Review: Welcome to Hard Times

The town of the film’s title is positively smashed to pieces by relentless psycho outlaw Aldo Ray who just as quickly rides out of town, presumably to come back later for more. The townsfolk, especially the unofficial town ‘mayor’ Henry Fonda, pretty much sit back and watch helplessly as the drunk (but still effective) Ray shoots up a storm, killing young Michael Shea’s dad. Whilst the bad man is gone, Fonda tries to rebuild the destroyed town, with the help of a travelling wagon of good-time girls (and their semi-unscrupulous pimp, played by Keenan Wynn), and aspiring store owner John Anderson (who also plays his character’s brother). Denver Pyle is a stagecoach driver, Warren Oates plays a sharp-shooting Deputy Marshal, and Lon Chaney Jr., and Elisha Cook Jr., play scared townsfolk.

This 1967 western from the usually light and breezy Burt Kennedy (“Support Your Local Sheriff!”, “Hannie Caulder”, “The War Wagon”) features one of the best and most captivatingly dark opening stanzas to a western I’ve ever seen. It is truly gripping, almost operatically menacing stuff, bolstered by the usually bland Ray’s best-ever turn. The guy is incredibly sleazy and fearsome here. But once he leaves the picture for much of its length, the film settles down into a more laidback story of a town trying to rebuild in the wake of Round 2 of Ray’s hellfire onslaught. It never manages to top that opening portion.

Having said that, it’s still wholly entertaining stuff, it’s just that while Ray’s around (instead of simply opening a liquor bottle, he smashes the top off the glass bottle!), you get the feeling that it was going to be an absolute cracker. I also would’ve liked more scenes with excellent character actors Chaney, Cook (who after this and “Shane” pretty much classifies as ‘dead meat’ in a Western), and Pyle. Janice Rule, on the other hand is actually pretty terrible. She greatly overplays the character’s hardened nature to the point where she’s entirely unbearable. Armed with an unconvincing Irish accent, she’s also under the impression that she’s actually Maureen O’Hara, not my favourite actress, either.

Overall this is good stuff bordering on superior, there's some interesting things being said here about violence and pacifism. Definitely worth checking out, especially if you’re a fan of Ray, he’s outstanding here. Fonda is his usual exemplary self.

Rating: B