Woman They Almost Lynched (1953) is a fascinating though ultimately not very good oddball Western. Its gender-switch plot plays like a crude warm-up to Johnny Guitar, (1954), Nicholas Ray's celebrated if campy Western starring Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge. In Woman They Almost Lynched, Joan Leslie plays the same sort of part soon to be essayed by Crawford, a determined saloon owner; Audrey Totter co-stars as her untamed rival, obsessed with killing her, and McCambridge's part in Johnny Guitar. Republic Pictures made both movies, and both feature Ben Cooper essentially playing the same callow youth.

Woman They Almost Lynched has many other points of interest: a Switzerland-like neutral border town during the Civil War, a female mayor who looks and acts like the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, Quantrill's Raiders, Confederate spies, Jesse and Frank James, Cole Younger, a couple of songs, lots of action, and dubious history.

Unfortunately, Woman They Almost Lynched - Why not The Woman They Almost Lynched? - lacks Johnny Guitar's intelligence and subtle anti-McCarthyism subtext. It's still a pretty wild movie of its type and action-packed, just not exceptional like Ray's film.

Olive Films' Blu-ray, licensed through Paramount, offers a near-perfect transfer, though no extras.

The line separating Civil War enemies Missouri and Arkansas cuts right through the middle of Border City, deep in the Ozarks. Mayor Delilah Courtney (Nina Varela) keeps the relative peace by declaring the town neutral; troops from either side aren't allowed within five miles of town. And, as demonstrated in the opening scene, anyone caught breaking this neutrality is immediately lynched.

Into this tense atmosphere arrives Sally Maris (Joan Leslie), but her stagecoach is ambushed outside of town by Quantrill's Raiders, whose band of outlaws include Jesse James (Ben Cooper), Frank James (James Brown), and Cole Younger (Jim Davis), as well as William Clarke Quantrill (Brian Donlevy) himself and his bloodthirsty wife, Kate (Audrey Totter), a saloon singer kidnapped by Quantrill but now fiercely loyal to him.

Sally's brother, saloon owner Bitterroot Bill (Reed Hadley), had been Kate's man prior to her kidnapping, two years earlier. She taunts him mercilessly until he draws his gun on her, prompting Lance Horton (John Lund), the mayor's mining foreman, to shoot Bill dead.

Lacking stagecoach fare and unable to sell the saloon because of Bill's gambling debts, Sally opts to manage the saloon herself. She does this despite the threatening presence of Quantrill's men as well as Kate, who without much motivation declares her intention to kill Sally, and Cole Younger, who lusts after her.

Woman They Almost Lynched was a bigger-than-usual production for Republic, with a cast of second-tier stars. Joan Leslie had been a fairly big name at Warner Bros. (High Sierra, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Sergeant York, etc.) but she rebelled there, lobbying for parts reflecting her Christian mores. According to Leslie, studio head Jack L. Warner had the actress blacklisted from all the major studios, eventually leaving only Eagle-Lion and Republic among the "respectable" minor ones. (Some, however, dispute this. See Facebook notes below.)

Audrey Totter, one of the toughest dames in film noir, had a similar decline following a promising start at MGM. Where Leslie is okay given her part's limitations, in Woman They Almost Lynched Totter leaves no piece of scenery unchewed. Vamping about in hot leather pants and platinum-dyed locks, she's hammier than either Crawford or McCambridge were in Johnny Guitar, a seemingly impossible feat. Unquestionably it's an entertaining performance but perhaps one better suited to a John Waters comedy. Hers contrast the more realistic work of Donlevy, Cooper, and Davis, all well cast.

Unlike Johnny Guitar, Woman They Almost Lynched doesn't fully take advantage of its unusual premise, nor does it hold up to even the slightest bit of scrutiny. Varela's mayor talks tough but Quantrill simply ignores her orders that he get out of town. Sally knows how to shoot, but her showdown with Kate is a disappointing cheat. The film's potential as a proto-feminist Western (like, say, Westward the Women, an excellent film), is thwarted by endless backhanded compliments. Quantrill, to Kate, concerning Sally: "She fights better than you. She shoots better than you. She even talks better than you." Cole Younger: "I bet she even cooks better than you!"

The idea of a "neutral" border community during the Civil War, where tensions nonetheless run high, is also intriguing; the later movie The Last Valley (1970), set during the Thirty Years' War, did something similar quite well. Woman They Also Lynched cheats here as well. Without giving anything away, at the end of the film a Confederate soldier rides into Border City to announce that the war has ended. When asked who won, he replies, "Neither. We just quit fightin', that's all." Really?

But no one would accuse Woman They Almost Lynched of being short on action. In the Republic manner, there's a big shootout or saloon brawl or musical number every few minutes, including a long catfight between Sally and Kate, spoiled somewhat by the way too obvious use of (female) stunt doubles.

Video & Audio

Woman They Almost Lynched is another super-pristine presentation of a Republic feature via Olive Films. Presented in its original 1.37:1 format, the black-and-white transfer is just about perfect, very sharp with good contrast and solid blacks. The mono audio (English only, no subtitles) is fine also. No Extra Features.

Parting Thoughts

Fans of Johnny Guitar will definitely want to see Woman They Almost Lynched as a much more conventional handling of a very similar and unusual premise. It's also fun for its cast and action set pieces, and Olive's transfer makes it a pleasure to watch. Recommended.

Stuart Galbraith IV is the Kyoto-based film historian and publisher-editor of World Cinema Paradise. His credits include film history books, DVD and Blu-ray audio commentaries and special features.