La Ville abandonnée

Yellow Sky (1948)

A classic and somewhat formulaic, beautifully photographed Western with a couple small twists. The main thing you might not catch is that this is an adaptation of "The Tempest," by Shakespeare. Here, the band of travelers crosses a metaphoric sea (the desert) and reaches a "New World" where they sort out what matters between them. The set was built (and deliberately destroyed) from an old silent film set that was left over.

Of note--Gregory Peck and Richard Widmark together for their only time, and they inevitably end up as enemies. The setting is the amazing and deadly Death Valley, and the locations shooting is shot there for authenticity. William Wellman was one of those consistently excellent directors who never really made a bad film, but didn't always make exceptional ones, and this one is right in his usual mix of strong visuals, tight editing, fairly simple dramatic plots, and a key actor or two to identify with.

Ann Baxter is the third leading character, and she's pretty much right on, with some grit and determination, but also a little too isolated for her own good. She's a kind of parallel to the really touch Mercedes McCambridge in "Johnny Guitar," a far more inventive movie, but one where an isolated woman (or two) have to fight off the greedy male rabble. Sort of like life, sometimes. Note that "Johnny Guitar" is four years later.

Besides Wellman's expertise, cinematographer Joe MacDonald's work is really worth noticing, for once again he helps elevate a fairly straightforward plot into something hard bitten, layered, and beautiful. MacDonald, born in Mexico, really came into his own by the late forties, and is behind a whole bunch of noir and western classics (as well as the famous "How to Marry a Millionaire"). In all, it's a really good movie, no question.

The plot of "Yellow Sky" may not be the most original but the performances more than make up for it. A gang of bank robbers cross a dangerous desert only to find themselves in a ghost town. But there are two inhabitants in the ruins; a young woman and her prospecting grandfather. The gang members immediately suspect that the two are hiding gold in their dilapidated mine and set out to rob them. The leader of the gang, however, (a young Gregory Peck) falls in love with the young woman (Anne Baxter) and a showdown is inevitable with the rest of the outlaws. Richard Widmark, in fine form as "Dude" a gambler/murderer with his trademark smirk intact, is Peck's main rival in the gang. The Black and White photography is excellent and the exteriors, filmed in Death Valley, give the movie a much-needed sense of realism. Director William Wellman received outstanding performances from this cast and the movie is considered a minor classic by most film historians. They don't make 'em like this anymore---but they should.

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.

Stretch is the leader of bank robbing desperadoes, after their latest job they find the US Cavalry hot on their tail. Their only conceivable route of escape is to traipse over an enormous salt flat, low on water and bitten by the scorching sun, they happen to come across a ghost town named Yellow Sky. Here was once a prosperous town, now the only inhabitants are a crusty old prospector and his tomboy granddaughter. Soon the talk turns to hidden gold and it's not long before these desperate men will become conflicted in more ways than one. Be it greed, lust or the Apache, the day of reckoning is coming to Yellow Sky.

Yellow Sky is a technically stunning picture, directed with panache by William A. Welman, boasting starkly affecting black and white photography from Joseph MacDonald, and utilising the wonderful use of natural sounds. This picture is to me one of the shining lights of 1940s Westerns. Once the pulse racing pursuit of the robbers by the US Cavalry has finished, the film shifts into a master class of visual and dialogue driven delights. As the gang trundle across the desolate salt flat, the need for quenching the thirst hits the audience as much as it does the gang; I myself found that I was swigging rapidly from my cold can of beer! The Alabama Hills location is a sprawling, beautiful, never ending ode to the West, and then the actors kick in and do their stuff, and then some.

Gregory Peck plays the leader Stretch, an actor normally associated with a straight laced gait, here he is is weather worn and tired, his portrayal of Stretch as convincing as a role I have seen him tackle. Richard Widmark, in what I believe to be his first Western entry, is truly magnetic, a smirking, snarling Dude that you just know you couldn't trust if your life depended on it. Anne Baxter plays the sole female character of the piece (Mike), and she is pivotal to the whole film's strength, tough and full of spunk, her grasping of the situation in amongst these ragged men gives the piece it's time bomb ethic, and boy does Baxter do well with it.

All told there's no weakness' in the casting, they all do good work, and although the plot structure of the film is nothing out of the ordinary, the technical aspects coupled with the excellent writing on the page (W.R. Burnett story, Lamar Trotti screenplay) lift it way above many of its contemporaries. The ending has caused some consternation amongst Western critics over the years, and if I'm honest then it's not totally satisfactory to me personally, but it is in no way what so ever a bad ending, you just feel that the mood that had preceded it deserved something better. But as ever, it's up to the individual viewer to decide for themselves. 9/10

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.