My Ten Favorite Female-centric Westerns

When you think of western movies, I'm betting you think of stories that revolve around men.  Lone gunmen, groups of men, a man and a sidekick, and so on.  But there are actually quite a few westerns that are centered on women.  

Because people were grappling with life-and-death issues like food, shelter, and enemies trying to kill you in the Old West, they weren't always so caught up on little things like whether women should own and run businesses, boss men around, make decisions, choose their own husbands, defend themselves, own and work the land, and so on!  Hollywood has often used that reality to help tell stories about women that might not be suited to other time periods, including the ones they were making the movies in.

It may surprise you to find that 7/10 of the movies on this list were made before the year 1970.  Strong Female Characters might not be as recent a phenomenon as you've been led to believe.

Anyway!  Here they are :-)  Titles are linked to my reviews where applicable.

1. The Rare Breed (1966)

A British widow (Maureen O'Hara) and her daughter (Juliet Mills) accompany the prize bull they've sold on its way to its new owner (Brian Keith) with the help of a determined cowhand (James Stewart). I've seen this so often, the characters all feel like dear old friends.

2. The Quick and the Dead (1995)

A woman gunfighter (Sharon Stone) enters a quick-draw contest because she believes it's her best chance to avenge her father being murdered by a former outlaw (Gene Hackman).  This movie has one of my absolute favorite Russell Crowe characters in it, but the movie really belongs to The Lady.

3. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

A woman (Jane Powell) marries a man (Howard Keel) she just met that same day, and she's excited about the prospect of keeping house for just the two of them, back up in the mountains where he lives.  He fails tell her he has six brothers back home that he expects her to cook for too, and she is less than amused when she finds out. Trust me, this retelling of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is funnier than it sounds. Also, it has gobs and gobs of awesome dancing.

4. Angel and the Badman (1947)

Penelope Worth (Gail Russell) might not be quite an angel, but then again, Quirt Evans (John Wayne) isn't quite a bad man either. Her Quaker family takes him in when he's wounded, and he does everything in his power to make sure they don't regret that decision even though he's pitted himself against some pretty desperate characters.  Of all the movies on this list, this is the only one where you could argue that the woman isn't the central character, but Penny is so pivotal that I really think it counts.

5. Australia (2008)

A determined Englishwoman (Nicole Kidman) and a drifting Drover (Hugh Jackman) struggle to save each other and an orphaned Aboriginal child (Brandon Walters) in Australia's Outback during World War Two. This is the only movie that has ever given me cowboys and WWII soldiers in the same story.

6. True Grit (2010)

A fourteen-year-old girl (Hailee Steinfeld) hires a crotchety US Marshal (Jeff Bridges) to track down the man who murdered her father, and insists on accompanying him on the quest.  I love the unusual flavor of this movie's dialog, which comes straight from the book by Charles Portis.  You can read my review of the book here.

7. Calamity Jane (1953)

A completely fictional story revolving around Calamity Jane (Doris Day), Wild Bill Hickock (Howard Keel), and a big mix-up involving a famous singer who is supposed to come to Deadwood, but doesn't.  My favorite thing about it is that Calamity Jane's character arc doesn't involve her gaining a husband by giving up her "outrageous" behavior of wearing buckskins and trousers, shooting at outlaws, and guarding stagecoaches.  Instead, she finds love with a man who appreciates who she already is, not who she could become.

8. Cat Ballou (1965)

Cat Ballou (Jane Fonda) comes home to her family's ranch just in time to witness her father's murder by the notorious (and noseless) Tim Strawn (Lee Marvin).  She straps on a gunbelt and sets out to avenge him, eventually gathering up an outlaw gang of comically inept ne'erdowells, including washed-up gunfighter Kid Shelleen (also Lee Marvin).  This is a wacky, wild movie, but I like it.

9. The Redhead from Wyoming (1953)

A beautiful woman (Maureen O'Hara) arrives in town and starts running a saloon and buying cattle, all at the behest of a former lover (Alexander Scourby) who is trying to start a range war between the big cattle barons and the smaller farmers and ranchers.  A new sheriff (Alex Nicol) stands up against him, and the woman has to choose which side she'll support because the townsfolk like her so much, they'll follow her, not either of the men.

