Mordbrenner von Arkansas

Could "Welcome to Hard Times" be the most bizarre western ever made? It's certainly the most bizarre western Burt Kennedy has ever been associated with, (he wrote and directed it). Unusually violent and clearly influenced by the Spaghetti Westerns and not dissimilar at times to Clint Eastwood's "Pale Rider" it's about crazed psychopath Aldo Ray's terrorizing and destruction of the small town of Hard Times. (well, more a couple of buildings calling itself a town), in which Henry Fonda is the mayor who refuses to stand up to him, (there doesn't appear to be a sheriff).

After Ray rides out, leaving very little behind but ashes, Fonda persuades the survivors to rebuild the town, welcoming any newcomers who come riding by and then...you don't have to be too smart to figure what's coming. It's certainly got a sterling cast; as well as Fonda and Ray there's Janice Rule, Janis Paige, Keenan Wynn, Lon Chaney Jr., Warren Oates and Fay Spain and Kennedy's screenplay, from E. L. Doctorow's first novel, is so off-the-wall it's impossible to dismiss it. In fact, if any western from the sixties, or indeed from any period, deserves a cult following it's this one. Is it any good? Of course not but you certainly won't see another one quite like it.

Dramatic and decent Western magnetically performed by Henry Fonda as main cast and just look at the extraordinary support casting . A town can be killed by a bullet , just like a man! . Welcome indeed to this weird Western dealing with a little town determined to become modern , there are stores as hardware , livery stable , undertaking and saloon . A sociopathic stranger (vicious as well as marvelously wicked Aldo Ray) takes advantage of the frightened townspeople and burns down the saloon , destroys the small hardscrabble village but the 'mayor' Will Blue (Henry Fonda , his role mentions he is 49 years old at one point and turning 50 at another and yet Fonda was well over 60 at the time of the filming) doesn't stand up to crazed murderous . After that , Blue convinces its survivors to stay and rebuild it . As Blue swears to rebuild the small Western town after the stranger rides on , but the townsfolk give up and abandon . Afraid for the city's future and even more afraid of the fact that the maniacal Pistolero seeks revenge , Blue , then , promises to make a new town . A wagon load of whores led by "entrepeneur" Zar (Keenan Wynn) shows up and together with Blue, and Maple (John Anderson) they rebuild the little town . All of them decide that old-style violence is the only way to rid themselves of the angry diabolic gunman . As Will has to take a last stand when the powerful gunslinger take over his town , again . What happens in the ending makes one of the most dramatic climaxes of any story you've ever seen!

This passable , meaty Western contains interesting plot , intrigue , thrills , shootouts and results to be quite entertaining , though slow moving . It is a riveting mixture of the psychological flick and the basic Western action pic . Well-paced as well as rare Western balances action , suspense and symbol-laden drama . It's a classical recounting about a veteran as well as hesitant leading citizen of the runtown of ¨Hard Times¨ who at first doesn't stand-up to ruthless killer , a peace-loving and surrounded by cowards and frightening people ; being probably one of the strangest Western of the sixties . This is an atypical but thought-provoking western with a lot of reflection , distinguished moments and dramatical attitudes , in addition a multitude of enjoyable situations . The picture profits Henry Fonda's portentous interpretation , he gives a top-drawer performance as a Mayor who fails to stand up to the gunfighter , Fonda is an awesome expert in the art of conjuring sensational , terrific acting . Originally made for television in 1966, but released to theaters instead, before being shown on TV because of its violent content . Engaging screenplay from the novel "Welcome to Hard Times" by E.L. Doctorow , author of ¨Ragtime¨ . The traditional story and exciting script was well screen-written by Burt Kennedy though clichés run through-out , the agreeable tale is enhanced for interesting moments developed among main characters and especially on the relationship between Henry Fonda and Janice Rule . The highlights of the film are the climatic showdowns , the peculiar love story among protagonists , and , of course , the final gundown . The casting is frankly nice . Here are reunited a top-notch plethora of secondary actors , most of them playing the frightened townspeople as Keenan Wynn , Janis Paige , John Anderson , Warren Oates , Fay Spain , Edgar Buchanan , Paul Fix , Denver Pyle , Lon Chaney Jr. and Royal Dano who is exactly right as Indian medicine man . Atmospheric cinematography in Technicolor is superbly caught by cameraman Harry Stradling . Thrilling as well as atmospheric musical score by Harry Suckman .

