THE OUTLAW (1943)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *naturalistic*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*                                                                                                                                              This naturalistic film, arguably the first in the subgenre of "sex-westerns," just barely qualifies for one of my ten tropes-- that of "bizarre crimes"-- and even then, the crime only takes up about three or four minutes of screen time and is more psychological than physical in nature.                                                                                                   

I'd seen THE OUTLAW a couple of times before my recent rescreening. For several years, I've known a lot of little factoids about the movie. That it was filmed in 1941 but blocked by the Hays Code until 1943. That the cast consists of just four main characters and a tiny number of support-roles. That OUTLAW was the debut film for two of the actors, Jack Buetel and Jane Russell, both under exclusive contract to producer Howard Hughes for the next seven years. I've learned other bits and pieces since my re-watch, but as of this writing I don't know exactly how the project came about, or why it was important enough to Howard Hughes to assume directorial duties on OUTLAW, even though he'd only directed one other film thirteen years ago. But given the fact that Hughes had acquired partial ownership of the studio RKO by 1941, I think his main aim was to win fame with a big, money-making picture with lots of sex appeal, and that he probably outlined his list of story-preferences to screenwriter Jules Furthman and let Furthman figure out how to stitch everything together.                         

The result was an overbaked melodrama that a number of modern viewers have called "campy" or "so bad it's good," though these assessments don't quite capture the nature of OUTLAW. For one thing, Furthman finds some inventive ways to bring together the four essential characters: Billy the Kid (Buetel), Rio McDonald (Russell), famed gunslinger Doc Holiday (Walter Huston), and Pat Garrett (Thomas Mitchell), sheriff to the New Mexico town of Lincoln. All of the film's action takes place either in Lincoln or in the wilderness surrounding it. Garrett and Rio have both lived in town for an unspecified amount of time, while Billy and Holiday converge on the town for separate but related reasons. However, Holiday has been in Lincoln before. At the film's opening he's on foot and chasing down a man who stole his horse, so he comes to Lincoln because unnamed witnesses told him they saw the horse and its rider heading for the town. But Holiday explicitly mentions that he hopes to encounter his old pal there in Lincoln. Holiday is surprised to learn that Garrett has recently become a lawman, and there's a strong suggestion that the two of them may once have been involved in extra-legal activities. Holiday also knows that Rio and her aunt "recently" moved to Lincoln, suggesting that he knew the younger woman-- whom he calls "his girl"-- in her previous residence in Socorro (probably meant to be identical with the town of that name in New Mexico). Given Holiday's greater age, it's not impossible that he set up Rio, apparently more a "mistress" than a girlfriend, on her Lincoln chicken-ranch, though there's no way to prove this speculation.               

Holiday finds his horse in the possession of Billy, who claims he bought the roan from a stranger. Holiday seems not the least bit interested in Billy's excuse, and Garrett prepares to arrest the alleged horse thief before Holiday can gun Billy down. But Holiday is amused by Billy's nerviness, and when the young man decks Garrett in mid-arrest, this also amuses the older gunfighter. But Garrett is enraged at having been one-upped in front of his old comrade, and he orders both men to leave town by sundown.                                                                                                                                                  Before either can do so, that night Billy is attacked in the barn where he stables his horse by a gun-wielding would-be killer. He wrestles down the assailant and finds that it's the lovely Rio. He's never met her, but when she gives her last name and the name of the town she formerly occupied, he realizes that she's the sister of a man Billy killed in self-defense, when the two men quarreled over a woman. While holding Rio down Billy comments on her comeliness. Rio responds by faking Billy out and trying to stab him with a pitchfork. Again Billy restrains her, and they roll in the hay some more, concluding with what might be a scene of Billy raping the nubile Rio in deep shadows-- though clearly Hughes wanted to keep things ambiguous.     

The next day Holiday and Billy have not left town, and an ambitious would-be deputy challenges Billy and gets gunned down. When Garrett seeks to arrest Billy, Holiday sides with the youth, increasing Garrett's sense of betrayal. Billy gets wounded, so Holiday tries to hide him at Rio's ranch, and then leaves to decoy pursuers away from Billy. Rio cooperates but never makes the slightest reference to Billy having ravished her-- again, Hughes playing it as safe as he could in the Hays era. For the month that Billy in in Rio's care, Rio falls in love with Billy, and even her aunt confesses his charms. Billy, who has expressed sentiments about the treachery of women, doesn't reciprocate. Indeed, both Holiday and Billy insult the young woman by implying that their quarrel over the roan takes priority over their rivalry for Rio.                                                                     

Most of the rest of the film's events take place in the wilderness, as Garrett relentlessly pursues the two fugitives. Though Rio stays behind at the ranch, she ensures her future participation by peevishly filling the canteens of both men with sand. Later a vengeful Billy returns to the ranch and utters threats that sound like those of ravishment. But what he actually does is to drag Rio out into the desert and tie her up, so she can suffer the rays of the sun as Billy and Doc did. Garrett and his captive Holiday find Rio, and Garrett, anticipating that Billy will change his mind and return to free the girl, sets a trap. Billy is captured. Yet if he thought Rio's ordeal would "tame" her, he's proved wrong by an incident in which she nearly drowns Billy.                                                                                         

 I won't specify the exact way that the conflicts between Billy, Holiday and Garrett shake out at the climax, except that Rio's role in the story becomes an indirect one. In later years, the three-way male conflict led to many critics divining a homoerotic vibe between the trio. It's not beyond the bounds of possibility, but I would have to see evidence that either Hughes (at least in his capacity as producer) or Furthman had a habit of working such material into a lot of other, ostensibly mainstream movies. However, one of Holiday's last speeches about the precarious friendships between males-- particularly two powerful males-- could have been just as easily written for any number of less risible westerns. Even Garrett's animosity, hating Billy for his having made the sheriff look bad in front of an esteemed friend, could have appeared in a lot of the mainstream movies Furthman had been writing since the 1910s. Also common to a lot of westerns was the idea that sooner or later the roving gunfighter needs to settle down and make babies with a likely spouse. There's more than a little of the "war between men and women" going on throughout the picture, but the conflict between Billy and Rio is resolved as it is in almost every other Hollywood romance-- whereas only death, not sex, resolves the conflict between the three men. There are some campy-sounding lines in OUTLAW, particularly all the odd remarks about how much Billy and Holiday love their little horse. But despite the excessive nature of Jane Russell's feminine assets-- which were more responsible for selling the movie than any of the conflicts of the males-- I tend to think that excess serves the cause of heterosexuality.