10. Westward the Women (1951)

One hundred and forty women travel west in a wagon train to find new husbands.  On the way, they learn to hitch horses to wagons, shoot and hunt, ford rivers, and generally protect themselves while surviving.  It's one of the most realistic portrayals of a wagon train that I have seen.

You'll notice that four of these are currently part of my Legends of Western Cinema Week giveaway, just in case you want to get a chance to own and watch them for yourself!  And, yes, this top ten list has been one of my contributions to this year's LOWCW shindig.

If you enjoyed this list, you might also enjoy some of my other Top Ten Favorite lists: 

Western Movies

Western TV Shows

Alan Ladd Westerns

John Wayne Westerns

Western Movie Couples

Western Movie Soundtracks

Episodes of The Magnificent Seven

"Calamity Jane" (1953) -- Initial Thoughts

Doris Day is one of my favorite actresses.  Westerns are my favorite movie genre.  I also love musicals.  So WHY haven't I seen Calamity Jane before this?!?!?

Actually, it feels like I have seen part of it before.  I suspect it was shown on AMC when I was in college, and I caught a little of it, but didn't like it enough to write it down on my list of movies to seek out and watch all of.  And I can understand why, as the parts I felt like I'd seen before were all in the first third of the movie, and that first third was not my favorite thing ever, to be honest.  I might like it better on rewatching, now that I know where the story is heading, but that's because this movie surprised me.  Twice.

I watched this over two nights, making it through the first two thirds the first night and finishing the rest the next.  Honestly, I was not very engaged the first night, and if I hadn't been watching for the Doris Day Blogathon, I probably wouldn't have finished it.  That was the first surprise, that a Doris Day musical western was just not interesting me very much!

The second surprise came the next night, when I finished the movie.  Because the final act did NOT go where I was expecting it to go, but went to some deeper and better places, and I absolutely loved the way it all wrapped up.  In fact, I went from "well, this is nice, but I'll sell my copy to the used book store" to "this deserves a place on my movie shelves."

Calamity Jane (Doris Day) is a buckskin-wearing, whip-cracking, gun-toting, enemy-shooting, tough-talking, swaggering kind of gal.  Her best friend, Wild Bill Hickock (Howard Keel), is just about the only person in Deadwood who's willing to stand up to her hot temper or stand beside her in a fight.  But Calamity Jane doesn't see Bill as anything but a chum -- she has her sights trained on a handsome cavalry lieutenant (Philip Carey) she's rescued from some marauding Sioux.

The local saloon owner thinks he's hired a woman named Frances Fryer, and he advertises that she'll be singing and dancing at his saloon.  When a man named Francis Fryer (Dick Wesson) arrives instead, the cowboy audience is none too happy about the attempt to pass off Francis as Frances.  Calamity Jane stops them from ripping the whole building down by vowing to go to Chicago and bring back the prettiest singer and dancer ever:  Adelaid Adams (Gale Robbins).

Only, she doesn't.  Once again, we have a case of mistaken identity, for it's actually Adelaid Adams's maid Katie Brown (Allyn McLerie) who comes back to Deadwood, pretending she's the famous entertainer.  The crowd at the saloon is a little more forgiving of this mistake, since Katie is pretty and spunky and plenty entertaining in her own right.  But Calamity Jane is humiliated because Katie lied to her, which made her lie to the townsfolk.  And Bill Hickock is humiliated because of a bet he made with Calamity and thought he'd lost -- he thinks she tricked everyone just to make him look foolish.  

To make matters worse, that handsome lieutenant takes a shine to Katie Brown, and then Bill does too, and for a while, Calamity Jane appears to be losing everyone and everything she cared about in her whole life, all at once.  But, she doesn't, and everything turns out just fine in the end.

I really expected the story to go the route of "once Calamity Jane learns to conform to societal expectations, she'll find her happiness."  Because there was this message all through the beginning of "because Calamity Jane does not look or dress or act like Adelaid Adams, she is not womanly enough to interest a man."  And... it did not.  Yes, Calamity Jane wears a beautiful dress to a ball, where the people who had always half thought of her as a scrappy little man suddenly discover she is a scrappy little woman instead.  Yes, she finds her happiness.  But she doesn't quit wearing buckskins most of the time (though she does get some clean ones).  She doesn't quit riding horses and wearing a sidearm and racing off to do whatever she thinks needs doing.  She still keeps sliding through the window of a stagecoach from above instead of opening the door, too.

