she was a.ma.zing in 'johnny guitar'!

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true feminist icon..

it wasn't the fall from her 16th-floor penthouse that killed her, it was the landing

She was simply wonderful in Johnny Guitar.One of her best performances.

I am so glad that 'Johnny Guitar' is finally appreciated by posterity. Vienna is an iconic character.

i don't know whether it's the fact that it's in color or the sweeping scenery and landscape or those heart-stopping close-ups, but she appears more iconic and larger-than-life in this film than in almost any other of her films, save perhaps for 'mildred pierce,' in which we are treated to the most epic close-ups in cinema history in my opinion..

let's just say that if her co-star had been john wayne, she would've upstaged him from a to z.. that's star power of the highest magnitude..

it wasn't the fall from her 16th-floor penthouse that killed her, it was the landing

such an iconic and almost biblical film.. this b/w shot is simply breathtaking in all of its epic drama:

http://www.joancrawfordbest.com/54johnnyg14feb97.htm

it wasn't the fall from her 16th-floor penthouse that killed her, it was the landing

That's a great description. I remember catching Joan's showdown with Mercedes McCambridge at the end of Johnny Guitar on television as a child. I must have been about 5 years old. I didn't know who she was at the time, but I was so struck by her appearance and presence on the screen. It really is unlike any other western.

That's a great description. I remember catching Joan's showdown with Mercedes McCambridge at the end of Johnny Guitar on television as a child. I must have been about 5 years old. I didn't know who she was at the time, but I was so struck by her appearance and presence on the screen. It really is unlike any other western.

absolutely.. the whole film is such a brilliantly veiled act of condemnation and defiance against the mccarthy witch hunts of the 1950s.. and joan's fabulously castrating posturing is a bold and fierce statement against the kind of vile neo-fascist persecutions, cowardice and backwardness that were destroying hollywood from the inside at that time..

this was joan at her most commanding, confident and fierce, an especially awesome treat to witness on screen at a time when we know she was battling all the usual middle-age demons female stars have to contend with, an element which no doubt helped to fuel her on-screen rage even more for, in reality, this was joan lashing out against ageism, against sexism and against ideological ostracism..



it wasn't the fall from her 16th-floor penthouse that killed her, it was the landing