Sun 19 Sep 2021
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: THE IRON MISTRESS (1952).
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Reviews[6] Comments
THE IRON MISTRESS. Warner Brothers, 1952. With Alan Ladd, Virginia Mayo, Joseph Calleia, Phyllis Kirk, Douglas Dick, Anthony Caruso, Nedrick Young, and Jay Novello. Screenplay by James R Webb, from the novel by Paul I Wellman. Directed by Gordon Douglas.
A bit flabby, but it has its moments.
The flabbiness is due mainly to lapses in James Webb’s script, which takes entirely too much time rolling out the action, cruising along the Upper Crust of New Orleans society, drawing rather labored parallels between the effete rich and backwoodsy Bowie, until one wonders if this is going to be a comedy of manners. Eventually though some action just can’t be avoided and here….
Well here is Director Gordon Douglas, one of the most proficient action men in the game, with rip-snorters like TONY ROME, THE FIEND WHO WALKED THE WEST, KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE, and RIO CONCHOS on his resumé, and he makes the most of every fist-swinging, gun-smoking, sword-sticking moment in the picture.
Producer Henry Blanke (Whose credits include THE MALTESE FALCON and TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE) also took care to populate the cast with worthy opponents for Ladd’s Jim Bowie to come up against. Joseph Calliea, Jay Novello, Nedrick Young, and Anthony Caruso all comport themselves with creditable nastiness, and we get a fair share of excitement from scenes like:
â— A Duel that turns into a massacre when the seconds start firing on the opposing principals;
◠A knife fight with the Ladd and Anthony Carusos’ left arms strapped together;
â— A woodland ambush that becomes a prolonged stalk-and-kill;
◠And best of all, a duel in a darkened room with Bowe’s knife against Nedrick Young’s saber, choreographed by the great Fred Cavens.
Nedrick young, by the way, is best remembered as the gunman in black who faces off against Sterling Hayden and a harpoon in TERROR IN A TEXAS TOWN.
Moments like this pack real excitement, and on the balance, IRON MISTRESS is well worth your time. But keep a finger on the fast-forward button.
September 19th, 2021 at 8:39 pm
Either in spite of the studio’s intentions –or perhaps because of them –that big Bowie blade is primarily the star of this movie.
Ladd’s mano-a’-mano duel in a darkened room against an enemy with some ‘lesser knife’ is a standout in the history of fight-choreography …and I admit I don’t know how that’s possible, since it was ostensibly filmed in the dark. But, such is the magic of Hollywood.
Oh well. For me it’s one of those weirdo flicks which is almost completely forgettable …except for that dang sunuvagun knife. Whenever the ‘Iron Mistress’ is actually on screen, it’s a fun story; kinda like ‘Carbine Williams’ with Jimmy Stewart.
September 19th, 2021 at 9:16 pm
In some ways it is the Classics Illustrated version of Paul Wellman’s (Manly Wade’s older best selling novelist brother) sweeping novel about Bowie, leaving much of the story on the cutting room floor including the darker forays into the illegal slave trade, the expedition in the Big Thicket with cannibal Native Americans (the only non ritual cannibal tribe in North America) that was so bloody Bowie swore off the slave trade forever, his relation with pirate Jean Lafitte on Galveston island, and of course the Alamo since the movie ends with his marriage with the daughter of the Royal Governor of Texas (Bowie’s wife was a cousin of Santa Anna who Bowie knew well).
Mostly it is a set of excellent set pieces with the duel in the dark and the infamous Sand Bar Duel standouts (the latter so famous British historian Thomas Carlyle pronounced Bowie a veritable Hercules in the British papers when it was reported there, it was the O. K. Corral of its day).
Ladd may be an odd choice to play the six foot four inch red haired Scots Irish Bowie (Richard Widmark was another odd choice), but his physicality carries the day, and much of the films suspense would have been lost with a closer physical copy of the original.
For me the highlight is the legend of John Black and the knife that bore Bowie’s name forged with a piece of a meteorite, “… for better or worse a little bit of heaven of a little bit of hell.” It hardly seems to matter if the story is true or not, it’s presented here as the Lady of the Lake bestowing Excalibur on Arthur, and it works.
The films version of the fate of the legendary blade is entirely fiction. Bowie still apparently had the original at the Alamo, and it was believed for many years to belong to the family of a Mexican officer who liberated it after Bowie’s death. Considering the knife was the most important advance in frontier defense of its day only supplanted by the Walker Colt it seems unlikely he would throw it in the river even over Virgina Mayo.
Probably the best version of the Alamo and Bowie is Frank Lloyd’s THE LAST COMMAND with Sterling Hayden as Bowie (and Arthur Hunnicutt as a folksy Davy Crockett). Brian Garfield was another admirer of this film.
I agree almost totally with Dan on this one though. For all it’s flaws, its slow start, and its fitful approach to adventure that keeps slipping into historical exposition it includes some splendid set pieces that more than justify multiple viewings and Ladd at his very best.
And let’s be fair, whatever you might think of her actiing Virginia Mayo was at her best playing a heartless deadly scorpion too beautiful not to want and too deadly to touch however unlikely she is as Creole princess.
Wellman’s other novels are worth looking up including MAGNIFICENT DESTINTY (about Sam Houston and Andrew Jackson), THE COMANCHEROS (a fine late Western with John Wayne by Michael Curtiz, but disappointing if you know the book), BRONCHO APACHE (filmed as APACHE with Burt Lancaster), THE WALLS OF JERICHO (filmed with Cornell Wilde and Linda Darnell), JUBAL TROOP (basis of Delmer Davies JUBAL), RIDE THE RED EARTH (a swashbuckler about the explorer, secret agent, and adventurer Chevalier Antonio de St. Denis), and THE FEMALE (a novel of the Empress Theodosia).
Wellman wrote several well received popular histories including a fine two volume set on the Plains Indian Wars.
September 20th, 2021 at 11:23 am
It was a cutting edge movie for it’s time
September 20th, 2021 at 1:35 pm
Ha. You’re sharp today.
September 20th, 2021 at 5:19 pm
The facts and fictions of Bowie’s life are so intertwined that it’s nearly impossible to sort them out. William Davis did it about as well as anybody in THREE ROADS TO THE ALAMO. The Sand Bar Fight was real, a bloody, lethal free-for-all rooted in disagreements over money and politics. Some things never change.
September 21st, 2021 at 6:15 am
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbar_Fight