Herrin der toten Stadt

This western has adventure, romance, passion, and a very heartwarming ending. The stars, Gregory Peck and Anne Baxter, have great chemistry and their acting is just wonderful. Anne Baxter is feisty and really shines in this movie. Although the movie is over half a century old, it is nonetheless very entertaining and delivers on all fronts.

Some westerns don't allow people to change, or reform, during its run on the screen. "Yellow Sky" allows peoples' true natures to emerge, once the influence of a gold strike in a near-empty ghost town appears. Filmed in b&w in 1948, the film stars a youthful Gregory Peck, a starlet named Anne Baxter, and a superb villainous performance by Richard Widmark.

The story begins with the band of outlaws, led by Peck, hold up a town and escape the clutches of the law by fleeing to the desert sands. They can't go back, because the legal authorities will capture them, and they have to continue to cross the flats, with an ever-dwindling water supply. One outlaw, in fact, filled his canteen with whiskey in the town they held up, and now he's begging to swap a belt of whiskey for just one sip of cool water.

Finally, just before giving up all hope, the band comes to a town called Yellow Sky, which once prospered, but now has all but expired. The two remaining occupants of the town, Anne Baxter and her grandfather, agree to let them rest, spend a few days, and that's when the outlaw band, or rather, Widmark, figures out that the two have a gold strike in the mountains nearby. Why else would they stay in a town going nowhere? Peck wishes to split the gold claim with the two occupants, while the rest of the gang, spurred on by Widmark, desires the whole cache, and if Peck doesn't agree, then they can fix that problem, too. The final shootout in the ghostly buildings of Yellow Sky resolves the conflict.

Look for good supporting performances from John Russell and Harry Morgan, as two outlaw gang members, and providing comic relief is Charles Kemper, whose career in the movies came to an end just a few years after this film was released. He plays the whiskey-guzzling Walrus to the hilt, and some film viewers would wish he had left more film roles on the screen. Overall feelings, a solid 8/10, and happy to see the release of this western classic on DVD.

Made roughly at the time of release of the more highly acclaimed "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," Yellow Sky never got the attention as 'Treasure...' did. In fact, for the most part it has been ignored completely, and wrongfully so. Brilliantly directed by William Wellman, along with very honest camera angles. We see all sides of the actors, not just their supposed "good sides". The cast, including Gregory Peck, Anne Baxter and Richard Widmark, all come together perfectly in highly unique fashion, and that includes everyone from Peck and Baxter all the way down to Charles Kemper and John Russell. The plot, like 'Treasure...' is about the greed for gold and the central characters' inability to trust one another because of it. Yet Yellow Sky somehow adds more to the equation, in my opinion. To me, the characters have, if not more depth, more identifiable depth for sure. The real standout, though, if there is one, is Baxter as 'Mike'. There are times in this film that she doesn't say a word and yet you can tell exactly what Mike is thinking or feeling at the time. The character's innocent confusion on what to do, what not to do, what to let happen and what not to let happen is extraordinarily acted. Emotions as intense as this portrayed successfully on screen is one of the main reasons I love films as much as I do. This is not to say, however, that there is any over-dramaticism in this film. There isn't any at all, and Yellow Sky is all the better for it. The Score, what there is of it, is magnificent in itself. First we hear a main theme at the startup, then nothing until the middle of the film when we hear a more romantic theme. First sung by Charles Kemper's 'Walrus', then on a harmonica, and later on in full musical form. It is rather subtle and not loudly played, but again, that's one of the many beauties of this film, nothing is overdone.

On another note, the DVD that FOX released this year contains the original trailer and a perfect showing of the film.

This fine, moody Western was one of a handful of efforts – heralded, incidentally, by the same director’s THE OX-BOW INCIDENT (1943) – which elevated the form and led the genre into its most popular (and prolific) era.

