'Go West' With Sag Harbor Cinema

Following the success of screenings of John Ford’s 1956 film “The Searchers” and Phil Karlson’s 1958 film “Gunman’s Walk” at the 2024 Sag Harbor Cinema Festival of Preservation — as well “Rio Bravo” (Howard Hawks, 1959) at the 2023 Festival and “Canyon Passage” (Jacques Tourneaur, 1946) at the 2022 Festival — the cinema will present “Go West,” a special salute to the western from February 15 to 19.

“Go West” will accent the 1950s and feature the work of filmmakers Anthony Mann, Raoul Walsh, André de Toth, Delmer Daves, Sam Fuller, Nicolas Ray and Budd Boetticher.

“Jean-Luc Godard called the western ‘the most cinematic genre of all.’ For French critic André Bazin it was ‘the American film par excellence,’” says Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, the cinema’s artistic director. “It is perhaps inevitable for a European to love westerns. I always did. With this program we wanted to pay homage to the great masters of the genre, as well as focus on the moral and psychological complexities of the post war and Cold War eras, when westerns often came tinted with a shade of noir.

“I anticipate we will explore the sixties next,” she adds.

The cinema will screen Delmer Daves’ 1957 classic “3:10 to Yuma” starring Van Heflin as Dan Evans, a small-time rancher tasked with putting outlaw Ben Wade (played by ‘the fastest gun in Hollywood’ Glenn Ford, against type) on the 3:10 train to Yuma while outrunning Wade’s gang. Halsted Welles, a prolific TV writer in the 1950s and 1960s (“Suspense,” “Bonanza,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”), adapted the “3:10 to Yuma” script based on a short story by Elmore Leonard. Welles’ son of the same name, a renowned garden designer and a Sag Harbor resident, will join the cinema at Saturday’s screening to present the film and participate in a Q&A.

Another special screening of “Go West” includes Raoul Walsh’s 1953 “Gun Fury” in 3D (this was his only 3D film). In the film, Rock Hudson stars as a rancher at odds with a demented ex-Confederate (Phil Carey) who kidnaps his bride-to-be (Donna Reed).

“Go West” will also screen with André de Toth’s 1959 “Day of the Outlaw,” the Hungarian-American director’s final western. Shot on location in snowy central Oregon and starring Robert Ryan (“The Wild Bunch,” “The Dirty Dozen”), Burl Ives (“The Big Country,” Snowman in “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”) and Tina Louise (Ginger on “Gilligan’s Island”), this film is a gritty story of a town trapped by a gang of outlaws and an impending snowstorm, against the backdrop of the power struggle between cattlemen and farmers. Film author, collector and western aficionado Bob Rubin will introduce the film through a video specially recorded for the screening.

Also presented in the “Go West” series is Anthony Mann’s “Bend of the River”(1952) which has been newly restored by Universal in beautiful Technicolor. An adaptation of Border Chase’s book “Bend of the Snake,” it stars Rock Hudson, Julia Adams and James Stewart as a man with a violent past in search of redemption in the Oregon wilderness. Nicholas Ray’s wildly baroque 1954 “Johnny Guitar” (“dream-like, magical, delirious,” according to François Truffaut), featuring Joan Crawford as a ruthless saloon owner, will also screen along with Samuel Fuller’s 1957 playfully subversive “Forty Guns,” featuring Hollywood legend Barbara Stanwyck as a high-riding rancher. Finally, Budd Boetticher’s celebrated Ranown cycle of low budget westerns — made with Randolph Scott, produced by Harry Joe Brown, and written by Burt Kennedy — will be represented by “Ride Lonesome” (1959) a revenge tale, with Scott as a bounty hunter and James Coburn in his film debut.

“Go West” runs from February 15 to 19, with each film playing twice (except “Gun Fury” in 3D, which only plays once on Sunday). Tickets are available individually or as a “Canyon Pass” which is $55 ($30 for members) and permits guests to attend each film one time.

The full lineup with times, tickets and passes will be available at the box office or sagharborcinema.org. Sag Harbor Cinema is at 90 Main Street in Sag Harbor.

‘Go West’ Young Film Lover
“3:10 to Yuma” 
Directed by Delmer Daves, USA, 1957; 92 mins, in English.

