Roughshod (1949)

Roughshod, neither shoddy or rough. Roughshod is directed by Mark Robson and collectively written by Peter Viertel, Hugo Butler and Daniel Mainwaring. It stars Gloria Grahame, Robert Sterling, John Ireland, Claude Jarman Jr, Jeff Donnell, Myrna Dell and Martha Hyer. Music is by Roy Webb and cinematography by Joseph Biroc.​ Mary Wells (Grahame) and her "dance hall" co-workers Elaine, Helen and Marcia, have been forced out of town by the reform element and are heading for Sonoma, California. When their wagon breaks down they are pleased to find Clay Phillips (Sterling) and his kid brother Steve (Jarman) on the trail and Mary asks for their help. Clay grudgingly agrees to take them on to the next ranch, fully aware that he has troubles of his own since the psychopathic Lednov (Ireland) has escaped from prison and is hunting Clay for revenge purpose.​ Out of RKO, Roughshod is not an action packed genre piece, this is very much about characters in life transition, people chasing dreams whilst attempting to cast off previous life demons. It starts in shocking fashion but then settles into a splendidly pot boiling rhythm. Untapped sexual tensions begin to arise, the cat and mousery of emotional states engrossing, while secrets will out and destinies are about to be formed for better and worse as it happens...​ ​ Mark Robson was coming off of a run of films under the atmospheric guidance of Val Lewton, and Roughshod bears all the visual hallmarks of those fine pictures. With cinematographer Biroc (The Frightened City/Cry Danger) photographing for mood purpose, and Robson having his characters shuffle about eerily throughout the night time sequences, there's a dreamy quality about proceedings. That is until we at various times switch to the escaped convicts and their journey towards Clay and the girls, they be a constant menacing threat that looms large, Lednov (Ireland wonderfully scary) a mad wolf in the fold. With visual styling in place, Roughshod also has film noir credentials bursting from the seams elsewhere, one look at the cast is evidence of that. Then there is one Daniel Mainwaring (AKA: Geoffrey Homes), who can count Out of the Past as one of his literary superlatives. The writing is thoughtful and sensitive in how the "working girls" are drawn, while the key relationship between Mary (Grahame owning every scene she is in) and Clay simmers away with dialogue spicy as he fights his moral code by wanting her - and she revels in knowing this fact! This is very much something of an underseen little treat for fans of film noir type Westerns, so fans of such should seek it out. 7/10