In short, Calamity Jane does not need to change to find her happiness.  Instead, she needs to understand herself fully instead of bullheadedly refusing to do anything anyone else tells her to do, whether she wants to do it or not.  She learns to accept herself for herself, and only then does she find she's in love with someone who, as Mr. Rogers always said when I was a kid, likes her just the way she is.

I think, if I had seen this movie as a teen, it may have saved me some angsty grinding of the teeth.  Because Calamity's journey is very similar to my own journey, and I'm thankful to the Lord that he sent me my own Cowboy to appreciate me and love me and understand me just the way I am, rather than trying to convince me to fit into a pre-approved box or pigeonhole.  Maybe seeing this would have given me hope that such guys exist.

Or maybe I would have been so disturbed by Howard Keel's lack of mustache that I would have only watched it once, back then.  Because, to someone who is very used to seeing him gloriously mustachioed in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) and Showboat (1951), it WAS a little disturbing to hear his voice come out of this seeming-stranger's face!

I mean, I do accept that he's the same guy... but it was pretty weird at first!!!

Is this movie family friendly?  Pretty much.  There's the Frances/Francis mix-up, in which Francis does wear a dress and try to convince the audience he's a girl, but he is very obviously NOT, and very obviously doing this only under duress.  There are some attitudes and dialog concerning Native Americans that you might need to let kids know are not acceptable today.  There is some mild Wild West violence, and I do mean very mild.  No cussing.

Now, both Adelaide and Katie sing and dance in what looks like a strapless swimsuit, which Calamity says she would never wear because she has different ideas about modesty than that.  But their musical numbers are just cute and flirty, not overtly sensual.  I would let my kids watch this, and we just might do that this summer when I re-institute our weekly lunchtime movie schedule.

This post is my contribution to the Sixth Annual Doris Day Blogathon hosted by Love Letters to Old Hollywood.  I'm so glad this event gave me an excuse to watch this movie at last!  It was a great way to celebrate what would have been Doris Day's 100th birthday, which is April 3.

My Ten Favorite Actresses

Like I promised in my post about my ten favorite actors, here is the list of my ten favorite actresses!  This was, in some ways, a much easier list to compile, because I simply don't get as fanatical about actresses the way I do about actors, and so I don't have as many favorites.  However, here are ten ladies who can all make me want to see movies solely because they are in them, and they have played a lot of characters I admire, would like to be friends with, or want to be more like.  Definitely my favorites!

Once again, this is a bit different from my other "ten favorite" posts because I can't provide a synopsis of people the way I can for films. So I've listed the first movie I saw them in, my favorite movie of theirs, and my favorite role they played.  And again, I've linked their names to the post labels for them, so if you click on one of their names, it will take you to all the posts I've written that involve that particular actress.  Finally, I've linked movie titles to my reviews of them where applicable.

1.  Maureen O'Hara.  I think the first movie I saw her in was The Rare Breed (1966), as a preteen.  My favorite movie of hers is Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962), and my favorite role of hers is probably Maggie McKendrick in The Parent Trap (1961).

2.  Emma Thompson.  I first saw her in Sense and Sensibility (1995) when I was a teen -- in fact, I believe that was my introduction to Jane Austen as well.  My favorite movie of hers is Much Ado About Nothing (1993), and her role as Beatrice in that is also my favorite of hers.

3.  Barbara Stanwyck.  The first thing I saw her in was The Big Valley (1965-69), which remains my favorite thing she's in, and her role as Victoria Barkley on it is also my favorite -- I wrote this post a few years back about why I want to be just like Victoria when I grow up.

4.  Judi Dench.  I first saw her in GoldenEye (1995), and it's funny, but I didn't like her much at first.  I was extremely fond of Pierce Brosnan, and she yelled at him a lot, and that made me mad at her character, M.  But I grew increasingly fond of her over the years, both M and Judi Dench.  My favorite movie of hers is Chocolat (2000), and my favorite character of hers is actually M, especially in Skyfall (2012).

5.  Lauren Bacall.  I think the first thing I saw her in was To Have and Have Not (1944), though it might have been The Big Sleep (1946).  My favorite film of hers is To Have and Have Not, but my favorite role is probably Marilla Hagen in Designing Woman (1957), though it's been a long time since I watched that.

