weezeralfalfa
An unusual western screenplay. Veronica Lake, as Connie, is the head-strong daughter of rancher Ben Dickason(Charles Ruggles), who refuses to do her father's bidding, in marrying their prosperous neighboring rancher, Frank Ivey((Preston Foster), as Ivey would like. The main reason seems to be that she's afraid he would be too dominating over her. Despite her lack of a butch physique, she wants to take an active role in the management of the ranch; not just be a traditional trophy wife. Toward this goal, she takes up with sheep man Walt Shipley(Ian MacDonald)who apparently recently acquired some land in the region, and plans to raise sheep in what is considered cattle county. Hence, he is very unpopular with the local ranchers. Presumably, she chose him because she thought she could manipulate him toward her goals. The cattlemen run him out of town. But, before he leaves, he signs his property claim over to Connie.Did Connie achieve her main goals by the end of the film? She obtained a decent -sized spread thanks to the generosity of her suitor, and to that of her ramrod, Dave(Joel McCrea), who seized an outlying cabin belonging to Ives, because Ives failed to file for that land. She chose to raise cattle rather than sheep, so as not to antagonized the cattlemen.(How did she build up a herd so quickly?). But she committed a bad self-destructive act in ordering the stampeding of her cattle. As I understand it, they were stampeded over a cliff. Thus, she lost virtually all her cattle. The point was to blame the stampede on Ivey, so as to send him to jail. But, this depended on no one recognizing her own wranglers as the perpetrators, which turned out not to be the case. Connie conceived this treachery in retaliation for Ivey burning her wooden ranch house(Her new headquarters was made of stone). Thus, her short-term solvency looks bleak at film's end. Also, her current choice of husband appeared doomed, as Dave(McCrea) was put off by her highhandedness, firming up his recent relationship with the conventional town woman, Rose. In this vendetta-riddled story, Ivey was a bad guy in that he ordered the burning of Connie's ranch house, to spite her rejection of him, thus beginning the vendetta. The sheriff came calling to Ives's place to arrest him for stampeding the cattle. He threatened the sheriff, who drew his gun, but Ivey shot him first, blaming the deed on one of his ranch hands. Also, later, he shot dead McCrea's friend, Bill, who supervised the stampede. In turn, McCrea shot Ives in a street standoff, because he had killed Bill, and the sheriff, and because McCrea had shot the man falsely accused of shooting the sheriff.Looked at from a feminist perspective, we can compare Veronica's role with that of Betty Hutton and Doris Day, in the early '50s musical comedies "Annie Get Your Gun" and "Calamity Jane", respectively, as well as Doris in "The Ballad of Josie", from the late '60s. In all of these other films, the female lead is doing something that was almost unheard of for women to do. But, in each case, at the end, she realized that she wanted a male partner who felt superior to her in her special skill, even if he wasn't. Each of these ladies succeeded in finding such a mate. In the present film, Veronica wanted to show that she could wrangle a ranch out of someone other than Ives, and make it work, although she relied on males to do the dirty work. Unlike these other characters, she doesn't come across as a natural 'butch', but primarily as a manipulator of men to accomplish her goals. Hence, she is a different type of feminist example compared to the other ladies.Of course, McCrea and Veronica had worked together previously in the acclaimed "Sullivan's Travels".See it in B&W at YouTube.
bkoganbing
Veronica Lake in her memoirs said that Joel McCrea was one of the kindest, most decent men she ever knew or worked with. When she was writing that she was talking about Sullivan's Travels which is certainly one of the high points in both of their careers.Ramrod is light years from Preston Sturges. Based on a Luke Short novel it's a pretty grim and violent film. Preston Foster is the owner of the big spread in the neighborhood and a close ally of his is Charlie Ruggles who has an adjoining piece of territory. Foster's taken a shine to Ruggles daughter Veronica Lake, but she can't stand the sight of him. When Foster bullies her fiancé out of town, Lake wants vengeance.She's got her own piece of land now and hires Joel McCrea to run it for her. The range war starts, but Lake thinks McCrea is too soft in his approach. She starts some backchannel schemes of her own.The result of this is a whole lot of dead bodies piling up. A windfall for the coroner.As always Joel McCrea is the moral centerpiece of the film, he's once again the gallant western hero. Preston Foster is the town bully you love to hate. Foster did a variation on this part again in Law and Order a few years later. Cast against type are Don DeFore and Charlie Ruggles. DeFore who was usually the hero's best friend and a jovial kind of guy, is a violence prone sort of fellow, who Lake manipulates among others. And it is hard to believe that Charlie Ruggles ever played anyone as serious on film before or since. Our image of him is usually the henpecked husband opposite Mary Boland from the Thirties.This film is significant for Lake because she married Director Andre DeToth. DeToth claims to have been married seven times, but only three are listed on his page at IMDb. It was not a happy union, but DeToth did get a good performance out of his bride.Ramrod may be one of the earliest examples of an adult western. It is grim and violent, but fascinating.
ccthemovieman-1
This was a surprisingly brutal western, more like a film noir from the late 1940s, with rough characters who shot first and thought later.Among those with the rough attitudes was the female lead, Veronica Lake, who was nearing the end of her short career. Without the makeup and long blonde hair, she didn't look that pretty. The good guys were played by Joel McCrea and Donald Crisp.Almost everyone in this film gets shot or killed. Many critics labeled this a B-movie but it sure had a lot of well-known actors for that label. Preston Foster, Don DeFore and Lloyd Bridges also star. The only actor who sounded B movie-ish was Arleen Whalen. Despite her good looks, I can see why she never made it to stardom.I like black-and-white but this was film that would have looked better in some nice Technicolor with the great mountain scenery that was featured.
