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The title of this film, Warlock (1959), conjured (no pun intended) up some interesting visuals featuring Julian Sands working some bad mojo magic, but that's a completely different film...the title of this film relates in that it is also the name of the town where most of the story takes place, and what a doozy of a tale it is...directed by Edward Dmytryk (The Devil Commands, Back to Bataan), whose Hollywood career suffered after a run-in with the HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee), stars Henry Fonda (My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache), Anthony Quinn (The Guns of Navarone, The Guns of Navarone), and Richard Widmark (Pickup on South Street, The Last Wagon). Also appearing is Dorothy Malone (The Day Time Ended), Dolores Michaels (Five Gates to Hell), Wallace `Mr. Curmudgeonly' Ford (Harvey, The Man from Laramie), Tom Drake (The Cyclops), Frank `The Riddler' Gorshin, who recently passed away in May 2005, and DeForest `He's dead, Jim' Kelley, better known as Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy from the Star Trek television series and subsequent films...you know, it was an exceptional bit of luck for Kelley that Star Trek came along when it did as his film career seemed on a steady decline, his last role prior to becoming `Bones' McCoy was that in the 1972 giant, mutated, killer rabbit flick Night of the Lepus...
The film begins pretty standard enough for a westerner with a gang of armed men riding into town, hooping and a hollerin' with vengeful intent, and quite soon the town of Warlock is without a deputy, which seems to be not an uncommon thing (check out the names on the wall in the jail). Fed up with living in terror, the townspeople decide on hiring a marshal/gunslinger named Clay Blaisedell (Fonda) to clean up the place (s'funny that the men in town outnumber the gang five to one, but still are unable to muster the courage to fight for themselves). His services aren't cheap, and I don't just mean just in the monetary sense. Along with his pay, he also gains exclusive rights to the gambling franchise within the town and his word is law, basically giving him the right to do pretty much whatever he wants, including killing, if it comes down to that...following Clay is his partner Tom Morgan (Quinn), who seems to handle the business of running the faro parlor while Clay is dealing with the `criminal' element. Widmark plays Johnny Gannon, once a part of the rebellious cowboys terrorizing the town, but disillusionment settled in after a particularly nasty business we never see, but is related to us later as Johnny unburdens his conscience. Anyway, after leaving the gang, Johnny becomes a social pariah, accepting the position of deputy (perhaps in a redemptive effort), creating a third faction within Warlock, that of the actual law (the other two being the cowboys outlaws and the hired gun of Clay). Eventually all sides have their various confrontations and all subplots get resolved, but not in the way some might expect...
Reading about this film from the DVD case one would get the impression this is your standard `townspeople hire an outsider to clean up the town' western story, but it goes a lot further than that. There's a good deal of time and discussion spent on `law and order', and how a frontier town might go about getting in on it being civilized despite itself (some of the debate focuses on the virtues of hiring of Clay, as the fear is violence begets violence, especially given his reputation). Thing is, when they hired Clay to be their marshal, they were essentially going outside the law, and possibly setting themselves up in a position of giving a virtual unknown control of the town. The characters of Clay and Tom know their role, and lay it out for the people of Warlock early, pretty much telling them while they're happy that Clay has arrived, once the trouble has been dealt with they will no longer want his presence, and then he will move on to the next town in need. As far as the `homoerotic' subtext between the characters of Clay and Tom it was there, but I wouldn't categorize in any physical sense, more like a co-dependant relationship that gets a lot weird as it's brought out into the light (although Tom's platonic love gets a little blurry, especially when the jealousy creeps in). I thought all the actors did well, and Fonda's always a treat to watch, but there was something lacking in the actually writing. The script was certainly lively, avoiding the cliché and staying within the realm of reality, elevating the film above the hundreds of run-of-the-mill westerns out at the time, but some of the characters seemed a little light, especially those of the women. As far as Widmark, I really enjoyed him in Pickup on South Street (1953) but his character here did little for me, despite Widmark's efforts...it just felt watery and lacking substance. And then there's Anthony Quinn's character of Tom. I thought it a unique, albeit morally ambiguous, character, one slightly miscast with Quinn, but he manages to pull it off despite himself. One of the more interesting characters to me wasn't even a primary but a supporting character named Curley Burne, played by DeForest `He's dead, Jim' Kelley, who actually had a fairly thriving film career going all the way back into the late 1940's. His role is small, but he's got some of the better lines, and makes the most of them. I wouldn't have thought he could pull off a menacing character, but he does, and pretty well. Overall I thought director Dmytryk did well in this sort of epic that isn't an epic (it certainly had enough characters for the standard epic). The going may seem slow after the initial sequences, but this is a professional effort as the foundation is laid before us, and the subsequent build-up is palatable. The story may begin to feel convoluted as more characters are introduced and relationships initially unclear, but the murkiness fades for those with the patience to follow through.
The widescreen (2.35:1) anamorphic picture in this DVD looks very decent, but there did seem a point near the beginning where the colors felt overly saturated (it doesn't last long). The Dolby Digital stereo audio came through very clearly. As far as special features goes, there's a original theatrical trailer for this film, along with ones for The Bravados (1958), Broken Arrow (1950), Broken Lance (1954), Forty Guns (1957), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), and a short, curious Movietone News piece whose only relevance appears to be a two second shot of Fonda at some Hollywood function.
Cookieman108
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Customer reviews
Despite the cover stating clearly that the film is in Cinemascope, this 20th Century Fox Cinema Archives DVD is Pan & Scan. This isn't stated anywhere in the product description. Do yourselves a favour: avoid!
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Top reviews from other countries
Jay
best to know language of dvd. I presumed it was in English
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 15, 2021Lpool kid
Warlock Best Quality blu ray
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 7, 2019Mike Foster
Plays on most DVD players.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 1, 2020
