La donna di fuoco

Ramrod is directed by Andre DeToth and collectively written by Luke Short, Jack Moffitt, C. Graham Baker and Cecile Kramer. It stars Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Don DeFore, Donald Crisp, Preston Foster, Arlene Whelan and Charles Ruggles. Music is by Adloph Deutsch and cinematography by Russell Harlan.

Sick of self proclaimed bully boss of the valley Frank Ivey (Foster) getting his way, hard driven Connie Dickason (Lake) sets up the Circle 66 Ranch. Hiring Dave Nash (McRea) as her ranch foreman (ramrod), Connie uses tricks and feminine wiles to win the personal battles to hand - which may well spell bad news for everyone...

Ramrod was the first Western directed by De Toth, and it's quite an impressive genre start. Splendidly capturing the film noir zeitgeist that was occurring at this time, pic looks terrific, De Toth and Harlan bring perfect monochrome moodiness for narrative compliance. The story pulses with psychological beats, the characters ranging from damaged addicts, the lovelorn and the lost, the power crazy and the cowardly, and right there at the core of it all is a femme fatale who is very much all woman but manipulative, bitter and destructive to the bone!

Story has a number of splinters lifting it out of the ordinary, the twists and turns not ridiculous, the sly machinations of principals are devilishly enjoyable for the like minded noir of heart. The plotting is clinically smart by not being ordinary, De Toth toying with the traditional tropes of the good versus bad Western staples. It's fair to say that Ramrod will reward more on further viewings, where it has the power to have the viewer dissecting the Freudian angles on show.

Cast are well suited to their respective roles. Lake rightly deglamourizes for Connie, and yet she carries a steely sexiness that has you understanding how men fall under her spell. McRea underplays it perfectly, he got the dupe role down pat, whilst DeFore steals the men acting honours as Bill Schell, who is Dave's mate, a jumping bean loose cannon dealing death with a nod and a wink. Support cast all come out in credit to seal the deal, for Ramrod is a must see for those who like Western and film noir hybrids. 8/10

Veronica Lake in her memoirs said that Joel McCrea was one of the kindest, most decent men she ever knew or worked with. When she was writing that she was talking about Sullivan's Travels which is certainly one of the high points in both of their careers.

Ramrod is light years from Preston Sturges. Based on a Luke Short novel it's a pretty grim and violent film. Preston Foster is the owner of the big spread in the neighborhood and a close ally of his is Charlie Ruggles who has an adjoining piece of territory. Foster's taken a shine to Ruggles daughter Veronica Lake, but she can't stand the sight of him. When Foster bullies her fiancé out of town, Lake wants vengeance.

She's got her own piece of land now and hires Joel McCrea to run it for her. The range war starts, but Lake thinks McCrea is too soft in his approach. She starts some backchannel schemes of her own.

The result of this is a whole lot of dead bodies piling up. A windfall for the coroner.

As always Joel McCrea is the moral centerpiece of the film, he's once again the gallant western hero. Preston Foster is the town bully you love to hate. Foster did a variation on this part again in Law and Order a few years later.

Cast against type are Don DeFore and Charlie Ruggles. DeFore who was usually the hero's best friend and a jovial kind of guy, is a violence prone sort of fellow, who Lake manipulates among others. And it is hard to believe that Charlie Ruggles ever played anyone as serious on film before or since. Our image of him is usually the henpecked husband opposite Mary Boland from the Thirties.

This film is significant for Lake because she married Director Andre DeToth. DeToth claims to have been married seven times, but only three are listed on his page at IMDb. It was not a happy union, but DeToth did get a good performance out of his bride.

Ramrod may be one of the earliest examples of an adult western. It is grim and violent, but fascinating.

This was a surprisingly brutal western, more like a film noir from the late 1940s, with rough characters who shot first and thought later.

Among those with the rough attitudes was the female lead, Veronica Lake, who was nearing the end of her short career. Without the makeup and long blonde hair, she didn't look that pretty. The good guys were played by Joel McCrea and Donald Crisp.

Almost everyone in this film gets shot or killed. Many critics labeled this a B-movie but it sure had a lot of well-known actors for that label. Preston Foster, Don DeFore and Lloyd Bridges also star. The only actor who sounded B movie-ish was Arleen Whalen. Despite her good looks, I can see why she never made it to stardom.

I like black-and-white but this was film that would have looked better in some nice Technicolor with the great mountain scenery that was featured.

Nice guy Joel McCrea is torn between pint-sized femme fatale Veronica Lake and decent seamstress Arleen Whelan in this serviceable Western from the under-valued Andre De Toth. McCrea looks a little lightweight compared to Don Defore and Preston Foster, who stand out as a free-wheeling gun for hire with ambiguous intent and a rancher's heavy with a town under his thumb in a film that's brimming with bad guys. The plot twists and turns, but never quite takes off.

Hadn't seen this movie in years so I decided to watch it again. I have to say there was a lot that I had missed in previous viewings. Mainly this is definitely a noir western. The basic plot is a staple of westerns, cattlemen versus sheepmen and a range war, but the characters walked straight of the 1940s. You have Veronica Lake as the femme fatale using her charms to twist multiple men to do her bidding. There's Joel McCrea as a flawed hero and Don DeFore as his friend with a dark side. Donald Crisp plays the by the book sheriff, arguably the only major conventional western character in the movie.

Definitely worth watching if you've never seen it before. If you want another noir western to watch try Blood On The Moon with Robert Mitchum.