Doors at 7:00 PM, Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.
Directed by Nicholas Ray
Johnny Guitar stars Oscar winner Joan Crawford (Best Actress, Mildred Pierce) as Vienna, a saloon owner with a sordid past. Persecuted by the townspeople, Vienna must protect her life and property when a lynch mob led by her sexually repressed rival, Emma Small (Oscar winner Mercedes McCambridge, Best Actress, All the King’s Men), attempts to frame her for a string of robberies she did not commit. Enter Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb), a guitar-strumming ex-gunfighter, who once was — and perhaps still is — in love with Vienna. With the leads at their operatic best, the table is now set for an epic showdown in this one-of-a-kind western from director Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause). A bizarrely veiled allegory for the McCarthy-era Red Scare, Johnny Guitar was misunderstood upon its initial release. One of the most original takes on the western genre — the women are far tougher than the men — Johnny Guitar is praised by fans, filmmakers, and critics alike as groundbreaking. Boasting superb supporting performances, Johnny Guitar features Ernest Borgnine (Marty), Scott Brady (The China Syndrome), Ward Bond (The Searchers), Paul Fix (To Kill a Mockingbird), Royal Dano (The Outlaw Josey Wales) and John Carradine (Stagecoach). Notably, Johnny Guitar’s indelible title song was a collaboration between the Academy Award-winning composer Victor Young (Around the World in Eighty Days), and co-writer and songstress Peggy Lee. - Olive Films
Free with $5 suggested donation.