Outlaw Women (1952) In Cinecolor 75m
Directed by Samuel Newfield and Ron Ormond
Cast: Marie Windsor, Richard Rober, Maria Hart, Allan Nixon, Jackie Coogan, Brad Johnson
A lot of westerns are serious and grim...this one, not so much. This movie deals with the town of Las Mujeres (which translates into English as "The Women") which is run by women...we specifically center on a gambling house and the woman (Windsor) who runs it as well as the town and what happens when it collides with both good and bad men who want to come in and take charge (as well as robbing a bank of a dying town that is transferring it's funds to another bank). There is humor in here as well as the gunplay (including Jackie Coogan as a pitchman who goes from hawking his magic elixir to becoming a bartender at the gambling house. In the end, law and voting comes to Las Mujeres...since the women don't have the vote yet and can't hold political office, it's the men who are officially in charge. But not much has changed...the women are still bossing the men around in a not-too-obvious way. I enjoyed this movie. It'll never replace The Magnificent Seven in the Western Hall of Fame but it's a fun easy-to-take film.
