Females in Westerns

[ken123]

Pick as many as you like ! The film or films that the lady was especially good. If you like pick some ladies who were in Westerns, but to your way of thinking not right for the film / genre.

I'll pick Maureen O' Hara in Rio Grande, Cathy Downs & Linda Darnell in My Darling Clementine. I'll add a few more as I think of them.

[Professional Tourist]

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[JackFavell]

I loved Gloria Grahame and Myrna Dell in Roughshod, shown earlier this year on TCM. Both were extremely fine, and blew the male performers away (except for little Claude Jarman, Jr. who was wonderful too).

Katy Jurado in High Noon is in a class by herself. Someone should have given her a film in which she was in every scene.

Olive Carey and Anna Lee in Fort Apache are wonderful together, they work off of each other in a way you don't usually see, very much in tune with one another.

Joanna Dru gives a great performance in Wagon Master. She really hits that part perfectly, and I think it is her very best performance, very simple and honest.

[ken123]

I loved Gloria Grahame and Myrna Dell in Roughshod, shown earlier this year on TCM. Both were extremely fine, and blew the male performers away (except for little Claude Jarman, Jr. who was wonderful too).

Katy Jurado in High Noon is in a class by herself. Someone should have given her a film in which she was in every scene.

Olive Carey and Anna Lee in Fort Apache are wonderful together, they work off of each other in a way you don't usually see, very much in tune with one another.

Joanna Dru gives a great performance in Wagon Master. She really hits that part perfectly, and I think it is her very best performance, very simple and honest.

Katy - how did I not list her, especially since in the last week I posted here about Ms Jurado in High Noon. Joanne Dru was excellent in John Fords Wagon Master. I am not one to belittle MsDru's performance in Howard Hawks' Red River, but I still wonder what Ella Raines would have done in this role.

[JackFavell]

Joanne Dru was excellent in John Fords Wagon Master. I am not one to belittle MsDru's performance in Howard Hawks' Red River, but I still wonder what Ella Raines would have done in this role.

I understand. I don't like Joanna Dru in anything else so far BUT Wagon Master. She was a very inexperienced actress, having gone from modeling right into Red River, I'm pretty sure she had done no acting previously. Then she was cast in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and I am not crazy about her in that one either. Something about Ford's direction, maybe her comfort level? brought out a great performance by her in WM that she never had in other films. I think the role might have suited her. Maybe it was closer to her natural personality - I hear she was quite a fun gal in real life.

[CineMaven]

Aaaah Ella. She was great with John Wayne in "Tall in the Saddle." But since she's already spoken for, I'll go with Barbara Stanwyck in "The Furies" or "Forty Guns." Even though she's a little more 'rugged' but I did find Crawford believable in "Johnny Guitar."

And a shout-out to the lovely and delicate Gail Russell in "Angel and the Badman."

[JackFavell]

OOoh. Now why didn't I say those, Cinie? Great choices.

[klondike]

Well, she doesn't match the same demographic as the others, but my heart is always stirred & made wonderfully warm by Mildred Natwick in her role as "Mrs. Soldier", the Colonel's wife in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon . . .
Was there ever a brighter gem in the crown of John Ford's achievements?

[mrsl]

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I have to agree with Klondike about Ms. Natwick, but also add Irene Rich, Olive Carey and all the other wonderful frontier wives and mothers of not just Ford, but so many other westerns.

I especially loved Hope Emerson in Westward the Women, and Barbara Stanwyck as both the original Annie Oakley, and the rescued woman in Trooper Hook. There are so many I can't even think of them right now, but I still burst into uncontrollable laughter when I just think of Joan and Mercedes as western women in Johnny Guitar . I still think that movie was meant to be a comedy, but the two women played it straight and the effect came off as off kilter.

[movieman1957]

Joan Hackett in "Will Penny."
Janet Leigh in "The Naked Spur."
Anne Baxter in "Yellow Sky."
Carroll Baker and Jean Simmons in "The Big Country."

[charliechaplinfan]

Marilyn Monroe in The Misfits.
Maureen O'Hara in Rio Grande.
Angie Dickinson in Rio Bravo, although completely mismatched with John Wayne, she was good.

I didn't like Joanne Dru's role in Red River, the finale ended too suddenly but that is the fault of Hawks rather than Dru's.

[stuart.uk]

Claire Trevor in Stagecoach, The Dark Command and as an attractive tomboy in the UK titled The First Rebel

ODH in They Died With Their Boots On and Dodge City

Louise Raines in Tall In The Saddle

Cate Blanchett in The Missing

Barbara Stanwyck in Union Pacific, Calafornia, The Furies, Cattle Queen Of Montana, The Maverick Queen, Forty Guns and The Big Valley

MM in the underrated River Of No Return and The Mistfits

Maureen O'Hara in Rio Grande. Camanche Territory, McLintock and Big Jake

Marie Windsor in Cahill United States Marshal

Jean Arthur in The Plainsman, Arizona and Shane

Lillian Gish in The Wind, Duel In The Sun and The Unforgiven

Carol White and Honor Blackman in Something Big

Nichol Kidman in Austraila

Dana Deleny in Tombstone

Angela Lansbury in Lawless Street

Angela Douglas and Joan Sims in Carry On Cowboy

Joan Crawford in Johnny Guitar

Karen Steele in Westbound

Madeline Stowe in Last Of The Mochians and Bad Girls

Sharon Stone in The Quick And The Dead

Lauren Bacall in The Shootist

Katherine Hepburn in Rooster Gogburn

Angie Dickinson in Rio Bravo

Mildred Natwyck in She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

Doris Day in Calamity Jane

Katy Jaurdo in High Noon and Broken Lance

Katharine Ross in Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid and the sequel The Sundance Woman
Joanne Dru in Red River

Debbie Reynolds in How The West Was Won

Natalie Wood and Vera Miles in The Searchers

[Professional Tourist]

Debbie Reynolds in How The West Was Won

I agree, 100% Thelma Ritter is pretty good, too.

[stuart.uk]

I maybe alone in thinking HTWWW was Debbie Reynolds best performance. I fully accept Singing In The Rain was the greatest film she was associated with. However, In HTWWW she was able to act and sing in the same film, playing the Spunky show girl Lily Prescott

[mrsl]

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Yes, Debbie was good in HTWWW, and she aged so well in it also, voice along with looks, and mannerisms, but for being great and carrying the whole movie, while in practically every scene, she was unmatchable in The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

I don't recall if anyone mentioned her, but another two standout performances were Carroll Baker and Deloris Del Rio in Cheyenne Autumn.
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