Nicholas Ray at his nuttiest and one of the weirdest westerns to somehow slip out of the Hollywood mainstream. In this film’s stormy old West, a woman’s anger is as dangerous as any gun. And this ain’t no light-hearted Calamity Jane stuff. Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge here HATE each other. Each of these ladies is a shot of poison in the other’s blood. Joan is a little more giving, as a simple businesswoman who bides her time running the slowest saloon in Arizona while she waits to cash in on the coming railroad. Meanwhile, Mercedes, always clad in black, looking like a witch, shakes with rage rooted in jealousy over a man, but she makes it a much bigger issue, hitching her grudge like a wagon of dynamite to the local cattlemen’s opposition to the railroad. Flying bullets, arson and a good old-fashioned impromptu hanging follow, along with sturdy Sterling Hayden as an infamous fast gun who’s now hiding his reputation behind a guitar. Nicholas Ray’s eccentric eye leads the way. He’ll leave a fistfight to focus on an intimate conversation. He also loves the unconventional imagery of women as the aggressors in a gritty genre flick. Running beneath it all is sly commentary on the 1950s Red Scare that survives today as a still-relevant depiction of mob rule and the ways in which it’s unreasonable and easily manipulated. Put a noose around someone’s neck and a lot of people will say whatever they have to, tell the biggest lie in the world, to get out of it. Revenge usurps truth. One person’s ego becomes the law. Complex conflicts turn simple when each player has a gun pointed at the other. Brightly colored, over the top, fast-paced and full of venom, this is a must-see.