Jubal (1956)

Hmm, eight months. That seems long enough a wait between westerns that they won't run together. I've moved the next western further down my queue to be safe.

For reasons never explained, Jubal (Glenn Ford) first appears half-dead and unhorsed in an unidentified area of the Old West. He later indicates that he'd already been down on his luck, having had to find work as a shepherd, which apparently doesn't suit most cowboy sorts outside of Brokeback Mountain. Rancher Shep (Ernest Borgnine) provides shelter and offers a job more to his liking. For still unexplained reasons, Jubal is reluctant to plant roots, but he gives in. Two factors indicate that his luck hasn't entirely turned around. First, one of Shep's employees, "Pinky" (Rod Steiger), is unfriendly in general, biased against shepherds in particular, and jealous of anyone Shep becomes fond of so quickly. Second, Shep's wife, Mae (Valerie French), has adulterous feelings for Jubal. These factors can work together....

Johnny Guitar (1954)

I've almost never purchased films, but I did when the last local video store was closing, only to watch them once and sell them to the Record Exchange or, if they were supposedly too scratched, leave them at the office for others to claim. JG had been the only tape in my home for a while. I decided to give it a whirl partly to take a break from my Halloweeny viewings and partly to reduce the space of my possessions in preparation for a move. Might I say, I never knew how much better movies looked on DVD until I went back to VHS.

For much of the movie, Sterling Hayden's title character seems almost incidental to the plot, a quiet bystander mildly entertained by the tension between others. Tough tomboy saloon keeper Vienna (Joan Crawford) summons him to town just before a mob comes and demands the whereabouts of her semi-boyfriend, the Dancin' Kid, and his buddies, who may have a criminal record but probably had no part in the latest felonies of which they're accused. The mob's primary motivator, Emma (an extraordinarily acid Mercedes McCambridge), insists that Vienna should hang with the rest, but Vienna notes two likely ulterior motives: (1) warped feelings of "love" for the Kid, such that Emma wants to kill him yet also is jealous of Vienna; and (2) land greed, intolerant of anyone else having a saloon at the outskirts of town where a railroad station is planned. Of course, this being a western, it won't do for Johnny to remain aloof to the end....