Warlock

This unjustly neglected Western, one of the few directed by Edward Dmytryk, the other being "Broken Lance", was too far ahead of its time perhaps because rather than action we get a psychological study of a western town in chaos. In a way, this Western pre-dated "The Unforgiven", "High Plains Drifter" and "The Wild Bunch" into delving into the psychology of the characters and their relationships. There is the town tamer (Fonda) and his buddy (Quinn) who have what one might call a latent homo-erotic relationship underneath their co-dependancy. And the ex-gang member of group of outlaws (Widmark) who gradually shifts to the right side of the law when Fonda & co. start controlling the town. And of course there are the women (Dorothy Malone & Dolores Michaels) who indirectly cause a split in Fonda/Quinn relationship. This was pretty heady stuff for 1959 so I doubt if many people were ready for this--a Western film noir!! And of course, the book, itself, by Oakley Hall had to be severely altered for the film version since it ran well over 600 pages long. Nevertheless if you want to see something other than a standard Western--check this out. Widmark, Fonda & Quinn have never been better!!

Fonda and Quinn have wonderful presence and charisma. Widmark's character has none. As he is the 3rd key factor in this story, this is too great a failure to hook me into caring for him. Not least, for this reason: although all 3 are killers, Widmarks mass-murderous past makes his new-found 'moral code' somewhat shakey. I enjoyed the movie for its ideas and complexity nevertheless, and for 1959 it may well have been worth 5 stars, but today we expect the script to be a bit tighter. I found far too many moments of Huh? What? Where did that come from? ... as the characters changed their behaviour and attitude too suddenly for me ... against the apparent flow of the tale. Perhaps something like a modern miniseries would be needed to give such an interesting story the space and the time to fulfill its rich character study potential. Fonda and Quinn make it definitely worth a watch, and the 'huh?' moments do make you think.

The Edward Dmytryk directed western "Warlock" proved to be a worthy flick that borrowed themes from classics of the genre. As in films like "The Magnificent Seven" and "High Plains Drifter", among others, a town is targeted for mayhem by a marauding band of desperadoes. The denizens of the town get fed up and hire a shootist to restore order.

The town in this film is Warlock and the hired gun is legendary lawman Clay Blaisedell played by western veteran Henry Fonda. Fonda, whose M.O. finds him roving from one town to the next with his gold handled Colt revolvers keeping the peace and then overstaying his welcome. Backed by his promoter and sidekick, crippled inveterate gambler Tom Morgan played by Anthony Quinn, they have quite a system worked out.

A group known as the San Pablo cowboys led by Abe McQuown played by Tom Drake has remorselessly prayed upon the town. The group includes Star Trek's own DeForest Kelley and Richard Widmark playing Johnny Gannon. Widmark has misgivings about the behavior of the cowboys and eventually becomes the deputy of the town. Fonda who has been hired as a marshall threatens to shoot it out with any of the cowboys entering Warlock.

When Widmark's brother Billy gets gunned down by Fonda during, the inevitable showdown between the San Pablo group and Widmark, Fonda and Quinn plays out. The ethical Widmark wants to handle the whole issue without Fonda's intervention, but will Fonda's ego, egged on by Quinn be able to withstand Widmark's request to stand down.

The highlight of the film is the psychologic interplay between the characters in the film. Supported by the two female leads Dolores Michaels and the stunning Dorothy Malone playing lady of the night Lily Dollar the passion play among the warring factions inexorably moves forward.

Well, this is a real great western movie with great stars and surprise ending. Only too much talk and dull lighting. Don't miss it!

I have been waiting for years for this film to finally be released on DVD format so that I could add it to my library. This Western not only has all of the elements of a great western but of a wonderful story. Gun slinging shoot outs, back shooters, bad guy trying to go good and shade of gray good guys who are real bad customers make this a well spun story. If you have never seen Henry Fonda play a tuff, no nonsense, tortured, dark character you must see this film. Anthony Quinn is brilliant as ever and to combine him with Fonda was inspired casting. Richard Widmark, and Dorothy Marlone turn in very tight performances, thou slightly stylized for the time. And Deforest Kelley as a sort of gun slinging kick about is wonderful to see before the days of his type cast role as "Bones" in the first "Startrek" series. I think that this film was never recognized because of the fate of it's producer and director Edward Dmytryk - one of the infamous "Hollywood Ten." The HUAC actually threw Dmytryk in prison for refusing to cooperate, and after several months he decided to name names. Thus marking him for the rest of his life and probably why this film is so unknown. You can rent this film I'm sure, but why bother when you will want to buy it to add it to your library. Trust me.