What is Johnny Guitar / The Badlanders about?

Double Feature: JOHNNY GUITAR, 1954, Paramount, 110 min. Dir. Nicholas Ray. Joan Crawford is headstrong Vienna, a saloon owner waiting for the railroad to reach her town. Uptight landowners led by jealous Emma (a frightening Mercedes McCambridge) will do anything to repress her yen for the Kid (Scott Brady), even if it means lynching half the town to do it. Enter Vienna’s old flame, Johnny (Sterling Hayden), a quick-draw who’s given up guns for a guitar. Only director Nicholas Ray could pull off this color-coded, violent, romantic allegory of the 1950s Blacklist era. With Ernest Borgnine. THE BADLANDERS, 1958, Warner Bros., 85 min. Dir. Delmer Daves. Ernest Borgnine gives one of the most intense performances of his career as John McBain, a hardened criminal who collaborates with fellow ex-con Alan Ladd on a daring gold robbery. This Western remake of THE ASPHALT JUNGLE is a riveting heist film and a visually sumptuous period piece.

Johnny Guitar / The Badlanders

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What is Johnny Guitar / The Badlanders about?: Double Feature: JOHNNY GUITAR, 1954, Paramount, 110 min. Dir. Nicholas Ray. Joan Crawford is headstrong Vienna, a saloon owner waiting for the railroad to reach her town. Uptight landowners led by jealous Emma (a frightening Mercedes McCambridge) will do anything to repress her yen for the Kid (Scott Brady), even if it means lynching half the town to do it. Enter Vienna’s old flame, Johnny (Sterling Hayden), a quick-draw who’s given up guns for a guitar. Only director Nicholas Ray could pull off this color-coded, violent, romantic allegory of the 1950s Blacklist era. With Ernest Borgnine.

THE BADLANDERS, 1958, Warner Bros., 85 min. Dir. Delmer Daves. Ernest Borgnine gives one of the most intense performances of his career as John McBain, a hardened criminal who collaborates with fellow ex-con Alan Ladd on a daring gold robbery. This Western remake of THE ASPHALT JUNGLE is a riveting heist film and a visually sumptuous period piece.