SYNOPSICS
Warlock (1959) is a English movie. Edward Dmytryk has directed this movie. Richard Widmark,Henry Fonda,Anthony Quinn,Dorothy Malone are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1959. Warlock (1959) is considered one of the best Drama,Western movie in India and around the world.
In the small frontier mining town of Warlock, rancher Abe McQuown's gang of cowboy cutthroats terrorize the peaceful community, humiliating the town's legitimate deputy Sheriff and running him out of town. Helpless and in need of protection, the townsfolk hire the renowned town tamer Clay Blaisdell, as unofficial Marshal, to bring law and order to the town. Clay arrives with his good friend and backup Tom Morgan. The two men stand up to the ranch gang and quiet the town. Johnny Gannon, a former member of the ranch gang is bothered by the gang's actions, reforms and takes on the deputy Sherrif job while his brother remains part of the gang. The addition of the official lawman to the mix further complicate matters, leading to an inevitable clash of the cowboys, the townsfolk, the gunslingers and the law.
More
Warlock (1959) Reviews
Another Wonderful Fifties Western.
WARLOCK (1959) was the final entry in the roster of splendid Cinemascope/color westerns that 20th Century produced in the fifties. With a star studded cast headed by Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Anthony Quinn and Dorothy Malone this project was produced and directed by Edward Dymtryk. The excellent screenplay by Robert Alan Aurthur derived from a novel by Oakley Hall and the superb cinematography was by the great Joe MacDonald. Warlock, a small mining town in the west, is plagued by the unruly and lawless cowhands from the San Pablo ranch who wreak havoc every weekend on the hapless citizens. The gang have just run the current Sheriff (Walter Coy) out of town and the impatient town council have now decided enough is enough. They make the decision to hire a gunfighter - an expensive gunfighter. So along comes a famous Marshall by the name of Clay Blaisedell (Henry Fonda) and his friend and bodyguard Tom Morgan (Anthony Quinn) to take on the job. He also brings along his portable gambling casino complete with the shopfront hoarding naming his gaming saloon "The French Palace". (He explains to the council "What you pay me for keeping the law would hardly keep me in ammunition for my gun practice - gambling is my business - it's how I make my living"). But through one difference or another and having to outdraw and kill his friend Tom Morgan and set his gambling saloon alight the town eventually sours against the Marshall. The now reformed gang member and newly appointed Deputy Sheriff Johnny Gannon (Richard Widmark) tells Blaisedell he'll have to leave town by morning. The picture ends with Gannon confronting Blaisedall the next day with the gunman easily outdrawing him. But surprisingly the Marshall capitulates and tosses his gold handled six-guns into the street to the visibly shocked Deputy's relief. Then with a wry smile to Gannon the colourful gunfighter mounts his horse and rides on out of town forever. Performances are generally excellent throughout! Although Widmark has top billing it is clearly Fonda's picture. His Clay Blaisedell is the film's pivotal personality. As the well dressed gunfighter he is cool, smooth and lightning fast on the draw - as one challenger (DeForest Kelly) finds out to his utter astonishment in one gripping scene. Fonda hasn't been this good in a western since his superb portrayal in "The Tin Star" two years previously. Good too is Quinn in a really meaty characterization as Blaisedell's neurotic, over-protective and club- footed bodyguard. Also effective is Tom Drake as the Pabloite gang leader but Dorothy Malone is quite irritating and gives her usual breathless overwrought and over played portrayal of an old flame of Blaisedell. Better, and prettier to look at too, is Dolores Michaels as his newer love interest. Underlining this engaging western is the music of Leigh Harline. The composer had worked before with director Dmytryk on the excellent "Broken Lance" (1954) which elicited from him his best score. Here his music is just as dramatic. The music under the titles is robust and determined featuring strident strings against repeating and striking brass figures pointing up the menace of the errant San Pablo gang. There is some tender music for the scenes with Fonda and Michaels and a reflective lyrical cue for Blaisedell himself which is wonderfully uplifting for the end scene as he rides out of town. WARLOCK is a good western and warrants repeated viewings. A well structured character driven drama set in an engaging western environment and well played by an equally engaging cast in what is yet another memorable movie from the cinema of yesteryear.
