Ramrod

Along with Raoul Walsh’s Pursued, which was released a few months earlier, André De Toth’s Ramrod is widely considered one of the first western-noir crossovers and an early example of the psychological western, a variation on the genre which brings a greater emphasis on characterization, darker themes of alienation and revenge, and, importantly, a new prominence of female characters at the center — rather than the periphery — of the plot. Played by Veronica Lake, who also happened to be married to De Toth, the woman in this case is Connie Dickason, the ambitious heiress of a sheep ranch belonging to her fiancé, who was run out of town by Frank Ivey (Preston Foster), the town’s ruthless cattle baron who wants Connie’s land and her hand in marriage; she rebuffs him on both counts. Determined to run the ranch on her own, Connie recruits as her foreman the recovering alcoholic Dave Nash (Joel McCrea) who’s joined by his old friend Bill Schell (Don DeFore), among others. After Ivey’s men set the sheep ranch on fire, the conflict explodes into a violent feud which will involve stampedes, torture, and murder. Throughout the turmoil, Dave learns that Connie’s ambition is grounded in unchecked selfishness: while she’s not a full-fledged femme fatale, she is certainly amoral, deceitful, seductive, and unprincipled. The first film produced by actor John Garfield’s short-lived production company, Enterprise Productions, Ramrod helped to set a new standard of noir-western convergence, its drama intensified by Harlan’s low-key cinematography, especially in the final sequences, and Deutsch’s often frenetic score.