WOMEN OF THE WEST: new Anthology Film Archives series features 18 westerns with female protagonists

The usual suspects are all gathered here: Joan Crawford in Nick Ray's Johnny Guitar, Jean Arthur in Wesley Ruggles' Arizona, and especially Barbara Stanwyck (above), who stars in in three films in this series: Anthony Mann's The Furies, Sam Fuller's Forty Guns and Allan Dwan's Cattle Queen of Montana. These are all from the glory days of the American western, the 1940s and 50s. But among the surprise delights of this new series -- WOMEN OF THE WEST, presented by Anthology Film Archives in New York City and beginning this Friday, August 31, through Sunday, September 16 -- are some unexpected near-gems.

Look for Gordon Parks, Jr.'s Thomasine & Bushrod (above: a sort-of Blacksploitation western from 1974), Maggie Greenwald's The Ballad of Little Joe (a cross-dressing surprise from 1993) and a must for any Lina Wertmuller "completists" out there, The Belle Starr Story, a Spaghetti western from 1968 that Wertmuller co-wrote, co-directed (under the pseudonym of Nathan Wich) and then took over, once her co-writer/director Piero Cristofani left the film.

All these and more are part of the series which TrustMovies imagines will be catnip for feminists, western fans and just about anybody who appreciates oddball movies -- some of them very good indeed.

Having already seen most of the films included here, I'll concentrate on the Wertmuller, which was spanking new to me and is not very good at all. Nor is the print I viewed via DVD screener, said to be provided by The Swedish Film Institute, which is utterly bleached of color and looks like it was transferred from a much-copied VHS tape back in the day.

From the outset almost everything about this silly movie seems rudimentary, as though everyone involved -- from those in front to the camera to those behind it -- were  thinking, "God, let's just get this over with!"

Consequently, it is difficult to determine or even imagine what drew Ms Wertmuller (shown at right) to the project, other than the opportunity to simply be able to direct a movie. Any movie. And, as this occurred very early in her career, it must have provided some important on-the-job training.

What the movie does have is a couple of Italian
"stars" of some note from the 1960s, especially the beautiful, slightly-freckle-faced Elsa Martinelli (shown below) in the leading role as that American woman outlaw icon known as Belle Starr.

Also onboard is the darkly handsome hunk, George Eastman (below), as another outlaw named Larry Blackie, who proves especially good at undressing, rolling his eyes and laughing a lot. The two of them prove to be one of those on again/off again romances in which the lovers keep vying for control over each other, with neither willing to give in (this would become a kind of hallmark of much of Wertmuller's work).

With a screenplay that's as obvious, silly, clunky and pseudo-poetic as it gets, the movie gives us Belle's back story and history -- which includes a lecherous and evil uncle, an Indian maiden rescued from lynching, and a friend-and-maybe-eventual lover (played by Robert Woods, below),

all finally leading up to the major diamond heist that provides the movie's most compelling section -- it's final half hour in which things heat up and get a little interesting for a change.

We get a bit of safe-cracking, the robbery itself, and then -- via a Pinkerton agent (Bruno Corazzari, below) who proves both the movie's major villain, as well as a bizarre bit of actual conscience at film's end -- a nasty, sexy torture scene complete with homoerotic overtones between said agent and our semi-hero Blackie (above).

The Belle Starr Story will take you back to a time when men were men, women women, and those Italian spaghetti westerns were already getting way too long in the tooth. And it'll make you eager to view again some of Ms Wertmuller's later films, while offering the chance to see an example of how this talented director, movie-wise at least, first cut her own teeth.

Her film will play during AFA's Women of the West series on Monday, September 10, at 6:45pm; on Wednesday, September 12, at 9pm and on Friday, September 14 at 9pm.  To view the entire AFA series schedule, simply click here.          

