The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)

Rita Jones — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 11:27:59 +0000

In contrast to the familiar Western device of the hero obliged to take the law into his own hands, The Ox-Bow Incident is a grim, messy cautionary tale, almost an anti-Western, about the dangers of vigilante justice and mob rule.

The brief story is as simple as it is tragic. Recent incidents of cattle rustling have a small Nevada town jumpy, and news that a popular local rancher has been murdered has the townsfolk up in arms. In the absence of the sheriff, a self-appointed posse forms under the leadership of an ambiguously disreputable ex-Confederate officer, despite the ineffectual protests of some, including the town judge.

Illegally deputized by the duputy sheriff, the mob rides in pursuit of the perpetrators, and soon finds the rancher’s cattle being driven by a trio of strangers who claim the herd was legitimately purchased but can produce no bill of sale.

Henry Fonda stars as a ragged cowboy who, like his later character in 12 Angry Men, is uncomfortable with the angry rush to judgment of those around him, but is far less noble or outspoken here. Leigh Whipper plays an unassuming black preacher condescendingly brought along for a veneer of religiosity, and provides a voice of conscience that is tragically ignored. The climax, a letter from a dead man, is devastating.

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The Bronze Buckaroo (1938)

Rita Jones — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 11:21:21 +0000

Although Wild West nods to the presence of African American cowboys in the American West and in the western film through the choice of director Mario Van Peebles’ Posse (1993) and of El Diablo (1990), starring Lou Gosset, Jr., the series of all-black-cast films starring Herb Jeffries (billed as Herbert Jeffrey) is historically more important and deserves a place on the list. Of the four films in the series, including Harlem on the Prairie (1938), Two-Gun Man from Harlem (1938), and Harlem Rides the Range (1939), I would choose The Bronze Buckaroo for the list.

Black-cast films, or race movies, were an important part of twentieth-century cinematic history, as were the segregated theaters where these films were mostly screened for African American audiences. Also, Herb Jeffries is the perfect model of the singing cowboy, a type that dominated westerns of the 1930s (and despite that dominance, singing cowboys are shorted on the 100 Greatest Westerns list). The Bronze Buckaroo includes not only the Jeffries-penned signature song of the series (“I’m a Happy Cowboy”) played in the background behind the opening titles, but there’s also a great scene in the bunkhouse where Jeffries and his band perform “Pay Day Blues” (another tune written by Jeffries), a hot number made all the hotter by an impromptu tap-dance performance by one of the bunk mates, and how often do you see a tap-dancing cowboy in a western? That scene alone earns The Bronze Buckaroo a place on the 100 Greatest Westerns list.

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The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)

The Bronze Buckaroo (1938)