This hard Western picture was professionally directed by Burt Kennedy . He initially was screenwriter , his initial effort, ¨Seven men from now¨ (1956), was a superb western, the first of the esteemed collaboration between director Budd Boetticher and star Randolph Scott . Kennedy wrote most of that series, as well as a number of others for Batjac, although it would be nearly 20 years before Wayne actually appeared in the film of a Kennedy script . In 1960 Kennedy got his first work as a filmmaker on a western , ¨The Canadians¨ (1961) , but it was a critical failure . He turned to television where he wrote and directed episodes of "Lawman" (1958), "The Virginian " (1962) and most notably ¨Combat!"(1962) . He returned to films in 1965 with the successful ¨The Canadians¨ (1965), directing the pilot for the TV series of the same name and subsequently made ¨Support your local gunfighter¨, ¨Support you local sheriff¨ that resulted to be two of his best Western . And directed two with John Wayne : ¨Train robbers¨ and ¨The war wagon¨ , Robert Mitchum : ¨Pistolero¨ , ¨The good guys and the bad guys¨ , Frank Sinatra : ¨Dirty Dingus Magee¨ , Raquel Weich : ¨Hannie Coulder¨ and a sequel ¨Return of the magnificent seven¨ . His last films were TV products and mediocre productions such as : ¨Wild wild west revisited¨, ¨More wild wild west¨, ¨Big bad John¨, ¨Dynamite and gold¨¨ , ¨The trouble with spies¨and ¨Suburban commandos¨ . This violent Western ¨Welcome to Hard Times¨ is a Henry Fonda vehicle , if you like his particular performance ,you'll enjoy this one .

'This sparse and grim epic of the plains is loaded with character and with allegory as well. The bad man who comes down from the hills and destroys the town is analagous to Moby Dick, more about dark fate than satanic evil. The excellence of the film comes from its relative faithfulness to the book, a masterpiece by E. L. Doctorow, the storyteller who gave us Waterworks and Ragtime. I give the movie four stars out of the five, and the book all five. Henry Fonda is the big name star, but this is really an ensemble movie. Catch the late Aldo Ray acting up a storm. (If you have seen the movie, read the book. It adds some dimensions including graphic violence that wasn't put into film when this one was made.) I saw this film on TV late one night many years ago, and it stuck with me like a haunting.

This is a gritty and well directed film. Unfortunately, the entire premises strains belief. We are supposed to believe that one man rides into a town and kills people and burns it to the ground while everybody just sits around and watches. In the real world this guy (Aldo Ray) would have been shot down about five minutes after he walked into the saloon. In 19th century America, everyone was armed and would have taken any action needed to protect their lives and property. I thought it was a silly movie when I saw it as a child and it remains silly today.

Burt Kennedy who made so many good comic westerns back in the day, tried his hand at a serious realistic western and fell flat on his face with it. Henry Fonda must have felt like Tyrone Power in Nightmare Alley, he and the film got great critical reviews and the public stayed away in droves.

No accident, western fans expect certain things in their films and Welcome to Hard Times delivers none of them. It is a realistic depiction of the growth of a western town, maybe too realistic.

Henry Fonda is the mayor of this little burg and purportedly the hero of the piece. Problem is that there is nothing heroic about Fonda nor the town's people.

Aldo Ray is the silent Man from Bodie, the villain of the story. He's about the worst villain on screen since Liberty Valance, without any redeeming characteristics. He defiles some of the women, shoots some of the men, and sets fire to the town. A few including Henry Fonda try to stop him and fail. Fonda fails in a moment of weakness.

Fonda's girl friend Janice Rule is among the defiled and she grows understandably bitter. The main story line is the conflict between Rule and Fonda, especially over young Michael Shea whose father was killed by Aldo Ray and who Fonda has now taken over raising.

Some veteran players like Keenan Wynn, Warren Oates, Denver Pyle, Edgar Buchanan, and Lon Chaney, Jr., make things interesting as the story drags on. There is of course a final and very bloody confrontation again with Aldo Ray that has some unexpected consequences.

Somebody should have told the town of Hard Times what the town in Johnny Concho did about William Conrad who was in the Aldo Ray role in that film. The solution to the problems of Hard Times was right there.