Jeff Arnold’s West

The blog of a Western fan, for other Western fans

Tribute to a Bad Man (MGM, 1956)

 

Cagney’s last ride

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In 1956, the year after Bad Day at Black Rock, MGM wanted to put its big star Spencer Tracy in an A-Western – a proper one, not a contemporary story like Black Rock. He would be a big ruthless rancher, obviously, Sea of Grass/Broken Lance-style. Tracy actually did four days of filming. But he whined so much about the location shooting (set in Wyoming, the picture was shot in Colorado; Tracy complained about the altitude, the heat and the script) that the studio dumped him and, Clark Gable turning it down, cast James Cagney instead.

 

Cagney was far from a Western specialist, and indeed wasn’t very good in them. He had only done two, the pretty ropey The Oklahoma Kid back in 1939 (when, at 40 he was already a bit anno domini for Kid parts) and, the year before Tribute, Paramount’s Run for Cover, which was uninspired at best despite direction by Nicholas Ray. In Tribute Cagney did his best to be Tracy, all domineering and all, but his diminutive stature and machine-gun Eastern diction didn’t help. Still, it was the best Western Cagney did. And he was good when beating up Stephen McNally. “I fight dirty,” he says, and he proceeds to use mostly his elbows, to great effect.

 

 

Cagney does his tough rancher act

 

 

There were other casting changes. Irene Papas, in her Hollywood debut, replaced Grace Kelly – which was a good thing. Kelly would have been all glacial and blonde, whereas Papas managed to bring to the part of the sultry Jocasta a feisty Katy Jurado vibe. And second billed Don Dubbins, 28 but playing a boy, replaced Robert Francis (tragically killed in a plane crash days after the start of shooting) in the juvenile lead and first-person voiceover. Dubbins was a Cagney protégé who would appear in two big pictures with Jimmy that year, this one, which came out in March, and These Wilder Years, released in August. New Yorker Dubbins is OK (he plays an Eastern greenhorn so he could get away with it) and his narration provides a slight Vengeance Valley feel to the movie, no bad thing obviously.

 

 

Youth is captivated by glam ex-saloon gal

 

 

The good news is that some excellent Western character actors were recruited to be ranch hands: Chubby Johnson as Baldy, Royal Dano as Abe and a rail-thin Lee Van Cleef as Fats. Always a pleasure to see them. McNally plays another ranch hand, McNulty. McNally, McNulty, tomarto tomayto. He woos the fair Jocasta and is fired for his pains, then joining forces with the rustlers. McNally, you will know, was James Stewart’s ne’er-do-well brother in Winchester ’73 in 1950 and went on to lead in three Universal Westerns, so he had some Western pedigree.

 

 

McNally

 

It was done in bright EastmanColor and CinemaScope, and DP Robert Surtees, one of the greats, did a wonderful job on the Colorado locations. The vast majority was shot outside, in stunning scenery, and there were only two short MGM back-projection close-up shots (which disfigured so many of their Westerns). It was very well done, and there was clearly plenty of budget available. I love the work of the Surteeses, père et fils, and visually Tribute to a Bad Man is the equal of both Escape from Fort Bravo (Robert) or even possibly Pale Rider (Bruce). It is said that Surtees delayed the grim hanging scene four days, waiting to get just the ominous lighting he wanted. And it worked.

 

 

Surtees père

 

The story opens in 1875 with young Steve Miller, a naïve grocer’s clerk from Pennsylvania, riding west from Laramie, coming across rancher Jeremy Rodock defending himself from rustlers, and the young man digs a bullet out of Rodock’s back, earning his gratitude and a job. Rodock is one of those ranchers who rules the whole valley – in fact the only name the place bears is ‘Mr Jeremy Rodock’s Valley’. Steve soon discovers that his new employer is as hard as nails and has a very short way with horse rustlers. The sensitive youth is affrighted but gradually hardens.

 

 

Colorado standing in (beautifully) for Wyoming

 

 

There is a definite The Virginian tone to the whole picture – the Wyoming setting and even the young character’s name, Steve, attest to that. The hanging of the rustler they catch is suitably grim, and the same arguments are put forward – that there is no formal law enforcement anywhere around and the law of the rope is the only effective way to maintain order.

