Cult film fave which like many cult films is probably more enjoyable if you discover it by accident. But this is still pleasingly odd, full of weird and off key touches - the slightly garish colour, Joan Crawford in the lead role in a Western, Mercedes McCambridge's scary intensity as the hysterical baddy, Sterling Hayden's macho yet still second lead title character, constantly quirky dialogue.
The McCarthyism parallels are fairly hammered in even to the point at the end McCambridge and her fellow mobsters are dressed in black (from a funeral) and she coerces a robber into pointing the finger at Crawford.
An irritating plot point though - Crawford is a bit passive when this happens surely she would put up a fight for her life instead of merely saying "save yourself!" And Crawford is responsible for a lot of her own problems by not turning injured criminals over to the law officers. Scott Brady is the desperado (leader of a memorable gang including Royal Dano and Ernest Borgnine), the "communist" (i.e. blamed for things he didn't do but still bad), with Crawford as the liberal, I guess you would call her(capitalist but sexually liberated, a feminist, and looks after her little gang of odd workers), pushed into the arms of the commies due to the manic actions of McCambridge and her men, the law officer who tries to do the right thing but struggles in the face of hysteria.
One point -the bloke who backs McCambridge is as bad as McCambridge in my book when it comes to baseless accusations but he doesn't get any come-uppance.
One point -the bloke who backs McCambridge is as bad as McCambridge in my book when it comes to baseless accusations but he doesn't get any come-uppance.
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