Google Ads
Login | Sign Up

Johnny Guitar (1954)

Director(s) Nicholas Ray
Producer(s)

No producer listed for this movie
Top Genres Film Adaptation, Western
Top Topics Book-Based, LBGT, Outlaws, Wild West
More Films Directed by Nicholas Ray More Films from 1954 More Films from the 1950s Top Classic Movies of the 1950s Top Book-Based Films

Johnny Guitar Overview:

Johnny Guitar (1954) was a Western - Film Adaptation Film directed by Nicholas Ray .

Johnny Guitar was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2008.

Johnny Guitar BlogHub Articles:

Johnny Guitar ( 1954 )

By The Metzinger Sisters on Sep 22, 2018 From Silver Scenes - A Blog for Classic Film Lovers

Joan Crawford in a western? If that sounds incredulous, Ms.Crawford must have thought so, too, because it was not until 1954 that she starred in her first spurs-and-guns picture - Johnny Guitar. Unlike Barbara Stanwyck, Joan seemed out of place in the desert locale sporting jeans - but she gave it a... Read full article

Johnny Guitar (1954): Guilty Pleasure? Nah

By Carol Martinheira on Jun 3, 2018 From The Old Hollywood Garden

Johnny Guitar (1954): Guilty Pleasure? Nah On June 3, 2018 By CarolIn Uncategorized Johnny Guitar (dir. Nicholas Ray), the Casablanca of westerns, is a psychological melodrama that often gets overlooked and unfairly dismissed. It’s not the greatest of westerns by... Read full article

Johnny Guitar (1954)

By 4 Star Film Fan on May 13, 2018 From 4 Star Films

“I’m a stranger here myself.” ~ Sterling Hayden as Johnny Guitar In watching even only a handful of Nicholas Ray films, it’s possible to discern fairly quickly that his films are often about the marginalized outsiders. Rebel Without a Cause (1955) is the most iconic exampl... Read full article

Johnny Guitar (1954)

on Sep 13, 2017 From Journeys in Classic Film

The 1950s is easily the decade where the Western thrived. Captured in expansive CinemaScope, the Wild West never looked wilder. But with so many cowpokes roaming the range it was only a matter of time before the range turned in on itself. The year before he took teen rebellion to the mainstream with... Read full article

Johnny Guitar (1954)

By Beatrice on Dec 31, 2015 From Flickers in Time

Johnny Guitar Directed by Nicholas Ray Written by Philip Yordan from a novel by Roy Chanslor 1954/USA Republic Pictures Repeat viewing/Netflix rental #292 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die Nick Ray strays into Sam Fuller territory with this gaudy, off-kilter Technicolor Western. Vienna (... Read full article

See More Johnny Guitar Articles

Johnny Guitar Quotes:

Emma: You all think she's some fine lady and that doing nothing makes you fine gentlemen. Well she ain't! And you're not!
Emma: [Passionately addressing the members of the posse] You heard her tell how they're gonna' run the railroad through here, bringin' thousands of new people from the east. Farmers! Dirt farmers! Squatters! They'll push us out. Is that what you're waitin' for? You're actin' like she's some fine lady, and doin' nothin' makes all of you fine gentlemen. Well, she ain't, and you're not! So you better wake up. Or you're gonna' find you and your women and your kids squeezed between barbed wire and fence posts. Is that what you're waitin' for? Well, I'm not!
Vienna: [Spoken to Johnny Guitar, with a certain scornful bitterness] A man can lie, steal... and even kill. But as long as he hangs on to his pride, he's still a man. All a woman has to do is slip - once. And she's a "tramp!" Must be a great comfort to you to be a man.
Mr. Andrews: [Dining privately with Vienna in her upstairs room] Tell me, why did you pick this spot to build? How could you possibly know that the railroad was coming this way?
Vienna: Some time ago I ran into your surveyor and... we exchanged confidences. When the railroad comes through here, how much do you think this property will be worth?
Mr. Andrews: What's Albuquerque worth?
Vienna: How would you like to share in it? I'll need all the help I can get.
Mr. Andrews: I couldn't help you. I'm not very handy with a gun.
Vienna: I'm offering you an opportunity to get rich!
Mr. Andrews: An opportunity to get killed would be more accurate.
Johnny: [starting a song] Her name was Emma Smalls, Emma Smalls.
See More Quotes from Johnny Guitar
Johnny Guitar Facts
Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge fought both on and off camera. One night, in a drunken rage, Crawford scattered the costumes worn by McCambridge along an Arizona highway. Cast and crew had to collect the outfits.
In scenes where the horses rode near a waterfall, they were fitted with blinders. The animals were so afraid of the waterfall that they wouldn't go near it without the blinders on.
Joan Crawford insisted on her close-ups only being filmed in the studio, where the lighting could be rigidly controlled. No close-up of her was ever shot while on location.
At one point in the movie Johnny says, "I'm a stranger here myself." This was Nicholas Ray's own personal motto, a recurring theme in his movies, and reportedly the working title for just about every movie he directed.
According to Penny Stallings' 'Flesh and Fantasy', the crew broke into spontaneous applause after one of Mercedes McCambridge's powerhouse scenes, which infuriated star Joan Crawford. According to Nicholas Ray, he then began shooting the younger actress's scenes in the early morning before Crawford got there. After the star witnessed one of these early shoots, she flew into a rage, broke into McCambridge's dressing room, and slashed her clothes to shreds. McCambridge blamed her next two years of inactivity on Crawford's repeated attempts to blacklist her.
See More Facts about Johnny Guitar >>