Westward the Women (1951)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

William A. Wellman

Writers:

Charles Schnee (screenplay)
Frank Capra (story)

Release Date:

31 December 1951 (USA)

Genre:

Western | Drama

Plot:

In a time when "The West" pretty much ends in Texas and only California is slowly being populated by the white men...

Plot Keywords:

California | Rocky Mountains | Gender Reassignment | Wagon Train | Native American Attack

Cast

Robert Taylor	...	Buck Wyatt
Denise Darcel	...	Fifi Danon
Hope Emerson	...	Patience Hawley
John McIntire	...	Roy E. Whitman
Julie Bishop	...	Laurie Smith
Lenore Lonergan	...	Maggie O'Malley
Henry Nakamura	...	Ito
Marilyn Erskine	...	Jean Johnson
Beverly Dennis	...	Rose Meyers
Renata Vanni	...	Mrs. Moroni

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

USA

Language:

French | English | Japanese | Italian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

One of three known MGM films (along with The Next Voice You Hear... (1950) and Ben-Hur (1959)) where the company's symbol, Leo the Lion, did not roar in the opening credits. (2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) uses the illustrated lion from MGM's record label, not a real lion, and so doesn't count.)

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: A couple of the dead women are still seen breathing heavily after the second Indian attack.

Quotes:

Buck Wyatt: [to Patience, as she sits with the unconscious Mrs. Maroni] Talk to her, Patience.
Patience Hawley: Thanks...what'll I use for language?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Challenge the Wilderness (1951)

Soundtrack:

To The West! To The West!

The most honest portrayal of a wagon train ever filmed.

The remarkable thing about this little-known Western is that it shows, in eye-opening detail, what hardships pioneers endured crossing thousands of miles of wilderness. And the reason it is so honest is that hardships of the trail are the whole point.

Robert Taylor is hired to drive a wagon train of potential brides--an interesting band of resolute widows, immigrants, and prostitutes, some quite familiar with guns-- to a newly formed community of farmers. At first he refuses, claiming women cannot withstand the demands of the weeks on the trail with only a few male escorts. And therefore the film presents those hardships.

At no point does the movie become predictable. Any of them could perish; several do. There's a rape scene, a murder, a flash flood, a runaway wagon, etc. You begin to hope for each woman's survival. Especially moving are the Italian woman and her young son, the unwed pregnant girl, the big-mama type (fabulous Hope Emerson), and Taylor's Chinese sidekick (their drunk scene is a treat). The movie misses being a truly great Western only becomes of its neatly wrapped up Hollywood ending. But this is a movie that will change your view of Pacific-bound pioneers forever, especially of pioneer women.