Ramrod (1947)

Violent feud between Connie Dickason, the owner of the Circle 66 ranch and rancher Frank Ivey, the self-proclaimed boss of an otherwise public grazing land.

Director:

André De Toth (as Andre de Toth)

Writers:

Luke Short (by), Jack Moffitt (screenplay)

Stars:

Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Don DeFore

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Joel McCrea	...	Dave Nash
Veronica Lake	...	Connie Dickason
Don DeFore	...	Bill Schell
Donald Crisp	...	Jim Crew
Preston Foster	...	Frank Ivey
Arleen Whelan	...	Rose Leland
Charles Ruggles	...	Ben Dickason (as Charlie Ruggles)
Lloyd Bridges	...	Red Cates
Nestor Paiva	...	Curley
Ray Teal	...	Ed Burma
Houseley Stevenson	...	George Smedley (as Housely Stevenson)
Ward Wood	...	Link Thoms (as Robert Wood)
Ian MacDonald	...	Walt Shipley
Wally Cassell	...	Virg Lea
Sarah Padden	...	Mrs. Parks

Storyline

A cattle-vs.-sheepman feud loses Connie Dickason her fiance, but gains her his ranch, which she determines to run alone in opposition to Frank Ivey, "boss" of the valley, whom her father Ben wanted her to marry. She hires recovering alcoholic Dave Nash as foreman and a crew of Ivey's enemies. Ivey fights back with violence and destruction, but Dave is determined to counter him legally... a feeling not shared by his associates. Connie's boast that, as a woman, she doesn't need guns proves justified, but plenty of gunplay results.

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Plot Keywords:

ranch | black and white film | wild west | american west | rancher | 

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Taglines:

7 GREAT STARS -- in one great picture!

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Genres:

Romance | Western

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 May 1947 (USA)

Also Known As:

Die Farm der Gehetzten

Filming Locations:

Enterprise Studios - 5300 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$2,000,000, 31 December 1947

Company Credits

Production Co:

Enterprise Productions,The Enterprise Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Daily Variety reported that a Union Pacific locomotive called the "Ramrod Special" took 100 Hollywood celebrities to the February 21, 1947 Salt Lake City premiere. There the film was touted as the "official" motion picture of Utah's centennial celebration.

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Quotes

Connie Dickason: From now on, I'm going to make a life of my own. And, being a woman, I won't have to use guns.

User Reviews

Perhaps the first noir-western

Contrary to previous reviews of Ramrod, de Toth's film is much more interesting than a "simple cattle vs. sheep" plot-driven western. Just look at Lake's Connie Dickinson. This is a typical femme fatale archetype taken straight from film noir (realistically, the character derives from hard-boiled pulp literature which Luke Short fused with his western story).

Sexually alluring Connie uses her potent sway over men to achieve her greedy ambitions of wealth and power, and is unafraid to send men to their deaths for her cause. Connie's strength of character is atypical of the western genre at this stage, and her strength seems to come from the relative weakness of the film's hero, played by Joel McCrea; who seems to lack the strong sense of moral certainty that the typical westerner was founded upon.

Along with Raoul Walsh's Pursued (1947), and Robert Wise's Blood on the Moon (1948), Ramrod stands as one of the few hybrids between film noir and the western. Regardless of your standpoint on the status of film noir, all of these films contain typical elements from the pessimistic noirs of the 40's and 50's, particularly formal and stylistic devices, as well as recurring personnel, especially directors, stars (ie. Robert Mitchum), and cinematographers. Crucially though, the western genre before this stage was a particularly optimistic one; look at Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939), Dodge City (Michael Curtiz, 1939), or even My Darling Clementine (Ford again, 1946); the three films I mentioned beforehand, including Ramrod, all offer instances of pessimistic worldviews, and morally ambiguous characters and situations, even though they all end with the hero getting the girl and riding into a westward sunset.