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Forty Guns (1957)
In maverick director Sam Fuller's unusually weird,
stylistic, unorthodox b/w widescreen B-western with Freudian overtones
and a kinky love theme:
"High Ridin' Woman (With a Whip)":
- the character of ruthless, whip-wielding, powerful
Arizona cattle-queen rancher and landowner Jessica Drummond (Barbara
Stanwyck) with black skin-tight 'Zorro'-like outfits and riding
on a white stallion, and usually accompanied by an armed posse
of '40 guns' ("forty dragoons") serving as enforcers
- riding after her or joining her at an elongated dinner table
- the arrival of three Bonell brothers in Cochise County,
Tombstone, Arizona to clean up the town and establish law and order:
(1) tough but reformed, non-violent ex-US marshal/gunslinger Griff
Bonell (Barry Sullivan), (2) Wes Bonell (Gene Barry), and (3) Chico
Bonell (Robert Dix)
- the remarkable scene of Griff marching up Tombstone's
main street to confront armed, bullying and drunken troublemaker
Brockie Drummond (John Ericson), Jessica's brother - and with his
cold stare he hypnotized Brockie so that he could pistol-whip him
to the ground
- the film's innuendo-laden sexual dialogue of Griff's
brother Wes, who remarked about the town gunsmith's busty blonde
daughter Louvenia Spanger (Eve Brent): "She even looks good
in overalls...Built like a 40-40. I'd like to stay around long enough
to clean her rifle"
- the scene of Wes (just before becoming the town's
new Marshal) flirting with Louvenia in the gunsmith shop (he blatantly
stroked a rifle butt as she took his measurements for a gun order):
(Wes: "How long will it take to make this rifle for me?" Louvenia: "A
long time. You'd have to come in every day for a fittin'.");
then he took another gun and romantically stared at her - down the
gun's bore: ("This is pretty good work, never saw any better.
Yeah, this kind of rifle's worth hangin' around for") - and
then kissed her: Wes: "I never kissed a gunsmith before." Louvenia: "Any
recoil?"
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Wes' View of Louvenia Through a Gun's Bore
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Wes Falling in Love With Louvenia
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- the scene of Griff giving a smirking warning when
Jessica asked to feel his gun for curiosity's sake: "It might
go off in your face" - and her reply: "I'll take a chance" -
and her obvious sexual stroking of his gun for a few moments
- the tornado scene with Jessica dragged behind her
horse
- the scenes of Wes' love affair with Louvenia - leading
up to their joyous wedding; after the ceremony as their picture was
being taken outside the church, Wes leaned in to kiss his new bride,
when Brockie (on horseback nearby) shot and killed the groom (he
was aiming at Griff and missed); he collapsed dead into her arms,
and they fell to the ground together; thenceforth, Griff vengefully
gave up his 10-year vow to never again use his gun
- the finale in which Jessica was cruelly held captive
hostage and used as a shield by her crazy psychotic brother Brockie
who was in the midst of an attempted escape from jail; Brockie dared
Griff Bonell to shoot - and he did! Brockie was fired upon by Griff
- Jessica was wounded, while Brockie was cold-bloodedly murdered
with multiple shots (as Brockie cried out: "Mr. Bonell, I'm
killed!") - afterwards, Griff delivered a cold assessment for
Jessica as he strolled by:
"Get a doctor. She'll live"
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Brockie Using Jessica as a Shield
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Shoot-Out
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Griff: "Get a doctor. She'll live"
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- in the short conclusion, the third Bonell brother
Chico took over the City Marshal duties; Jessica (who was recovering
in the town's hotel from the shootout) apologized to the widowed
Louvenia: ("There's nothing I can do or say or pray for that
will bring him back to you. It's very hard to forget the man you
love. I know. You have one thing in your favor, Mrs. Bonell. Youth");
as Griff prepared to ride out of town on a buckboard to California,
he was convinced that Jessica would never want him for killing
her brother ("I'll never have her because she won't have me");
however, from the other end of the dirt street, Jessica appeared
unexpectedly - she ran after the buckboard, appealing: "Griff!
Griff! Mr. Bonell! Griff! Griff! Griff! Mr. Bonell!" - and
in a distant shot, she hopped on; the final sequence was accompanied
by the western's theme song - about the tamed whip-wielding female: "...When
she rides and the wind is in her hair, she has eyes full of life,
full of fire, But if someone could break her and take her whip
away, someone big, someone strong, someone tall, you may find that
the woman with a whip is only a woman after all"
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The Impressive Posse of '40 Guns'
Griff Pistol-Whipping Troublemaker Brockie to the Ground
Jessica Stroking Griff's Gun
Jessica Dragged Behind Horse
Wedding of Wes and Louvenia
Wes Shot to Death
Jessica Running After Griff's Buckboard to California
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