Devil's Doorway (1950)

written by Haggai

Just how "noir" can a western really be? How's this for a start: a movie that was helmed by the director most commonly associated with the influence of noir on '50s westerns, having made the transition himself from noir in the late '40s to westerns in the '50s. And this same movie marked the last of the multiple collaborations between that director and one of the most legendary noir cinematographers, in the only western they ever made together.

Devil's Doorway was the first western directed by Anthony Mann, according to Jeff Stafford's TCM article about the film. Apparently it was held back from release until the success of Delmer Daves' Broken Arrow convinced MGM's executives that their Mann-helmed western might not be sunk by its sympathetic portrayal of a Native American as the protagonist. Mann had already achieved some strikingly dark outdoor imagery in his penultimate collaboration with John Alton, Border Incident, and Devil's Doorway is marked by their application of many of those techniques to the rocky landscapes and naturally lit interiors of the Old West.



Here's a plot summary, from the TCM article:

Robert Taylor plays Lance Poole, a Shoshone Indian who has just returned to his people in Wyoming from fighting for the Union in the Civil War. Despite having won a Congressional Medal of Honor, his reception back home from the white community is less than welcoming. His dying father warns him that the acreage that they have tended and farmed for years will be taken from them by the government but Poole remains optimistic until he gets a taste of the white man's law. He quickly learns that an Indian is not a legal citizen of the United States and has no land-owning rights. Soon a corrupt, racist lawyer (Louis Calhern) stirs up hostile feelings toward the Shoshone tribe in town and encourages homesteaders to come and stake claims on Poole's land. At first Poole attempts to use legal means to protect his rights by hiring the only other lawyer in town - O. Masters (Paula Raymond), who turns out to be a woman to his great surprise. Despite the best intentions, Masters' case for Poole is undermined and rendered ineffective by the white establishment lawmakers and Poole is left to take matters into his own hands with violence and senseless slaughter the end result.

Aside from the now-awkward casting of a white actor as a Native American (though Taylor is pretty good in the role), Devil's Doorway still holds up as a great movie today. The psychological depth and complexity of the leading character that marked so many of Mann's films, noted so frequently in many of his westerns, is front and center in this story. Lance Poole, aka Broken Lance, has to deal with an obviously unjust situation in which he can't exercise any rights as a citizen of the U.S., in spite of having received the highest battlefield decorations possible in service to that very country. But as the young woman who legally represents him (having inherited the law practice from her late father) argues, the law itself is unambiguous, and the only way to fight it is through the courts and the government. If he can't reach a compromise with some of the more fair-minded settlers, one of whom is sympathetically played by Marshall Thompson, then there won't be any other option left but violence. Lance clearly has justice on his side, especially in contrast with the underhanded villain played with devious charm by Calhern, but as the pressure grows and the stakes get higher, Lance becomes hardened in his views and rejects compromise at every turn. His own single-mindedness eventually gives way to a fanaticism that plays a large part in threatening the lives of numerous innocents, including many of his own people.

I wouldn't exactly describe this as a "noir" storyline--the law itself, though not a just one, is pretty clearly on the side of the villains. But the moral ambiguity of Lance's actions and the shades of gray that emerge in what first seems like a black-and-white situation are clearly reminiscent of many a noir script structure of that time in Hollywood, though perhaps not yet common in the western genre.

Mann and Alton provide plenty of their typically intense visual flair to enhance the story. This is the establishing shot for a vicious bar room brawl, prompted by the boasts of the extremist settlers about how they're going to take Lance's land for homesteading. The main villain (Calhern) and another heavy taunt the natives, visible in the background, building the tension before it explodes into violence:

Intense light-dark contrasts somtimes appear even in log cabins during the daytime, as in this moment during the final showdown at the end of the movie:

I can't fail to mention one stunningly intense scene between Lance and his female lawyer, who are prevented by circumstance and societal norms of the time from acting on any possible emotional bond there might be between them. There's no romance in this movie, but the moment where Lance pulls her close to demonstrate what couldn't be is unbelievably powerful. More so in the film itself than can be captured in any one screenshot, but this might give you a taste of the conflicting anguish and desire that they both experience at that point:

In summary, whether Devil's Doorway qualifies as a "noir western" is not something I'm sure I'd claim, but it does represent an interesting combination of the western with some elements of noir and many elements of the "problem pictures" that, by the time the late '40s and '50s rolled around, were starting to deal head-on with racism in American society (often with noir undertones as well). I think it's at least as good as any of the previous Mann/Alton collaborations, and maybe even better, elevated in large part by a top-notch script. According to TCM, Mann felt it was the best script he had ever read. It stands out as a great achievement in the careers of two masters of noir, which is certainly reason enough to talk about it around here!