6.  Keira Knightley.  I first saw her in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999), but my favorite movie of hers is Pirates of the Caribbean:  Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), and my favorite role of hers is either Gwyn in Princess of Thieves (2001) or Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice (2005).

7.  Myrna Loy.  I'm pretty sure The Thin Man (1934) was the first thing I ever saw her in, and Nora Charles in that and the subsequent Thin Man films is definitely my favorite role of hers.  But my favorite movie of hers is The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), which I watched for the first time solely because she was in it.

8.  Alicia Vikander.  The first movie of hers I saw was The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), which is still my favorite movie of hers, and her role of Gaby Teller in it is also my favorite of her roles.

9.  Doris Day.  I think the first movie of hers I saw was On Moonlight Bay (1951).  But my favorite movie of hers is Young at Heart (1954), and my favorite role of hers is probably Kate Mackay in Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960).

10.  Nicole Kidman.  I first saw her on the little-known Disney channel western series Five Mile Creek (1985), and I absolutely loved her tomboyish character Annie -- she wore pants and didn't like dressing up, and she could beat up boys!  Major role model for me as a girl.  My favorite movie of hers is Australia (2008), and her character in it, Lady Sarah Ashley (aka Mrs. Boss) is also my favorite role of hers.

Who are your favorite actresses?  Do we have any in common?

My Ten Favorite Alfred Hitchcock Movies

Eva's Alfred Hitchcock Blogathon has begun!  This is my contribution to the event, the list of my favorite Hitch films.  Are any of these your favorites?  Does your taste coincide with me, or differ wildly?  I'd love to hear which of his films you love best!

1.  Shadow of a Doubt (1943)  A young woman (Teresa Wright) who idolizes her uncle (Joseph Cotten) slowly comes to suspect that he's not the nice, kindly man she thought, but actually a serial killer.  Yes, I love this one especially much for Joseph Cotten, as he's a pet of mine and this is one of his best performances.

2.  To Catch a Thief (1955)  French authorities ask a reformed cat burglar (Cary Grant) to help them catch another jewel thief, using the glittering assets of a lovely socialite (Grace Kelly) as bait.  This is just one gorgeous costume after another, with snazzy dialog to match.

3.  The Trouble with Harry (1955)  Harry is dead, and various people try to figure out what to do with his body.  It's kind of a screwball black comedy, if you can imagine that combination.  Daffy and delightful.

4.  North by Northwest (1959)  A normal guy (Cary Grant) gets mistaken for a spy by an Evil Bad Guy (James Mason) and goes on the run with a lovely blonde (Eva Marie Saint), who I'm sure had a connection to the plot somehow, but I can never remember what it is.  It doesn't matter, cuz this one is great fun even so.

5.  Rear Window (1954)  Wheelchair-bound photographer (James Stewart) and his girlfriend (Grace Kelly) spy on their neighbors and suspect one of them has committed murder.  But how to prove it?  Voyeuristic filmmaking at its best, it reminds us that we're just peeking at movie characters through a window too.

6.  Dial 'M' for Murder (1954)  A rich tennis champ (Ray Milland) wants his wife (Grace Kelly) to die, and each time his plan goes awry, he concocts a new one.  The real mystery for me is why she ever married him the first place, but whatever, it's tense and thrilling.

7.  Strangers on a Train (1951)  Two strangers (Farley Granger and Robert Walker) meet on a train (you could've guessed that much from the title, right?) and casually discuss the idea of killing off each others' annoying relations.  Only then one of them actually does it.  This one always gets me on the edge of my seat even though I don't particularly like any of the characters.

8.  Rebecca (1940)  A young lady (Joan Fontaine) marries a rich, older widower (Laurence Olivier) and finds herself tormented by the idea of his first wife.  Secrets and obsession at their darkest.

9. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)  An American couple (James Stewart and Doris Day) on holiday in Morocco accidentally get involved in a conspiracy and find not only their own lives threatened, but their child's as well.  I really just like this one for the cast, as the plot never grabs me very much.  But I do love James Stewart and Doris Day.

10. Stage Fright (1950)  A young actress (Jane Wyman) tries to prove that her friend (Richard Todd) is innocent of killing the husband of his mistress (Marlene Dietrich).  And then she starts to wonder if he's innocent after all.  This is another one I mostly love for the cast, as I have a soft spot for Richard Todd.  It's got a great plot and everything, I just mostly like it for him.


