Johnny Guitar
An off-kilter but intriguingly sensational western about a saloon-madam Vienna (Joan Crawford) who learns that her wealth and power can’t buy everything as a town full of jealous landowners try to overrun her property. The eponymous male (Sterling Hayden) of Ray’s western gender and genre-bender is the film’s object of desire; a trophy cowboy returned, feuded over by the two women who wear the pants in this wild west town: Joan Crawford and the sexually frustrated rancher Emma McCall (Mercedes McCambridge).
Nicholas Ray’s 1954 masterpiece is one of the all-time left-field wonders of the studio system, a film so subversive it’s a wonder it ever got made.
Cast
Joan Crawford , Sterling Hayden , Mercedes McCambridge , Scott Brady , Ward Bond
Director
Language
English
Closed Captions [CC]
English
Country
USA
Studio
Paramount