The Ox-Bow Incident

US (1943): Western

William A. Wellman kept his eyes on the prize to make this great western, promising two more films to Darryl Zanuck, sidestepping a producer who wanted to shoehorn Mae West into the cast (!), and eventually buying the rights to the book himself. His dogged perseverance paid off with one of the most quietly powerful western stories ever committed to film.

Henry Fonda and Harry Morgan stop at a saloon and get mixed up in a posse when word comes that a rancher has been murdered. A deputy (Frank Conroy) organizes a lynch mob, and finds a suspicious trio of outsiders, including wanted criminal Anthony Quinn. The mob gives the men time to write letters, recaptures Quinn after an attempted escape and then strings up the strangers despite Fonda's pleas for justice. When the posse gets back to town, they learn of the enormity of their actions. Cast also includes Dana Andrews, Mary Bety Hughes, William Eythe, Jane Darwell, Matt Briggs, Marc Lawrence, Paul Hurst and Victor Kilian. (RKO) (amctv.com)

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1 nomination