1954 Johnny Guitar Lobby Card with Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Nicholas Ray
https://the-take.com/read/queering-classic-hollywood-lesbianism-and-the-western-the-case-of-johnny-guitar
Johnny Guitar (1954) pushes gendered boundaries for women in Westerns far enough to encourage a lesbian reading. That film, which Roger Ebert
describes as “one of the most blatant psychosexual melodramas ever to disguise itself in that most commodious of genres, the Western.” The story is
ostensibly about cattle ranchers and business folk, those who are happy with life as it is and those who want change. The ranchers don’t want the town to
become a city, while those in town welcome the arrival of the train and the business it will bring. Because the film is low-budget, we see only a handful of
characters in each camp, and the conflict ultimately comes to be represented by the fierce wills of two powerful women: Vienna (Joan Crawford), who
owns the gambling establishment just outside of town, and Emma (Mercedes McCambridge), a cattle baron(ness) who sees in Vienna all that is wrong with
the world beyond ranching.
On the outskirts of a wind-swept Arizona cattle town, an aggressive and strong-willed saloonkeeper named Vienna maintains a volatile relationship with
the local cattlemen and townsfolk. Not only does she support the railroad being laid nearby (the cattlemen oppose it), but she permits "The Dancin' Kid"
(her former amour) and his confederates to frequent her saloon.
The locals, led by John McIvers and egged on by Emma Small, a onetime rival of Vienna, are determined to force Vienna out of town, and the hold-up of
the stage (they suspect, erroneously, by "The Dancin' Kid") offers a perfect pretext.
Vienna faces them down, helped by the mysterious and just arrived Johnny Guitar. McIvers gives Vienna, Johnny Guitar, and Dancin' Kid and his sidekicks
24 hours to leave. Johnny turns out to be Vienna's ex-lover and a reformed gunslinger whose real name is Johnny Logan. A smouldering love/hate
relationship develops.
Dancin' Kid and his gang rob the town bank to fund their escape to California, but the pass is blocked by a railroad crew dynamiting a way in, and they flee
back to their secret hideout behind a waterfall. Emma Small convinces the townsfolk that Vienna is as guilty as the rest, and the posse rides to her saloon.
Vienna appears to be getting the best of another verbal confrontation when one of the wounded bank robbers, Turkey, is discovered under a table. Emma
persuades the men to hang Vienna and Turkey, and burns the saloon down. At the last second Vienna is saved by Johnny Guitar. Vienna and Johnny escape
the posse and find refuge in Dancin' Kid's secret hideaway.
The posse tracks them down, and the last two of Kid's men are killed by infighting. A halt is called to the bloodbath by the posse's leader, McIvers. Emma
challenges Vienna to a showdown and shoots Vienna in the shoulder; Dancin' Kid calls to Emma but is killed by a bullet to the head by an angered Emma.
Vienna then shoots Emma in the head. The posse allows Johnny and Vienna to leave the hideout in peace, watching them go.