The Ox-Bow Incident [Strange Incident] ***** (1943, Henry Fonda, Harry Morgan, Dana Andrews, Anthony Quinn, Francis Ford, Frank Conroy, Jane Darwell, Harry Davenport, William Eythe) – Classic Movie Review 2801

Henry Fonda and Harry Morgan play ordinary cowboys helpless to stop the lynching of three drifters, in the intelligent and powerful 1943 classic Western film The Ox-Bow Incident. 

Henry Fonda and Harry Morgan play a couple of ordinary cowboys helpless to stop the lynching of three drifters (Dana Andrews, Anthony Quinn and Francis Ford) in an intelligent and powerful film deemed so sombre in tone that it was turned down by the big British distributors at the time.

The cowboys are passing through a Western town, when a local farmer is murdered and his cattle stolen. The cowboys and the townsfolk form a posse to catch the perpetrators and find the three drifters with the cattle, and the instant justice of the lynch mob rules. But some of them become strongly divided over the idea of lynching the men.

Director William A Wellman’s 1943 classic Western is perhaps too downbeat and arty, maybe, for popular success and appeal, and it is certainly low on the usual Western entertainment and action you expect. But it is impeccably made, performed and photographed, and its message still comes thumping home.

Fonda is admirable in a difficult role as an emotionally tortured, passive observer, and other fine performances come from Frank Conroy as the old Civil War general and Jane Darwell as the matriarch sitting in icy judgement over the accused men’s attempts to declare their innocence. It boasts one of those vintage casts whose allure still shines today, inhabiting this issue-led drama perfectly. It also stars Mary Beth Hughes, Harry Davenport and William Eythe.

Also in the cast are Matt Briggs, Marc Lawrence, Paul Hurst, Victor Kilian, Chris-Pin Martin, Willard Robertson, Ted North, Stanley Andrews, Hank Bell, William Benedict, Paul E Burns, George Chandler, Forrest Dillon, Larry Dods, Tex Driscoll, Margaret Hamilton, Rondo Hatton, George Lloyd, Tom London, Frank McGrath, George Meeker, George Plues, Dick Rich, Almira Sessions and Leigh Whipper.

Lamar Trotti ‘s screenplay is taken from the novel by Walter Van Tilburg Clark.

It was nominated for the 1944 Best Picture Oscar.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2801

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