Woman They Almost Lynched (1953)

During the Civil War, a small Ozark border town on the state lines of Missouri (which is Union) and Arkansas (which is Confederate) declares neutrality. But when the renegade Quantrill (Brian Donlevy) and his trigger happy wife (Audrey Totter) ride into town, they ignite a fire that threatens to destroy that neutrality. Directed by Allan Dwan (SLIGHTLY SCARLET). A year before Nicholas Ray's great feminist western JOHNNY GUITAR, this female centric western tested the waters. It's the women who control the border town. Its mayor (Nina Varela) and her all female committee are a tough group who don't put up with any nonsense. But the center of the film and its title character is a newcomer (Joan Leslie), who grows from genteel lady to gunslinging saloon owner and becomes Totter's nemesis. They even have a gunfight that presages the Crawford/McCambridge gunfight in JOHNNY GUITAR. It's nowhere near as great as GUITAR but it's entertaining. But I had trouble figuring out how seriously I was supposed to take it as it almost seems a tongue in cheek parody of a male driven western. But its aims are modest and its quasi-feminist dynamics are titillating. With John Lund, Ben Cooper, Jim Davis, James Brown, Reed Hadley, Ann Savage, Richard Crane and Virginia Christine.