FOUR FACES WEST (1948)

Desperate to save his father's ranch, cowboy Joel McCrea quietly robs a bank for $2,000 and leaves an I.O.U. that he intends on paying the money back.  McCrea barely gets away by jumping on a train, but not before getting bitten by a rattlesnake.  A nurse onboard the train (Frances Dee) tends to his wound and naturally becomes interested in him.  Meanwhile, the banker is outraged over the robbery and he puts a massive bounty on McCrea's head.  So now everybody in the territory is after him!  Back on the train, a fellow passenger, Monte Marquez (Joseph Calleia without his mustache), has discovered that McCrea is wanted, but he senses that McCrea is a good man so he covers for him on more than one occasion.  McCrea narrowly manages to stays one step ahead of the coppers, but his conscience and his desire to have a future with Dee causes him a lot of internal conflict. 

I was really surprised by FOUR FACES WEST.  The only thing I knew about it going into it was it starred Joel McCrea and his real-life wife Frances Dee (they had been together for 13 years in 1948 and would remain together until his death in 1990) and it ended up being a great little, slightly off-beat western.  First off the scenes between McCrea and Dee were fantastic.  There was no disguising their attraction for each other.  Besides that, the story was really good, the action moved along quickly, the acting was great, the scenery beautiful and most surprisingly is there was never one single gun fired or punch thrown in the entire film!  I can't even recall another western as exciting as this one that didn't even have at least a fight of some kind.  Highly recommended for classic western fans.

A MAN BETRAYED (1941)

After a small town athlete is found shot to death outside of the notorious Inferno Club, small town lawyer John Wayne comes to the big city to investigate.  What he finds is something straight out of a Dashiell Hammett novel.  A kingpin (Edward Ellis) with an iron grip controls the entire town from the mayor and the police all the way down the booze racket.  Naturally, Wayne falls in love with the kingpin's daughter (Frances Dee) and she with him, but it's not all rainbows and unicorns.  Wayne still needs to solve the murder. There's also a rigged election to deal with.

If this film was completely serious it would have been quite good, but for whatever bizarre reason the story is half-drama, half-comedy!  And unfunny comedy at that.  And let's not forget all the cornball romantic stuff going on.  Example: Wayne gets Dee alone on the top of a Ferris wheel and says "You sure would be lovely if you had brown hair." "I have brown hair.", she replies.  "Yeah." he sighs. [They kiss.]  Oh, brother!

Interesting for a single watch, but the drama/comedy/romance jerking back and forth all over the place was too much for me.  If you need me I'll be in my room reading "Red Harvest".

reflection