 

We’re livin’ in the middle of nowhere. Two hundred miles from any kind of law and order. Except for what I built myself. Ever since I started – and this you don’t know – I’ve been badgered, skunked, bitten out and bushwhacked by thieves from everywhere. And now, one of my men’s been killed. I find my horses, I find the killer. If I find the killer, I hang him. I gotta keep my own reckoning, Jo. It’s the way I built my life and half the transportation of the West.”

 

Of course in The Virginian it is Steve who is hanged. Here, it is the young Steve who is offended by the lynching rather than the sweetheart, but back at the ranch Jocasta too is revolted by the deed. Indeed, she plans to leave.

 

 

Virginian-style lynching

 

 

Questions are also raised of the difference between punishment, revenge and even torture.

 

One of the rustlers, Barjac, is James Griffith, so that’s good. I always thought he was excellent in Westerns.

 

There’s a good attempt to describe the realities of the cowboy’s life. Never a chance for a family, or a home. In ten years, you’re gonna’ be like them – a nobody on a horse. That’s what a wrangler is, a nobody on a horse. With bad teeth, broken bones, double hernia, and lice.”  This is source writer Jack Schaefer coming through, and the theme prefigures Monte Walsh (published 1963). The screenplay was written up from Schaefer’s short story by Michael Blankfort, who had contributed to Broken Arrow.

 

 

Jack Schaefer wrote the short story upon which the movie was based

 

There’s a slight Jubal feel to the picture, especially concerning the jealousy of the rancher towards possible lovers of his beautiful companion (Columbia’s Jubal came out the month after), though director Robert Wise, famous for the likes of West Side Story and The Sound of Music, did not have the Western track (or trail) record of Jubal’s director. Wise was actually very talented (as the wonderful Blood on the Moon showed) and it’s a pity he didn’t do more Westerns, but he despised the genre generally. Poor fool.

 

 

Jubal-style jealousy

 

 

Robert Wise

 

Rodock’s conversion to decency and gentleness is not entirely plausible and the ending is slightly cloying. Still, all in all, Tribute to a Bad Man is a perfectly acceptable Western, Cagney’s best by quite a long way and an honest contributor to the psychological/family/coming-of-age/ranch genre.

 

Rides off into the sunset

 

 

8 Responses

  1. Its my pleasure to hear about him. He was legendary in the Cinema. I haven't watch these classic movies. But really looks so cool and photographs are so amazing. I love to watch online movie and last I had 7 magnificent these photographs are looks like pictures of 7 magnificent.

  2. Deepak – there aren't many film lovers with a bad word to say about James Cagney but as Jeff says he wasn't at his best in westerns. To watch Cagney at his best try 'Angels With Dirty Faces' 'The Roaring Twenties' 'Each Dawn I Die' 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' and 'The Strawberry Blonde'. About 50 years ago there was a James Cagney season on Saturday evenings on BBC TV and I have been a fan ever since. Anonymous Paul

  3. You're right back in my neck of the western movie's woods with this excellent review, Jeff. Totally agree with what you say here.
    I think Cagney was really good in this, especially considering the western was not his natural genre.

  4. Jeff, good review. I probably like TRIBUTE TO A BADMAN a little better and that is because of James Cagney. The source material comes from the great Western writer Jack Schaefer's "Hangings for the Lucky" from ARGOSY(November, 1952) magazine. The photography by Robert Surtees is amazing. I first saw this movie on the old CBS LATE MOVIE in 1974 and I liked then and I still do.

    I also think that Robert Wise's TWO FLAGS WEST(1950) is a really good movie, right next to BLOOD ON THE MOON(1948).

    Deepak, I would like to add James Cagney's performances in THE PUBLIC ENEMY(1931), WHITE HEAT(1949) and LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME(1955).

    1. Yes, I was probably unfair to Wise, certainly on Two Flags West, which I too think is very good.
      Jeff

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