Johnny Guitar (1954)
91%RT Audience Score: 85%
Awards & Nominations: 1 win & 1 nomination
Johnny Guitar confidently strides through genre conventions, emerging with a brilliant statement that transcends its period setting — and left an indelible mark.
Johnny Guitar is the kind of Western that makes you wonder if the filmmakers were on some kind of psychedelic trip while making it. It’s a wild ride filled with double-crosses, gunplay, and even waterfalls and fire. Joan Crawford’s campy performance is a highlight, and the whole thing feels like a therapy session for actors stuck in tired Western stereotypes. It’s not your typical Western, but that’s what makes it so unforgettable.
Production Company(ies)
Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Pictures, Moving Pictures, Company,
Distributor
Republic Pictures
Release Type
Filming Location(s)
Sedona, Arizona, USA
MPAA / Certificate
Not Rated
Year of Release
1954
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby
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Aspect ratio:NA
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Runtime:1h 50m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): May 27, 1954 Original
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 1, 2015
Genre(s)
Western
Keyword(s)
starring Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, Scott Brady, Ward Bond, Ben Cooper, directed by Nicholas Ray, written by Roy Chanslor, Philip Yordan, Western, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Anton Bitel, Roger Ebert, Peter Bradshaw, Tom Huddleston, Joshua Rothkopf, Aaron Hillis, Taylor Baker, Francois Truffaut, Tara Judah, Eve Tushnet, MPAA rating, produced by Nicholas Ray, Joan Crawford as Vienna, Sterling Hayden as Johnny “Guitar” Logan, Mercedes McCambridge as Emma Small, Scott Brady as Dancin’ Kid, Ward Bond as John McIvers, Ben Cooper as Turkey Ralston
Worldwide gross: $4,604
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $57,840
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 3,078
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 6,308
US/Canada gross: NA
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend:
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Sterling Hayden – Johnny “Guitar” Logan
Mercedes McCambridge – Emma Small
Scott Brady – Dancin’ Kid
Ward Bond – John McIvers
Ben Cooper – Turkey Ralston
Director(s)
Nicholas Ray
Writer(s)
Roy Chanslor, Philip Yordan
Producer(s)
Nicholas Ray
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
1 win & 1 nomination
Academy Awards
All Critics (48) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (45) | Rotten (3)
Ray’s film is a western, but it is also an amplified melodrama, with a rich seam of deviant psychology just waiting to be disinterred from its dusty surface. Its time has come.
September 20, 2021
Anton Bitel
Little White Lies
TOP CRITIC
A cheap Western from Republic Pictures, yes. And also one of the boldest and most stylized films of its time, quirky, political, twisted.
January 24, 2018 | Rating: 4/4
Roger Ebert
RogerEbert.com
TOP CRITIC
Unforgettably strange and brilliant.
May 5, 2016 | Rating: 5/5
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
A movie for anyone who’s ever been judged on their appearance, their outlook or the way they choose to live.
May 3, 2016 | Rating: 5/5
Tom Huddleston
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
It’s not just Joan’s campiness — her line readings take on an almost incantatory quality — but the way the whole thing feels like a stealth therapy session for smart actors trapped in horse-opera stereotypes.
November 13, 2015 | Rating: 5/5
Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
A slyly radical psychosexual oddity busting through genre conventions, beyond its Old West Arizona setting …
November 10, 2015
Aaron Hillis
Village Voice
TOP CRITIC
Episode 36: Love in the Time of Monsters / Barbarella / Welcome to the Dollhouse / Johnny Guitar
October 3, 2021 | Rating: 65/100
Taylor Baker
Drink in the Movies
Johnny Guitar is not really a Western, nor is it an ‘intellectual Western’. It is a Western that is dream-like, magical, unreal to a degree, delirious.
February 1, 2021
Francois Truffaut
Cahiers du Cinéma
While I won’t say that I loved the film (it retains enough of its genre’s tropes to not quite work for me), I was surprised by how glorious the sets and landscapes looked.
January 24, 2019
Tara Judah
Desist Film
Double-crosses, beautiful losers, gunplay and waterfalls and fire and whiskey, it’s all here.
September 6, 2018
Eve Tushnet
Patheos
Mildred Pierce unleashed on the wild, wild West.
June 25, 2018 | Rating: 3.5/4
Josh Larsen
LarsenOnFilm
This baroque bonanza fascinates on so many levels that it demands to be repeatedly viewed and reviewed.
January 24, 2018 | Rating: 4/5
David Parkinson
Radio Times…
Plot
Vienna has built a saloon outside of town, and she hopes to build her own town once the railroad is put through, but the townsfolk want her gone. When four men hold up a stagecoach and kill a man the town officials, led by Emma Small, come to the saloon to grab four of Vienna’s friends, the Dancin’ Kid and his men. Vienna stands strong against them, and is aided by the presence of an old acquaintance of hers, Johnny Guitar, who is not what he seems.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Joan Crawford’s performance in Johnny Guitar is described as “campy” and her line readings are said to have “an almost incantatory quality.”
Nicholas-Ray.jpg
