Like many of the western writers
I’ve corresponded with, I didn’t get into westerns from reading the kind of
novels I’d eventually write. I was initially hooked by what I watched, on the
cinema and on TV, during my boyhood in the 1960s. And entering the world of the
screen western was like joining a family, peopled by familiar faces. Actors
re-occurred in the same roles – the same leading men, from A-listers like John
Wayne and Gary Cooper to ‘lower-birth’ leads like Audie Murphy and Rory
Calhoun. The same leading ladies – either the ‘good girls’ who the hero should
marry or the ‘bad girls’ (who often worked in saloons) who he definitely
shouldn’t! The same ‘sidekicks’ – one thinks of Noah Beery Jr. and Slim Pickens.
A wonderful roster of character actors – Ward Bond, John McIntire, Walter
Brennan, Ben Johnson and many more. Some even seemed to corner the market in
particular supporting roles – if the town doctor or storekeeper wasn’t played
by Frank Ferguson, it was usually Vaughn Taylor. All of whom deserve
recognition and blogs of their own.
Vaughn Taylor the eternal store
keeper
But perhaps most enjoyable of all
were the villains.
Westerns are of course morality
plays and if the hero represented the best in people, they needed a foil, an
opponent, to represent the very worst; worthy opponents against whom the hero
has to be tested. And there were plenty of very capable actors who regularly
stepped up to the plate to do just that. They were often as enjoyable, and quite
often more enjoyable, than the heroes.
One of the misconception about
the western, held against it by its detractors, is that it’s too simplistic,
100% pure heroes up against villains without a single redeeming feature. Anyone
who thinks that has obviously never watched many westerns! Western heroes are
often flawed, vulnerable or conflicted – one thinks of James Stewart in ‘The Naked Spur,’ Van Heflin in the
original ‘3.10 for Yuma’ or John
Wayne in ‘The Searchers.’ As for the
villains, sometimes they’re clearly good men gone bad, or bad men who have
their saving graces – for example Glenn Ford as the outlaw leader in the
original ‘3.10 for Yuma.’ Sometimes
they’re just irredeemably villainous and loving it! Even then, however, they
have their likable aspects.
Glenn Ford in the original ‘3.10 for Yuma.’
The best fictional villains – in
westerns or anything – are, in my opinion, almost never petty or cowardly. They
are often almost as competent, resourceful, charismatic and intelligent as the
heroes they’re up against. Sometimes they could almost be the hero’s evil twin,
the flip side of the same coin, and often possess dangerous charm and humour.
The difference between them is, usually when the chips are down, when they have
to choose between serving themselves or the interests of others, the hero chooses
the greater good, the villain cynically chooses himself.
There are so many splendid
western bad guys that I realised one blog could never do them justice. So I
decided to do two. Next time I’ll discuss ‘the hateful eight’ – the eight very
best western villains, in my opinion. Meanwhile here’s a brief canter through
the ranks of wrong-doers who didn’t make my final ‘worst of the west’ cut, but
gave excellent villain none the less. It’s selective and doesn’t claim to be
exhaustive, or else this would be the longest blog in history!
I’m not discussing bad girls –
that should be a blog all to itself. Nor would I include Native American
chiefs. For a long time Native American leaders were routinely characterised as
villains – Chief Scar in ‘The Searchers’
for one. Attitudes changed however,
and they began to be depicted as patriots and even heroes fighting to save
their peoples, for example in the 50s biopics of Indian leaders from Cochise to
Crazy Horse.
Nor would I include military
opponents. General Santa
Anna became the ultimate hate figure on the Texas frontier after the slaughters
he ordered in 1836 at The Alamo and Goliad. His defenders, however, would argue
he was a patriot trying to preserve his nation against foreign aggression. I’m
not going to go there!
Ruben Padilla as General Santa
Anna in ‘THE ALAMO’ (1960.)
‘Outriders’ on my list of
villains would be actors who more normally played good guys who made surprisingly
successful forays into villainy. Audiences gasped at the sight of Henry Fonda, ruthlessly
gunning down women and children in ‘Once
Upon a Time in the West.’ The same man who’d played the stalwart and
incorruptible Wyatt Earp in ‘My Darling
Clementine!’
Burt Lancaster gave a tremendous
turn as a ‘laughing villain’ in 'Vera Cruz', even dying with his trademark grin
on his lips! Lancaster illustrates a characteristic of the bad guy that makes
them fun to write – their unpredictability. They do what they like, therefore
you never know what they’re going to do next. One minute Lancaster is siding
Gary Cooper, the next he’s treacherously conspiring against him.
Slim Pickens, usually a likable
side-kick, makes a highly effective slimy villain in ‘One Eyed Jacks.’
And Rory Calhoun seems to be
enjoying his turn as a bad guy in ‘River
of No Return.’ Like a number of western villains he has a girlfriend (in
this case Marilyn Monroe) who believes he’s capable of reforming from his
wicked ways. She persuades him to talk to his enemy (Robert Mitchum) the next
time they meet, instead of trying to kill him. Rory agrees. “All right.” he says,
“I’ll talk to him.” He then takes out his gun and checks if it’s loaded. Monroe
asks “What do you need that for?” To which Rory replies: “In case he’s hard of
hearing!”
Bad guys often got the best
lines!
Rory Calhoun and Marilyn Monroe
Amongst the many memorable
western villains on screen were: Walter Brennan as the evil Old Man Clanton in
‘My Darling Clementine’; Robert
Duvall as the outlaw John Wayne hunts in ‘True
Grit’; Gene Hackman as the corrupt lawman in ‘Unforgiven’; Karl Malden as another villainous lawman in ‘One Eyed Jacks’; Warren Oates and John
Anderson as two homicidal brothers in ‘Ride
the High Country’; Skip Homeier as the sly back-shooter in ‘The Gunfighter;’ Henry Silva as the
cold-eyed and clearly unstable killer in ‘The
Tall T’; and Jack Elam, Claude Akins, John Dehner, Gene Evans, Alex
Montoya, Ernest Borgnine, Leo Gordon, Robert J. Wilke and Victor Jory in many
film and TV appearances. And many more!
I always found the lean-faced
James Anderson a particularly villainous-looking villain. He was effective as the
brutal cavalryman in ‘Little Big Man’
although perhaps his best depiction of evil was in a non-western ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’
James Anderson in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’
Two actors who almost made it
onto my ‘hateful eight’ list were Lee Marvin and Donald Pleasance.
British actor Donald Pleasance
was an unusual choice to play a western villain but proved to be inspired
casting. He’s Charlton Heston’s nemesis in ‘Will
Penny,’ a fire-and- brimstone preacher with a brood of sons as psychopathic
as he is. Pleasance manages the trick of playing an over-the-top character
without (quite) going over the top.
Lee Marvin frequently played
western bad guys but capped it all with his performance in ‘The Man who shot Liberty Valance.’ In a
film which is an allegory for the passing of the frontier, his Valance is more
than a villain; he represents the flamboyance, savagery and unrestrained violence
of the Wild West. When he’s felled by a bullet, it marks the end of an era. He’s
an equally enjoyable bad guy in ‘The
Comancheros’ where he again shows great chemistry with John Wayne.
If your favourite western wrong-doer isn’t here, don’t worry. Come along to my next blog on the subject – BEST OF
THE BAD MEN #2 - and you may find them among ‘the hateful eight’, my eight most
favourite western villains! Link to BEST OF THE BAD MEN #2 here: https://andrewmcbrideauthor.blogspot.com/2017/11/best-of-bad-men-2-hateful-eight.html
