Warlock (1959)

The town of Warlock is plagued by a gang of thugs, leading the inhabitants to hire Clay Blaisdell, a famous gunman, to act as marshal. When Blaisdell appears, he is accompanied by his ... See full summary »

Director:

Edward Dmytryk

Writers:

Robert Alan Aurthur (screenplay), Oakley Hall (novel)

Stars:

Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Anthony Quinn

1 win.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Richard Widmark	...	Johnny Gannon
Henry Fonda	...	Clay Blaisedell
Anthony Quinn	...	Tom Morgan
Dorothy Malone	...	Lily Dollar
Dolores Michaels	...	Jessie Marlow
Wallace Ford	...	Judge Holloway
Tom Drake	...	Abe McQuown
Richard Arlen	...	Bacon
DeForest Kelley	...	Curley Burne (as De Forest Kelley)
Regis Toomey	...	Skinner
Vaughn Taylor	...	Henry Richardson
Don Beddoe	...	Dr. Wagner
Whit Bissell	...	Petrix
Bartlett Robinson	...	Buck Slavin

Storyline

The town of Warlock is plagued by a gang of thugs, leading the inhabitants to hire Clay Blaisdell, a famous gunman, to act as marshal. When Blaisdell appears, he is accompanied by his friend Tom Morgan, a club-footed gambler who is unusually protective of Blaisdell's life and reputation. However, Johnny Gannon, one of the thugs who has reformed, volunteered to accept the post of official sheriff in rivalry to Blaisdell; and a woman arrives in town accusing Blaisdell and Morgan of having murdered her fiance. The stage is set for a complex set of moral and personal conflicts.

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Plot Keywords:

marshal | sheriff | sexy dress | stagecoach robbery | cold blooded murder | 

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Genres:

Romance | Western

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 April 1959 (USA)

Also Known As:

Shoot Out at Warlock

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

122 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System) 4-Track Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Film debut of Gary Lockwood.

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Goofs

At around 1:12:20, Fonda is made to draw his gun, when he goes to put it back in the holster, he clearly misses the holster and gets it right on the second try. As a gunfighter he was obviously better at getting his gun out of the holster than putting it back.

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Quotes

Jessie Marlow: The men you posted are coming into town.
Clay Blaisedell: I thank you for warning me, but I've already heard.
Jessie Marlow: Why does it have to happen? Why do these things always have to end in bloodshed?
Clay Blaisedell: Ah, that's how things are, Miss Jessie. That's why I was hired... why you hired me.
Jessie Marlow: And so they'll come into town, and you'll shoot them all down dog-dead in the street, is that it?
Clay Blaisedell: Or them me.
Jessie Marlow: Or them you...

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Connections

Referenced in Pastewka: Die Strategie der Schnecke (2006)

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Soundtracks

"John Brown's Body"
(traditional)

User Reviews

Who's Dishing Out the Law and Order

Warlock has always been a favorite western of mine. With a top flight cast of leads and familiar western supporting players and a good director who gets pluperfect performances out of his cast, Warlock is one of the best westerns made in the last half of the last century.

Richard Widmark and brother Frank Gorshin belong to an outfit called the San Pablo cowboys run by a truly malevolent man played by Tom Drake. This bunch comes into the as yet unorganized town of Warlock and just shoot the place up and behave like animals. After the harmless town barber is killed and a deputy sheriff run out of town, the city fathers look to hire their own gunslinger to stand up to these people.

Who they hire is Henry Fonda and you get a package deal there, where Fonda goes so goes Anthony Quinn and a traveling saloon. Fonda's arrival sets off a complex series of events involving changing loyalties and motives. And a couple of romances get started, Widmark with former Fonda and Quinn gal, Dorothy Malone and Fonda with the prim and proper daughter of one of the town founders, Dolores Michaels.

Warlock has always been cited by film historians as demonstrating a not so subtle homosexual relationship with Fonda and Quinn. I think a case could be made for it, but I think it's a one sided crush with the crush on Quinn's side.

Fonda's a thoroughgoing professional, he's well aware of the pitfalls of his trade and the fact it's a dying profession as civilization creeps ever so slowly westward. His scenes with Michaels have some real poignancy to them, a man who wants more than anything else to leave killing behind, but knows nothing else.

Widmark takes up the challenge for official law enforcement. Oddly enough ten years later he did a western called Death of a Gunfighter where he becomes the man on horseback that Fonda has the potential to be in Warlock.

The supporting cast has some really fine and familiar character players. You always can tell a good film when the smallest of character players give indelible performances in a film where they might not have as much scenes and/or dialog to work with. My favorite in this film is DeForest Kelley who as a San Pablo cowboy demonstrates a streak of innate decency and fair play. If he didn't gain immortality with the original Star Trek as Doctor McCoy, this might very well have been Kelley's career part.

In a good John Wayne western, Tall in the Saddle, Gabby Hayes has one of my favorite western lines about law and order when he says he's for it, but it depends who's dishing it out. In Warlock it's the who and the how of the dishing that is explored here with a lot of disturbing questions raised.