JOHNNY CONCHO
US, 1956, 84 minutes, Black and white.
Frank Sinatra, Keenan Wynn, William Conrad, Phyllis Kirk, Wallace Ford.
Directed by Don Mc Guire.
Johnny Concho is an unusual choice for Frank Sinatra for a film in the mid-1950s. He had won an Oscar for From Here to Eternity, had just appeared in The Man With The Golden Arm and was to appear in bigger-budget films like The Pride and the Passion with Cary Grant and Sophia Loren.
This is a very short, small-budget western – and a variation on the theme of a town being terrorised by a gunman his younger brother being able to do what he likes to dominate the town. Sinatra is a slight physical presence though he can dominate on-screen. The film has a strong character actor supporting cast led by Keenan Wynn.
The film was directed by prolific screenwriter Don Mc Guire who wrote a number of strong films in the 1940s including Pride of the Marines. He directed only a few films, the most prominent of which was made the year after Johnny Concho, directing Jerry Lewis in The Delicate Delinquent.
1. A good quality Western? Small budget? Frank Sinatra as star and producer?
2. The Western conventions used, how well? The portrayal of the town, Johnny Concho and his role, on his brother, the handicap the gun fighters, the gamblers? The chant structure and the suspense and excitement? The devotion of Mary? The intervention of Barn? The transformation of the coward of the West into a hero? A hero for the people?
3. Contribution of photography, locations and sets, music? The importance of Frank Sinatra in the fifties and his style?
4. Audience interest in the plot: the portrayal of the town, the various characters, the farmers and their need for protection, their handing themselves over to the Conchos. The coward and his gambling? His presumption and arrogance, hostility towards him? The introduction of the older brother's death, the gamblers and their taking over of the town? The building up to a confrontation? How realistic the situation in the town, audience identification with the locals and their need for protection, fear of the gun fighters? How much did the audience share the hostility towards Johnny Concho? How much did they share sympathy for him during his stay? Admiration for him as he protected the town? The suitability of the plot for Western conventions?
5. The film as a character study of Johnny Concho and the weakling coward type? Frank Sinatra's contribution to this character? The scenes of his gambling, his pushing people around, his reliance on his brother? The impact of his brother's death and his whole person? People's hostility? The challenge to the gun fight and his knowledge that he could not win? People's support, lack of support? Mary? The humiliation of his having to leave the town? The support in his flight? The significance of the confrontation with Barney? The transformation and its credibility? What qualities did he have that he could drawn on, strength? His becoming a Western hero in the conventional sense and yet in a human context? A hero of the American West and part of its heritage?
6. The characters in the town, families, Mary's father, Mary herself as devoted to Johnny Concho, the encounter with him during the flight from the town, with Barney? Her being vindicated? The portrayal of Barney and his gunfighter role in the church? The dramatic and thematic significance of the encounter with Barney and his advice and the religious setting? The contrast with the gunfighters, the gamblers? Their shooting, their taking over the town, exploiters?
7. The themes of the pioneering of the West, the building up of the towns, the being exposed to the exploiters? The role of the gunfighters and the gamblers? The farmers?
8. The build-up to the final show-down? The 'High Noon' tradition and audience interest in and identification with such an occasion? How well was it handled in all details, audience expectations of the Western, of this character study of Johnny Concho?
9. How valuable in this kind of film in portraying human nature? On the qualities of human nature that can be drawn? Of how human beings ought to treat one another for good? The transformation of a weak human being into a here?