In this beautifully shot, psychologically complex western, Van Heflin is a mild-mannered cattle rancher who takes on the task of shepherding a captured outlaw (played with cucumber-cool charisma by Glenn Ford) to the train that will deliver him to prison. This apparently simple mission turns into a nerve-racking cat-and-mouse game that tests each man’s particular brand of honor. Based on a story by Elmore Leonard, “3:10 to Yuma” is a thrilling, humane action movie, directed by the supremely talented studio filmmaker Delmer Daves with intense feeling and precision.

“Bend of the River” 
Directed by Anthony Mann, USA, 1952; 91 mins, in English.

Rugged cowboy Glyn McLyntock (James Stewart) struggles to hide his dark past as he guides a wagon train through the treacherous Oregon wilderness. To help the settlers survive the hostile conditions, he must choose his allies wisely and confront the ghosts of his former self when he rescues thief Emerson Cole (Arthur Kennedy) from execution. “Bend of the River” was the second of eight films James Stewart and Anthony Mann made together and marked a turning point in Stewart’s career showcasing the actor’s darker side.

“Day of the Outlaw” 
Directed by André de Toth, USA, 1959; 92 mins, in English.

In the quiet frontier town of Bitters, Wyoming, a dispute between cattleman Blaise Starrett (Robert Ryan) and farmer Hal Crane (Alan Marshal) is about to boil over into a bloody feud. But the fighting takes a back seat to a new threat when a rogue cavalry captain, Jack Bruhn (Burl Ives), rides into town with his band of thugs. Now, with the citizens of Bitters held hostage by Bruhn and his men, Starrett must somehow rescue his town and restore his broken reputation. Also starring Tina Louise a few years before becoming Ginger on “Gilligan’s Island.”

“Forty Guns” - Directed by Samuel Fuller, USA, 1957; 80 mins, in English

Hollywood legend Barbara Stanwyck saddled up with writer-director Samuel Fuller for the pulp maestro’s most audacious western, a boldly feminist spin on the genre that pivots effortlessly between ribald humor, visceral action, and disarming tenderness. High-riding rancher Jessica Drummond (Stanwyck) commands a 40-strong posse of cowboys, ruling Cochise County, Arizona, without challenge. When U.S. Marshal Griff Bonell (Barry Sullivan) and his brothers arrive in town with a warrant for one of her hired guns, Jessica begins to fall for the lawman even as he chips away at her authority.

With astonishing black-and-white CinemaScope photography, hard-boiled dialogue laced with double entendres, and a fiery performance by Stanwyck at her most imperious, “Forty Guns” is a virtuoso display of Fuller’s sharpshooting talents.

“Gun Fury” in 3D 
Directed by Raoul Walsh, USA, 1953; 83 mins, in English.

California-bound rancher Ben Warren (Rock Hudson) is shot and left for dead when a demented ex-Confederate, Frank Slayton (Phil Carey), kidnaps his Southern bride-to-be (Donna Reed). Revived, Ben sets out to rescue her. Along the way, he picks up Jess Burgess (Leo Gordon), a slighted former member of Slayton's gang, and American Indian local Johash (Pat Hogan), who has his own beef with the outlaws. Together they embark on a perilous chase toward the Mexican border to stop Slayton. Lee Marvin and Neville Brand bring extra 3D menace to the gorgeous Arizona locations, and this was the only 3D movie by one-eyed Walsh.

“Johnny Guitar” 
Directed by Nicholas Ray, USA, 1954; 110 mins, in English.

On the outskirts of town, the hard-nosed Vienna (Joan Crawford) owns a saloon frequented by the undesirables of the region, including Dancin' Kid (Scott Brady) and his gang. Another patron of Vienna's establishment is Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden), a former gunslinger and her lover. When a heist is pulled in town that results in a man's death, Emma Small (Mercedes McCambridge), Vienna's rival, rallies the townsfolk to take revenge on Vienna's saloon — even without proof of her wrongdoing.

“Ride Lonesome” 
Directed by Budd Boetticher, USA, 1959; 73 mins, in English.

Mysterious motivations drive taciturn bounty hunter Ben Brigade (Randolph Scott) to capture a wanted murderer — but his quest is complicated when he is accosted by a pair of outlaws who have their own inscrutable reasons for riding along. Masterfully scripted by Burt Kennedy, who weaves a complex web of ambiguous loyalties and motives, and featuring supporting turns by genre icons James Coburn (in his film debut) and Lee Van Cleef, the first of the Ranown westerns to be shot in CinemaScope makes striking use of the enlarged frame — with a final shot that stands as perhaps the single most unforgettable image in the series.