Psychological western in disguise
After banging on about the sea change in Westerns from the 1940s to the 1950s in my reviews of THE TALL T and MAN OF THE WEST on this site recently, I watched 1959s WARLOCK unfold with a certain set of expectations in my head. At first glance, WARLOCK appears to be a western of the old school, not that far removed from earlier classics like MY DARLING CLEMENTINE or THE WESTERNER. In fact, it even shares some plot similarities with John Ford's 1946 Wyatt Earp biopic. But the key difference here is that in the older style of western, the immutable Code of the West is the salvation for men such as Earp, but in WARLOCK it is the millstone that will drag them into the abyss. For Johnny Gannon (Richard Widmark), the Code causes him to leave behind the lawless San Pablo ranch cowhands lead by the increasingly psychotic Abe McQuown (pronounced McEwan), to accept the post of Deputy Sheriff, eventually bringing him into conflict with his old gang, which includes his own kid brother, and finally making him face up to hired gunslinger Clay Blaisedell (Henry Fonda). For Blaisedell, though he initially believes he can leave his old life and marry local beauty Jessie Marlow (Dolores Michaels), the Code re-asserts its grip when Blaisdell is forced to confront his own partner Tom Morgan (Anthony Quinn) in a street shoot-out, and he realises that he will never escape his destiny as a gun-for-hire, no matter how he tries. (Incidentally, I disagree with another reviewer here who claims Anthony Quinn's line "I won!" as he gasps his life out on the Warlock street means only that Quinn won the draw. I believe that line signifies that Quinn has proved that Fonda cannot escape his fate as a hired killer. The only way for Fonda to prove he'd changed would have been to NOT shoot Quinn. So in that sense Quinn won not just the draw but also the philosophical point that Fonda would never change.) The Tom Morgan character has no loyalty to the Code. He simply enjoys his life as a "friend" of the great Clay Blaisedell. His motivation is that at Clay's side, men fear him and, though they may think him just a "cripple", they'd never dare say it aloud. Without Clay, Morgan would be just another casino owner. But ultimately, you could say Morgan sacrificed his life to save Clay from himself. Because without Morgan's manoeuvrings, Clay may well have tried to settle in Warlock and would probably have ended up "backshot" by some old crony of Abe McQuown. So, not the simple tale of the west it might at first appear, WARLOCK is a clever, subtle and insightful look at the psychological motivations at work in this deceptively complex three-way conflict. A movie definitely worth more than one viewing ...
Perhaps the best psychological western ever made
I consider "Warlock" the best psychological western ever made. The main purpose of the movie is to draw a thorough inner design of the characters; nonetheless there is (happily) plenty of action and gun-fights, with no lowering of strain or moments of bore. As a matter of fact, important sides of the psychology of the male characters are represented through their attitude in violent action. Clay (Henry Fonda) is a cool-headed gunslinger who, somewhat hypocritically, deludes himself to be fair since he kills people following "the rules". And it's a bit disappointing to see that people like and trust him mainly because he is handsome and well-mannered. However, Clay doesn't like violence and has noble sides, as shown when he stops a lynching. Morgan (Anthony Quinn) is more honest in his self- judgment: he knows to be an assassin, who solves any possible problem caused by other people by simply killing them. There is a single important thing in his life, which he is even too ready to die for: his friendship-love toward Clay. Johnny (Richard Widmark) is the repented outlaw who has had the strength to quit a life of crime. He is naturally fair and non-violent, yet he knows when it's necessary to draw the six-shooter, for his own honor and moral code, and to protect innocent people. McQuown (Tom Drake) is just a loathsome, treacherous coward, who never face a duel without an accomplice ready to shoot his opponent in the back. Of course, the main theme of the movie is Morgan's morbid affection for Clay. This totally absorbing love is masterly represented in the movie, in a crescendo of intensity, finally showing Morgan close to sheer madness. Reasonably enough, most critics have inferred a homosexual love in the relationship between Morgan and Clay. I'm not much Freudian and I have no tendency to find sex everywhere. I think that the director Dmytryk has made a deliberately exasperated, unconventional representation of the manly friendship, a classical motive in western movies. Here we have two adventurers, two gunslingers who deeply understand each other's feelings. Women (saloon-girls) are good for fun, and that's all: a real friendship is something completely different, extraneous to the feminine mentality. And deep friendship can be more jealous than love. In fact, Morgan begins to suffer when he realizes that Clay has found a true love, a coming spouse in Jessie (Dolores Michaels): he's not just infatuated by some meaningless, cheap girl. Morgan's natural, psychologically exact reaction can only be a brutal interference. The preceding theme of the movie is really so interesting that one could miss to notice how beautifully treated is the psychology of all other characters. Let me focus and make some comments on Lily (Dorothy Malone), the cynical, life-tired former saloon-girl, devoted to a revenge against Clay, which she visibly makes a point of, without being really convinced of the sense of adding violence to violence. Malone is perfect for the role. Her charming beauty make us fully believe that both Clay and Morgan were once infatuated with her. And her splendid, sad, stern yet ironic eyes describe the weariness of her inner core more effectively than words. Lily has a pair of my favorite lines. "How could I love you... a cripple!", showing her capacity to wound her hated enemy Morgan, where it most hurts. "What do you want? A whole life in one night?": Lily loves Johnny, who is going to face a mortal duel, yet she's unable to check her spiteful irony, to get rid of her own former wasted life, showing herself worse than she actually is. And, moreover, she can't stand these preposterous honor codes of men killing each other, and for what? Really great stuff! Other merits of "Warlock": the perfect script, the accurate photography, the magnificent locations. The acting by Fonda, Quinn, Widmark, Malone is superb, to say the least: that's exactly what we expect from them. The final clash between Fonda and Quinn is a powerful piece of cinema. Splendid movie, highly recommended (even to people not fond of westerns).
