Snow Westerns on The Criterion Channel

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EP Millstone
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Snow Westerns on The Criterion Channel

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Just in time for Christmas, The Criterion Channel offers a chilly film festival titled Snow Westerns.

I checked out The Secret of Convict Lake, which TCC describes as "noir-tinged." That apt description is most perceptible in an eerie scene (inflected with a horror film undertone) involving a character portrayed by Ann Dvorak (in her cinema swan song) alone and terrified in a barn.

Briefly, five prison escapees on the run take refuge in a small town inhabited solely by women (whose menfolk are away prospecting). No shrinking violets, these gals! A gun-totin', back-talkin', no-nonsense hardy breed, they fearlessly stand up to the convicts -- making short work of one of 'em with a pitchfork when the crazy coot tries to attack one of their own (portrayed by Helen Westcott).

Glenn Ford helms a cast that includes Gene Tierney, Dvorak, Ethel Barrymore, Ruth Donnelly, and Jeannette Nolan. Ford's fellow convicts are rendered by Zachary Scott (at his slimiest), Jack Lambert (uncredited), Cyril Cusack, and Richard Hylton. All performers are top-notch as are the taut story and screenplay (based on an actual incident) and crepuscular cinematography by Leo Tover.

Produced by Twentieth Century Fox, The Secret of Convict Lake would make an ideal companion to another "noir-tinged" Fox western, The Outcasts of Poker Flats.

I also took a look at, IMO, one of the superior and truly outstanding "Spaghetti Westerns": Il Grande Silenzio (The Great Silence). Another western based on a historical event, it is, perhaps, the bleakest, most lugubrious and downbeat offering in that energetic Italian subgenre.

A gunfighter named Silence (because his throat was cut and he is mute) encounters a band of killer bounty hunters. Much gunplay and bloodshed ensues.

Playing a mute strikes me as a major challenge for an actor because he is denied a key tool of his trade: his voice. As "Silence," impassive Jean-Louis Trintignant (an odd choice for the role, IMO; he replaced Franco Nero) solemnly underplayed the character, allowing co-star Klaus Kinski (as -- what else? -- the heavy) to handily dominate the movie. Trintignant lacked the imposing physical presence and steely-eyed danger iconified by Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef. He is more convincing in his sensitive love scenes with Vonetta McGee. As a fearless sheriff unimpressed by the killers he encounters, American expat Frank Wolff registered with a strong performance that gave Kinski more thespic competition.

According to Christopher Frayling in his monograph SPAGHETTI WESTERNS Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone, director Sergio Corbucci (who also authored the story) detested happy endings. Maestro Ennio Morricone's melancholy score signifies Corbucci's narrative tone. To the terminally upbeat for whom happy endings are a must: you've been warned!

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