Don't forget to visit Coffee, Classics, and Craziness for all the Hitchock-themed fun over the next few days!

Another Movie-Themed Liebster Award

Phyl at Phyllis Loves Classic Movies tagged me with this.  I really liked her questions so even though I just did one last month, I'm doing this again :-)  I'm not going to tag anyone this time around, though, so if you want to play, go ahead and consider yourself tagged!  You can just use these same questions again.


1. Out of the classic movie stars still alive (Olivia de Havilland, Doris Day, Debbie Reynolds, Eva Marie Saint, Kim Novak, Sophia Loren, Julie Andrews, Angela Lansbury, Joanne Woodward, Robert Wagner, Jerry Lewis, Sidney Poitier, Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, to name some), who would you most like to meet and what would you talk about?

That's such a hard choice!  Kind of a toss-up between Doris Day and Debbie Reynolds, but Julie Andrews was a huge part of my childhood, and Dick Van Dyke too.  Hmm.  What if I interviewed Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke at the same time and asked them all about making Mary Poppins?

2. That one classic movie you really want to see but can't seem to get your hands on a copy.

One?!?!  Okay, the 1939 version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Maureen O'Hara as Esmerelda has been on my to-watch list for a loooong time, but it has yet to cross my path.

3. Current movie star crush (and by current I mean the one you're crushing on right now, not necessarily a current celebrity).

Alan Ladd.  "Crushing" is too mild a term at this point, though.  So are "swooning" and "gushing."  "Obsessing" might come close.  As you might be able to tell from a certain Pinterest board...

4. James Stewart or Gary Cooper?

James Stewart!  No contest.

5. You're interning at a studio and you find a box (let's say 23 ft) hidden away that hasn't been touched in decades. What do you find inside?

A treasure trove of "lost" Rudolph Valentino movies!!!!

6. What would you write your thesis on if you got a films studies degree?

Oh, either something to do with John Wayne or the film versions of Raymond Chandler's books.

7. What TV house would you like to live in?

I always thought the Taylor home on The Andy Griffith Show looked comfortable.  Though I really wonder what Andy is pointing to here.

8. A Classic Movie Star asks you to help them write their autobiography, who is it?

Eeeeee!  Um, presumably someone who's still alive, so... Doris Day, maybe?  I do try to always buy pajamas that look like she would wear them.  I'm sure that would help somehow...

9. Do you prefer films with over-the-top costumes that are a feast to the eyes or films where the costumes aren't noticeable and where your main focus is the story?

Either way, my main focus is going to be the characters and story, so it makes little difference to me, I'm afraid.

10. Last year TCM had a free online class on Film Noir. What topic would you like to see a free class on in the future?

They did?  And I missed it?  Bummer!  Well, in the future, one on westerns would be awesome.  Especially if I knew about it and could participate.

11. What Olivia de Havilland film are you most looking forward to seeing in July?

Well, I'm going to be rewatching The Proud Rebel (1958) tonight to put the finishing touches on my review of it for a certain blogathon.  But I think I'll also try to watch The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) with my kids this weekend.  Or maybe I'll finally convince them to try Captain Blood (1935), if they're in a piratical mood.

"Love Me or Leave Me" (1955) -- Initial Thoughts

This week, I watched a kind of unusual musical: Love Me or Leave Me (1955). It wasn't unusual in form or content, or in who it starred; it was a biopic of 20s jazz singer Ruth Etting and her gangster husband Marty Snyder, and it had lots of songs and dance numbers, all of the entertainer-doing-a-show-for-an-audience variety. It starred Doris Day and James Cagney.

Wait a minute -- Doris Day was a singer, James Cagney played gangsters a lot -- what's so unusual?

How about the fact that Doris Day played a pretty unsympathetic character? That strike you as unusual? She was manipulative, she was greedy for fame, she pouted and threw tantrums. Not the Nice Girl Next Door that she usually played.

As for James Cagney, while he played a crook and a jerk and a self-serving jackal, he actually ended up getting more of my sympathy than Doris Day. Because for all his faults, Marty Snyder really did fall for Ruth Etting, and she used him to get famous and then divorced him. There were a couple scenes where Cagney nearly had me misty-eyed.

Of course, it's a fictionalized account of their lives, so who knows what they were really like. But that's how they struck me in the movie.