Rent Johnny Guitar (1954)
3.8 of 5 from 113 ratings
1h 45min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Joan Crawford plays Vienna, a saloon owner with a sordid past. Persecuted by the townspeople, Vienna must protect her life and her property when a lynch mob led by her sexually repressed rival, Emma Small (Mercedes McCambridge), attempts to frame her for a string of robberies she did not commit. Enter Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden), a guitar-strumming ex-gunfighter who has a history with Vienna.
- Actors:
- Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, Scott Brady, Ward Bond, Ben Cooper, Ernest Borgnine, John Carradine, Royal Dano, Frank Ferguson, Paul Fix, Rhys Williams, Ian MacDonald, Trevor Bardette, George Bell, Bob Burrows, Curley Gibson, Chick Hannan, Clem Harvey, Frank Marlowe
- Directors:
- Nicholas Ray
- Producers:
- Nicholas Ray
- Writers:
- Philip Yordan, Roy Chanslor, Ben Maddow
- Studio:
- Universal Pictures
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Classics
- Collections:
- 21 Reasons to Love, 21 Reasons to Love..Modern Westerns, A Brief History of Lesbian Cinema, Cinema Paradiso's 2024 Centenary Club: Part 3, People of the Pictures, Remembering Raquel Welch, A Brief History of Film..., The Instant Expert's Guide, The Instant Expert's Guide to Pedro Almodóvar, Top 10 Barnyard Bird Films, Top 10 Films By Year, Top 10 Films of 1959, Top Films
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 20/09/2021
- Run Time:
- 110 minutes
- Languages:
- English
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 1.66:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Brand new audio commentary by film scholar Adrian Martin
- Geoff Andrew on Johnny Guitar - Brand new interview with critic Geoff Andrew, author of The Films of Nicholas Ray: The Poet of Nightfall
- Tony Rayns on Johnny Guitar - Brand new interview with film writer Tony Rayns
- Never is a Long Time - A new video essay by filmmaker David Cairns
- Stranger - Brand new interview with Susan Ray
- Archival introduction to Johnny Guitar by director Martin Scorsese
- Original Theatrical Trailer
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Reviews (2) of Johnny Guitar
This Means Nothing to Johnny - Johnny Guitar review by griggs
Nicholas Ray, renowned for his celebrated Film Noirs In A Lonely Place and They Live by Night, took a captivating detour into the Western genre with Johnny Guitar. This film, at first glance, may seem like a typical Western, but upon closer inspection, it reveals all the hallmarks of a Film Noir—morally ambiguous characters, sharp dialogue, and simmering tension. If you strip away the dusty saloons and frontier landscapes, you might easily mistake it for one of Ray’s shadowy urban dramas. This unique blend of genres is what makes Johnny Guitar a must-see for any film enthusiast.
The title is misleading. Johnny Guitar, played by Sterling Hayden, is a supporting figure at best, strumming through the film while the real fireworks happen between Joan Crawford’s Vienna and Mercedes McCambridge’s Emma Small. Both women dominate the story, and their performances are full of venom and defiance. Yet, their contributions have long been sidelined by the title itself. Why call it Johnny Guitar when Vienna practically carries the entire film on her shoulders? It’s a curious choice that arguably erases the centrality of its female leads.
But what a film it is. This isn’t your standard Western shoot-’em-up. Ray boldly plays with the genre’s conventions, crafting something deeply psychological and subversive. Its themes of power, gender, and loyalty feel decades ahead of their time. You’d be hard-pressed to find another Western that bends the genre this much until the revisionist takes of the 1970s. This subversion of Western genre conventions is what makes Johnny Guitar a film that stands out and intrigues any film enthusiast.
Johnny Guitar stands out not just as a Western but as an essential film from the 1950s that refuses to conform, much like its central character, Vienna. It’s bold, operatic, and unmistakably Ray. For anyone who thinks Westerns are all the same, this is the film to prove them wrong. Its refusal to conform to the typical Western narrative is what makes Johnny Guitar a film that inspires and opens up new possibilities for the Western genre.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Genre Mashup - Johnny Guitar review by Steve
Weird cult western which like all Nicholas Ray films, subverts its own genre. The narrative outline is broadly conventional, but this plays out more like romantic melodrama. Plus there is the pessimism of classic noir... Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden) arrives out of the past to complicate a frontier love affair. Like Gilda (1946)
Except it's two women who prowl the embers of burned out romance. Joan Crawford appears on the balcony of her saloon in cowboy duds with a six shooter strapped to her belt. And faces down a posse led by Mercedes McCambridge. They hate each other worse than Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford...
Meanwhile, Hayden has thrown away his pistol! This gender reversal is presented with the amplified theatricality of a Tennessee Williams play. Except the B-picture dialogue is juvenile and pretentious and the psychosexual complications absurd. Preoccupied with this symbolism, Ray tells the story so badly it's difficult to care.
There's an artificial poverty row studio production with buzzy ersatz-Technicolor, which gives the picture an appropriately fake look... And Ray saves one final disappointment for the closing credits. Anyone hanging around to hear the glorious heartbreak-noir of Peggy Lee's theme song only gets a single verse!
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.