JOHNNY GUITAR (1954)

Leonard Maltin calls this "the kinky Western" and he's not wrong. Tough cookie Vienna (Joan Crawford) runs a saloon/gambling den on the outskirts of a town that's about to get a railroad station that'll bring her lots of business. She hires Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden), a former lover and a retired gunslinger, to entertain. But the local cattle baron, McIver (Ward Bond) shows up with the sheriff and a mob, demanding that she clear out in 24 hours. Vienna backs them off with her trusty six-shooter, but hell-in-skirts Emma (Mercedes McCambridge) puts the spine back in the mob--seems she and Vienna once were rivals for the Dancin' Kid (Scott Brady), leader of a desperado gang. All leads to a war, a fire, plenty of shooting, and a showdown between the two women, who are a sight to behold--they make the men look like wimps. Crawford is excellent--strangely decked out in black shirt and pants, but with those flashing eyes and perfect diction. McCambridge is a tornado of energetic hate (she and Crawford had a real feud on the set). Hayden is subtly restrained and humorous. Cast includes John Carradine and Ernest Borgnine, and a pack of familiar Western faces. Director Nicholas Ray brings all this bizarre stuff together in the first feminist Western. Fascinating.