away.

Vienna: I haven't moved.

Johnny: Tell me something nice.

Vienna: Sure. What do you want to hear?

Johnny: Lie to me. Tell me all these years you've waited ...

Vienna: All these years I've waited.

Johnny: Tell me you'd have died if I hadn't come back.

Vienna: I would have died if you hadn't come back.

Johnny: Tell me you still love me like I love you.

Vienna: I still love you like you love me.

Johnny: Thanks.Thanks a lot.

Whoa! I see Brando as Johnny, Shirley Knight as Vienna. That's not Western dialogue, it's cynicism made audible. There are other moments I will leave for you to savor, and I trust you may share my bafflement about the route from the waterfall to the hideout, but ponder this: everyone involved in this movie had made countless other films, knew all about the cliches and conventions, and must have known how many they were breaking. As the scenes come along that are clearly an indictment of HUAC, were they thinking they could get away with murder because the surrounding movie was so goofy?

It was goofy then, and very strange now. The more you think about the tavern and the "town" and the tragedy that plays out against the unpopulated landscape, the more you see them playing dice with their destinies. Spin the wheel. I like the way it sounds.

Fellini lore has it that the master made Juliet of the Spirits as a gift for his wife. Like many husbands, he gave her the gift he really wanted for himself. The movie, starring a sad-eyed Giulietta Masina who fears her husband is cheating, suggests she'd be happier if she were more like her neighbor, a buxom temptress who entertains men in a tree house.