Blu-ray debut for a seldom-seen spaghetti western: Sergio Corbucci's THE GREAT SILENCE

One of those movies you may have heard of over the years but rarely have been able to actually see, THE GREAT SILENCE, a 1968 spaghetti western from a lesser-known Italian director, Sergio Corbucci, after a very limited theatrical release here in the USA, will finally be available next week via Film Movement on Blu-ray. No less an authority than Alex Cox has deemed the film "One of the finest westerns ever."  TrustMovies would not go that far, but the film is worth seeing -- if only for its take-no-prisoners finale that pretty much outdoes any other western you'll have seen in its near-total darkness. The only problem is that, while the movie is dark, it's not at all deep.

Signore Corbucci, who died back in 1990, wrote some 57 films and directed 63, so he's not exactly unknown to film buffs, but he is nowhere near as noted, say, as is his friend and compatriot Sergio Leone.

Corbucci was involved in films of various types -- from westerns to comedies to some of the popular-back-then giallo genre. According to many "experts," this film is his masterpiece. If so, I'm happy to have seen and enjoyed it, but I'm probably not going to dig into many of his other movies.

There are a number of good reasons for digging into this film, however -- beginning with its unusual cast. In addition to the fine Italian actors on view (including Luigi Pistilli, playing one of the film's two major villains), we've got a French star (Jean-Louis Trintignant, above) as the hero, German (by way of Poland) star Klaus Kinski (below) as the supreme villain,

and two Americans: the gorgeous Vonetta McGee (below, right, of Blacula and Melinda) and an actor named Frank Wolff who began his career in Roger Corman movies but found his greatest success in Europe doing these spaghetti westerns. Wolff (shown in the penultimate photo below) adds what little humor there is to the film, as the newly sworn-in sheriff who proves a bit smarter than he looks or acts.

The subject here is a little different, too. We've often seen westerns that feature a bounty hunter or two, but here these guys are all over the place and as nasty as they come. In league with the town big-shot (played by Pistilli, at center, below) who turns every-day citizens into criminals with a bounty on their heads, these bounty hunters then bring in their prizes, dead, of course, since their posters proclaim them "Wanted: Dead or Alive."

The film's end credits inform us that the massacre by bounty hunters that we eventually see here, taking place in Utah, was the thing that finally put a halt on these greedy murderers. Just as well, too, because almost immediately after you begin to enjoy and appreciate a character in the film, he or she is summarily killed off.

Women, wives, children, no one is safe. In fact, our hero, known as Silence, was rendered silent as a child by a bounty hunter determined to keep the kid's mouth shut. Filmed in some gorgeous snowscapes, the movie is lovely to look at but about as bleak as they come. Other than that darkness, however, in both concept and execution, the film is pretty obvious and standard. For the first 40 minutes, given its reputation, you wait for something on screen to indicate its "greatness." My spouse gave up at that 40-minute point, noting, "I've seen much better on episodes of Gunsmoke or Bonanza."

Too bad, because the movie does gain power and weight as it moves along. The finale goes against just about all we've come to expect from the western genre, and this in itself makes The Great Silence worth seeing. So far against grain does the movie go that two alternate endings were shot -- evidently, just in case. One of these provide a last-minute reversal and features just about every happy-ending cliche you could want (and indeed probably expected this film to give you). The second alternate ending proves much more bizarre, as it leaves just about everything up in the air.

The Blu-ray transfer in 2K digital restoration is decent enough to pass muster, and the disc's half-dozen Bonus Features include an excellent interview with Alex Cox regarding the film and Sergio Corbucci; a fun 1968 documentary, Western, Italian Style; original Italian- and English-language versions; trailers (then and now: this is the film's 50th anniversary); and those two alternate endings.

Even if you don't place the film in your pantheon of great westerns, there's certainly enough in this tasty, tidy package to make your investment of money and time worthwhile. From Film Movement Classics and running 105 minutes, The Great Silence hits the street on both Blu-ray and DVD this coming Tuesday, June 5 -- for purchase and/or rental.