The Maverick Queen (1956)

Why so much hype?

Admirable film.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Long before Barbara Stanwyck worked with "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" star Katharine Ross on "The Colbys", she had her own encounter with Butch and Sundance in this colorful western made by Republic Pictures in the mid 1950's. She's the colorfully named Kit Banion, the proprietress of a Wyoming saloon. In her encounter with Sundance (Scott Brady), she tells him "Somewhere along the way, sometime, I'll meet a better man like the ones I used to know, and when I do, I'll drop you like a poisonous snake!" A rail thin Stanwyck shows what she does best, standing up to sinister men, and being just as ruthless in getting what she wants. Stanwyck rides, shoots and fights with the toughness of the fiercest western hero (heroine). She finds her match in Jeff Younger (Barry Sullivan), telling him "That's a great name to slung around carelessly" upon their first meeting, indicating to Sundance that she has found the better man.The film makes reference not only to the Younger Brothers ("You might be Younger, but you won't be older if you don't watch out!"), Butch and Sundance but "The Wild Boys" (a violent western made the same year as the Newman/Redford pairing). Pretty Mary Murphy is perhaps younger and more feminine than the still striking Stanwyck (nearing 50!), but she more than holds her own in her scenes with the female master of melodrama. "The only way you leave the wild bunch is feet first", Stanwyck explains as she shows shows Kit's softness in a romantic scene with Sullivan, who is not as he appears to be. This leads to an exciting sequence on a speeding train with bandits aboard, only made better with the color photography of the natural backgrounds including the breathtaking mountain scenery.The title song, sung by Joni James, is gorgeous, as is the score by Victor Young and the photography by Jack Marta. This is one of those westerns that is probably more impressive on a big screen; Its photography almost screams 3-D. Familiar actors such as Wallace Ford and Jim Davis appear in smaller roles, giving this quite an incredible ensemble. Stanwyck's tough, slightly villainous femme fatale is an amazing characterization, and you can see why she was attracted to parts like this whether out in God's country or in the Asphalt Jungle. No other actress has defined what parts women really had in the old west than the great Barbara, and even in the weakest of these films, she made them so much more memorable.

The Maverick Queen (1956)Well Barbara Stanwyck made a lot of Westerns in the 1950s, and most of them are routine stuff, and in them she has often limited if still central roles. This is a great example. She's in the film much less than her co-stars, and the story is a patched together set of common problems--the cattle rancher faces trouble from the cattle rustlers and a hero has come to town, and a little love is going to cross the frontier.The key difference in all these movies is that Stanwyck plays a strong, sometimes very very strong, woman. That alone makes them watchable. But don't expect "The Maverick Queen" to hold up critically or even hold your attention fully. The plot even has so many little confusions, on purpose. you have to pay close attention (and show some patience) to keep in on track.For one example, without giving too much away, the main man, played well by Barry Sullivan, is new in town, and he says he's Jeff Younger, a famous gunslinger. This suite Stanwyck's character perfectly--she runs the tavern but also the general racketeering schemes for the province. But then another man arrives in town and says he's Jeff Younger. Hmmm. Along the same lines, the pretty young girl in town is another strong woman, clearly a good one, and her sidekick is a lazy loaf but a good guy, until you see him start telling people things he shouldn't. And so on. These are really great plot twists but they aren't handled with total clarity or given the impact you might expect so the movie totters a bit.The director, it might be noted, is Joseph Kane, who pretty much only did Westerns, over a hundred of them, and he probably didn't distinguish one from another very well. He's not even trying to create a masterpiece on the small budget this small studio gave him. (It's a full color Republic Pictures production, and there are corners cut.)The one other interesting side note is the presence of Sundance as a major character (and Butch Cassidy as a very minor one). Of course, history is thrown to the wind on what happens to Sundance, so never mind that . (Watch the Newman/Redford one for the classic outline.)And Stanwyck? She's strong, and I mean physically tough, and she busts out with good acting in a few scenes. But she, too, seems to realize she's doing routine stuff.A final note--I saw this on TCM, and for the first time in twenty years of watching movies there I saw one that was not shown full screen. Yes. A shame. It's a wide wide screen enterprise and it uses an unusual system called Naturama, and it was the first Republic movie to use it. It was really just a compatible anamorphic widescreen system like Panavision, but for some reason it was cropped (given the awful "pan and scan" treatment) for this release. That didn't help with the fluidity of the filming, or the appreciation of the big landscape of Colorado so proudly announced in the opening credits.Should you see this? Not really. There are better Stanwyck Westerns, and better Westerns. And better movies.

In The Maverick Queen you will find the characters of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid in support of Barbara Stanwyck. But Howard Petrie and Scott Brady aren't anything like Paul Newman and Robert Redford. You won't hear Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head. And Brady as Sundance is a sexual predator as well.The Maverick Queen was made in the last days of Republic Pictures which was the home of the B movie cowboy. Gene Autry and Roy Rogers and a bunch of others toiled there for a while. The last of them, Rex Allen, had just finished doing his series. The films that these guys did were now being made for television. Something like The Maverick Queen would never have been made at Republic ten years ago.This movie is about sex, it concentrates on Barbara Stanwyck who operates against her own interest because of her attraction for Barry Sullivan. She's tired of the Sundance Kid as a lover, in fact she urges him to take a bath before putting the moves on her again when we first meet her.As for Brady when it becomes obvious about her attraction to Sullivan, he tries to kill Stanwyck and later attempts to rape Mary Murphy. Rape was not something found in Republic westerns. The film is directed by Joseph Kane who directed a ton of films there with Autry, Rogers, and the rest of the cowboy stars. The Maverick Queen boasts some nice location photography and was the first of Republic's films to be filmed for the wide screen. It's based on a Zane Grey novel and I never would have dreamed that Grey would have written anything like that. Joni James also sings the title song over the credits and I liked her rendition of it.Unfortunately The Maverick Queen should have been done when the Code was finally done away with, a lot of plot holes might not have occurred. It also should have been in the hands of director not from the grind 'em out school of B westerns. It might have been a whole lot better.

Stanwyck's portrayal of the outlaw woman Kit Banion is an all-time classic. This role sets the standard for strong western women in the cinema. Stanwyck perfect for the role of the beautiful and strong-willed Kit Banion, leader of the Wild Bunch outlaw gang who can ride and shoot with the best of them. Stanwyck more than holds her own, matching wits and pistol shots with outlaws and lawmen alike. However, her lawless days are numbered when she falls in love with a Pinkerton agent (Barry Sullivan) who infiltrates the gang. Good supporting cast with familiar supporting actors. Visually pleasing with great western scenery, shot on location in southrn Colorado. Exciting action scenes liven up a sometimes plodding script. Well worth watching. A must see for fans of classic westerns.