Rock of ages comes to Warlock in Dmytryk's excellent adult Western.
Warlock is a small town suffering from visits by a gang of thugs led by Abe McQuown. The honest townsfolk meet and decide to hire infamous gunslinger Clay Blaisedell to act as a Marshal. Blaisdell, aided by his trusty companion Tom Morgan, proceeds to clean up the town and promptly takes control of the gambling and dance parlour. But things are rarely straight forward in a town of this type, one of the thugs (Johnny Gannon) decides to reform himself and takes on the role of legal sheriff. Things are further complicated when a woman arrives in town proclaiming that Blaisedell and Morgan killed the love of her life! This coupled with the fact that McQuown and his thugs are plotting destructive revenge, means that Warlock and it's array of complex characters are heading for judgement day - one way or another. The basic plot sounds like nothing out of the ordinary, the tough gunslinger with a reputation hired to clean up a town has been done a fair few times, with varying degrees of success. What lifts this Edward Dmytryk directed (and produced) Western above other films of its ilk is that it goes deeper than most of those other genre pieces. Blaisedell may be a fearsome gunslinger but we are at a time when a new breed of faster and more thuggish cowboys exist, and so his very being is crucial to the number of events that transpire in Warlock. Here all central characters are multi-layered, there is a plenty going on that begs the utmost attention, where tragedy hangs heavy with its looming presence, and Dmytryk threads all the story strands together with thoughtfully potent results. Adapted by Robert Alan Aurthur from Oakley Hall's novel, Warlock boasts three excellent male lead performances and a firing on all cylinders supporting cast. Henry Fonda (Blaisedell), Richard Widmark (Gannon) and Anthony Quinn (Tom Morgan) are superb, while Dorothy Malone, Dolores Michaels, Tom Drake, DeForest Kelly, Frank Gorshin (sadly uncredited) and Wallace Ford come up trumps with excellent shows for totally important characters. The only gripe I can come up with is that I would have liked a bit more use of the Utah location courtesy of Joseph MacDonald's Cinemascope Technicolor, but since this story is primarily set within the confines of Warlock the town, one can be and is a touch forgiving. During the last few years I have spent a lot of time revisiting the Western genre, and I have been rewarded with a ream of excellent adult pieces by the likes of Anthony Mann, Henry King and Budd Boetticher. Few of them are as undervalued, and maybe as forgotten, as this first class effort from all involved, it's a must see for any serious Western fan. 9/10
One of the Best Westerns of the 50's
In the 50's Westerns were extremely popular, and many of that decade's best movies were Westerns. The Searchers, Winchester '73, The Man From Laramie, The Naked Spur - the list of great Westerns from the 50's could practically go on for days. One movie that should always be included on any list of best Westerns from the 50's is Warlock. Warlock's strengths start with a very well written, intelligent script that gives the characters three dimensions and realistic motivations. The script uses these characters well in pushing forward the many solid plot points. Warlock isn't a "shoot 'em up," Western, but it does have its share of good action. Many fans have described this as one of the quintessential "Psychological Westerns," and to a degree that is true. It also features solid drama, and genuine excitement when the action scenes come. Henry Fonda, Anthony Quinn, and Richard Widmark give some of their finest performances in Warlock, and a strong case could be made that this is Anthony Quinn's best performance in a Western. Fonda's dark, brooding performance foreshadows the even darker and nastier performance he would give almost a decade later in Once Upon a Time in the West. DeForest Kelley gives a strong supporting performance as well, showing his natural abilities in the Western genre. Edward Dmytryk directed Warlock with a steady hand. He didn't overdo the direction looking to push the artistic envelope with unusual camera angles, but he did direct the movie with a flair and style ideal for a Western. Ultimately, Warlock holds up not only as one of the best Westerns of the 50's, but as one of the best Westerns of all time and may be one of those movies that receives more acclaim with each passing decade.