The Woman They Almost Lynched (1953)

This is a little-seen oddity. I found out from this (semi-)recent article, largely inspired by a new (and decent looking!) DVD/Blu-Ray release.

Anyway – I enjoyed it. The plot is somewhat implausible. It concerns an border town in the Civil War ("Border City") that's somehow managed to declare itself neutral, allowing the mayoress to sell lead to both sides, which hanging anyone who breaks the neutrality. William Quantrill rides in with his wife, Kate (Audrey Totter), his band of raiders, Sally Maris (Joan Leslie), who was travelling to meet her saloon-owner brother in Border City (Kate's ex) when Quantrill attacked her stagecoach. Maris inherits her brother's saloon, falls in love with her brother's assassin (a secret Confederate) and falls out with Kate.

The remainder of the plot is somewhat involved, but it involves an elaborately staged catfight in the middle (one of the highlights of the film), and everyone sacrificing themselves to save everyone else at the end with no real consequences. I felt the ending was a bit neatly tied off to be really satisfying (it just felt convenient rather than genuine) but the rest was uniformly entertaining.

The articles I read on this suggested that director Alan Dwan approached this as a parody. I'm not sure I'd entirely agree (although it's difficult to disagree, considering he apparently said so himself!): it's obviously a farcical story, but it wasn't necessarily filmed to emphasise the farce. It seems to me to be presented almost straightforwardly, allowing the story to "incriminate" itself.

In conclusion: enjoyable, well-made, and presents a female dominated Western that offers a perspective that I haven't really seen anywhere else in the Western. I saw it on Youtube which clearly isn't the best quality, but is perfectly watchable (with distracting French subtitles).