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It would be MGM, wouldn't it, that goes West and dreams of a frontier tamed by corporate brands. An entrepreneur's emissaries, a whole trainload headed for New Mexico, "the symbol and the promise of the order that is to come." George Sidney's account peaks early with "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe," a rhythmic barnburner led by Judy Garland as the mail-order heroine and encompassing a scratchy verse by Marjorie Main along with a sotto voce "yip yip" from Ray Bolger. Upon meeting her mangy groom (Chill Wills), the Easterner promptly looks for a way out of the engagement: "I'm a terrible cook." "Don't let that worry you, miss. Out here, we just put things over a fire and take what happens." John Hodiak as the obligatory Clark Gable stunt-double is more to her liking, even if that means fighting for his affection with the saloon chanteuse (Angela Lansbury). Nun habits but for puffy sleeves and bows, the Harvey Girl uniforms contrast with the riot of hues brandished by gunslingers and showgirls, turquoise and cobalt and mustard streaks set against the town's dusty backdrops. (Lansbury runs the Technicolor gamut on her own, entering in a spangled gold gown and exiting in an emerald number remembered by Peckinpah in The Ballad of Cable Hogue.) "After all, it's only a matter of style." "It's a Great Big World" is staged in a darkened dormitory with illuminated windows, "Wait and See" occasions an early Cyd Charisse twirl, "The Wild, Wild West" has Virginia O'Brien pondering desire while hammering horseshoes: "I got a hankerin' to be / Occupyin' a cowboy's knee / I like romance but it don't like me." It all ends well, with the wilderness made safe for franchises. Redemption is by way of Wellman's Westward the Women. With Preston Foster, Kenny Baker, Selena Royle, Ruth Brady, Jack Lambert, and Morris Ankrum.
--- Fernando F. Croce |