The Outcasts of Poker Flat

In Joseph Newman’s The Outcasts of Poker Flat, a small group of undesirables (a gambler, a drunk, a prostitute) are ejected from the town of Poker Flat as a precautionary measure after a deadly bank robbery that may have involved one of the townsfolk. On their way out of town, a snowstorm arrives, and a wildcat attacks the Duchess, a madam played by Miriam Hopkins (“If there’s one thing that turns my stomach, it’s respectability”), so the group is forced to seek shelter in a remote mountain cabin. Anne Baxter plays Cal, the estranged wife of Ryker (Cameron Mitchell), who later tracks down Cal and the gang at the cabin (“On the way over, I was thinkin’ about killin’ ya, and I was thinkin’ about lovin’ ya too”) and makes their lives miserable, especially that of gambler John Oakhurst (Dale Robertson) whom Ryker accuses of trying to get Cal in bed. The claustrophobia is palpable as the interpersonal tension evolves into violence, but the film’s highlight may be the opening sequence in which anonymous figures carrying guns skulk along silently on a puddled, muddy nighttime street surrounded by bright windows teasing the interior social life and a musical competition among banjos and pianos and fiddles and horns. In addition to gorgeous, snowy lighting, the film’s soundtrack of wind gusts and fireplace crackles reminds us of the vulnerability of human beings in this primitive Western landscape.