Das Teufelsweib von Montana

In which I woud have prefectly imagined Barbara Stanwyck. But Rhonda Fleming is OK in this role and for which you can unfortunately foresee the ending. This is a pretty good little western, and do not confound with Chuck Marquis Warren's BLACKWHIP nor Harmon Jones' - the same director as this one - SILVER WHIP, starring Dale Robertson and made for 20th Century Fox. Nothing fantastic, exceptional. Harmon Jones is a director whose films would deserve to be discovered again by old gems diggers. For me women are not necessarily made to be monitored, dominated by males, and in his kind of schemes - strong females - in most cases they finally.... Know what I mean? I love strong male stories and I am also a feminist in the same time.

There's not much to commend this Western apart from Rhonda Fleming looking good in an Indian princess outfit straight out of a musical. The plot is full of holes, such as Parnell's men knowing exactly where to find Steve and his sidekick and Pine Camp switching his loyalty from Cheyenne to Steve after being thrashed by him.

Pine Camp is an unconvincing Indian, just as Fleming makes an unconvincing half-breed.

When Cheyenne's wagons meet the Indians in an exchange of hand gestures I couldn't help feeling that Cheyenne should have been looking at them to the right, rather than to the left. I played back this sequence several times and the "wrong way round" effect persisted.

James Griffith was a bit of a disappointment - he spent all the time looking enigmatically po-faced, though at least he kept us wondering about which contract he was going to fulfil.

The bullwhip of the title wasn't much in evidence - just when Rhonda was flicking it in a fit of petulance and when she used it ineffectually on Steve.

The film could have been beefed up a bit by more tension between Steve and Cheyenne, especially if they had been played by not-so-nice actors; imagine Jack Palance and Barbara Stanwyck in the lead roles.

Bullwhip casts Guy Madison as a man with an interesting predicament. He got framed for a murder that was self defense by Judge Don Beddoe working with Rhonda Fleming the mixed racial owner and boss of a freight line. She's got a huge advantage over her competitors being the daughter of a Cheyenne chief her wagons get safe passage through their territory.

But she also by the terms of her father's will has to have a husband in order to inherit the company. So poor Madison gets framed for a murder and then gets a signed release from Beddoe.

After that there's any number of people who want to see Madison alive or dead as their interests dictate. And there are some whose views change as far as Madison is concerned one of them being Fleming. As for Guy now that he's married he wants to assert his marital prerogatives in all fields. That especially works with the Cheyenne given their alpha male point of view.

Rhonda Fleming does well in a part that I'm sure was written with Barbara Stanwyck in mind. Though I doubt their are not too many mixed bloods that have her distinctive titian tresses.

In spite of a really stupid title song sung by Frankie Laine over the opening credits Bullwhip is a good little western with memorable supporting performances by Don Beddoe as one crooked and roguish judge and James Griffith as a gunman with shifting loyalties. Fans of the stars will approve.

I thought it was quite an entertaining western, even though the story isn't very high-quality. Flemming's character is clearly explained right at the beginning of the film through her own voice-over. She's a tough cookie who doesn't want to know anything about love until she meets Steve, of course. It's a shame that this romance isn't really developed strongly. She plays hard to get for a while, but the transition to love is rather abrupt and feels a bit forced.

Rhonda Flemming certainly steals the show in terms of eye candy, and she also acts quite reasonably.

A nice western that's fun to watch once.

Here's an example of Plot #37 -- the couple forced to wed under unusual circumstances who seem to detest each other at first but who slowly, inevitably fall in love. Since the plot holds no surprises, the success of any film using Plot #37 largely depends on its two leads. Do they have the right chemistry? And does the script give them good dialog to toss back and forth?

Alas, Rhonda Fleming and Guy Madison lack the necessary spark, and both of them seem a bit over-the-hill for this kind of romance. Their lines are without style and wit and the course of their relationship manages to proceed both predictably and unconvincingly at the same time.

An air of sexism and racism pervades the movie and its depiction of the Old West, but in ways that are more amusing than offensive. Seeing Rhonda Fleming in her Indian maiden outfit, complete with feather, has a campy charm.

Not surprisingly, Guy Madison gets to take his shirt off in order to display the chest which once adorned the inside door of a thousand high-school lockers. Though slightly faded at age 35 or so, this chest is still easy on the eyes and it's so unshaved as to be downright furry.