Superbly shot in crisp black-and-white by Joe MacDonald, the film makes the most of its stark location (Death Valley) and terse plot – following a robbery, a band of outlaws eludes the pursuing posse by crossing the desert and finally hitting the titular ghost town (where the only inhabitants are a grizzled prospector and his tomboyish, gun-toting half-breed niece). The cast is headed by relatively new stars of the era – Gregory Peck (in only his second Western), Anne Baxter (she had just won a Supporting Oscar for THE RAZOR’S EDGE [1946]) and Richard Widmark (this was his first of many genre outings, having only debuted a year previously) – which allowed an agreeably fresh and remarkably mature outlook on familiar themes (a small group of people fighting the elements, and themselves over lust and greed).

Though Widmark is surprisingly off-screen for long periods of time (and, consequently, tends to be overshadowed by his co-stars), this still emerges as perhaps the most satisfying among the Westerns he appeared in. For the record, he would play variations on his role here in both GARDEN OF EVIL (1954) and THE LAW AND JAKE WADE (1958); incidentally, I have two more Westerns of his lined up for this week – the former among them (see below) – as part of my tribute to the recently deceased actor. With YELLOW SKY, Peck followed his roguish turn in DUEL IN THE SUN (1946): the character is eventually revealed to be an upstanding person – an intrinsic part of the star’s on-screen persona, which he could play against effectively but did so only occasionally – forced into a life of crime by circumstances. Naturally, the gang subsequently turns on Peck for not wanting to keep all the gold to themselves – and he holes himself up in Baxter and her grandfather’s house, under siege from his former companions! Baxter, then, has been raised in a tough environment where she can practically overcome any obstacle despite her young age and sex: in fact, even more than the outlaws’ intrusion on the life she knew and the property that was rightfully hers, Baxter fears her personal reaction to them (finding herself especially drawn to Peck, who arouses her dormant feminine instincts!).

The film was adapted by Lamar Trotti (who also produced) from a novel by W.R. Burnett, an author more usually associated with gangster/noir pictures and, in fact, as can also be seen from the colorful character names here – Stretch (Peck), Dude (Widmark), Lengthy (dastardly John Russell), Half-Pint (diminutive Henry Morgan), the youthful Bull-Run, the cheerfully heavy-set Walrus, etc. – the narrative could very easily be tailored to that particular milieu. That said, when it was actually remade – in 1967 under the title THE JACKALS, and atypically featuring horror icon Vincent Price in the role of the prospector (by the way, I’ll be watching this version presently since I came across it as a rental) – it retained the Western ambiance, albeit with a difference (which I’ll discuss in that film’s own review).

At the end of the day, I’d say that YELLOW SKY is pretty much essential fare (beautifully handled by the practiced and versatile Wellman – highlighted by a three-way shoot-out which audaciously takes place in a darkened bar-room, and off-screen to boot!). Even so, the film seems to me to be relatively undervalued within the pantheon of the genre itself: for instance, it doesn’t rate as highly as Peck’s three most prestigious Western titles (the afore-mentioned “super production” DUEL IN THE SUN – elaborate, garish but overpowering, the no less grandiose and star-studded THE BIG COUNTRY [1958], and the intimate but psychologically-dense THE GUNFIGHTER [1950] – of which a second viewing is truly in order!).

Yellow Sky is an excellent western, especially to a western buff like me. Along with a top-notch cast, fabulous lighting and great cinematography, I truly enjoyed picking out the locations, most of which were from the Inyo County area of California. Due to my passion for mining in my free time, I was able to spot the Alabama Hills (where the set of the town was located) and the Dunes north of Panamint Springs as two of the locales from the film. Action sequences were well done. The plot, though predictable, has interesting twists, especially those involving Peck and Sheridan. Peck's character is also interesting in that it follows more along the lines of John Wayne's character in the Searchers, someone hardened to life who finally comes around to his humanity. I first encountered this film about a week ago on AMC. I do not know if it is availible on VHS or DVD. If someone could let me know if it is availible in these formats, I would appreciate it. All in all, a great film!