Popular reviews

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  Review by Rick Burin ★★★★ 7

  *SPOILERS*

  This early "Western noir" - a delicious bastard genre that emerged in '47 and seemed to disappear just two years later - is one of the oddest films ever to come out of mainstream Hollywood, a brooding, perplexing, morally murky film that fills its standard genre template with strange details, peculiarly abrupt plot developments and weird, censor-baiting characters, including a femme fatale who gets turned on by making men die for her. Bizarrely paced and packed with liars and cowards - somewhat at odds with the preferred presentation of the West - it's also notable for reuniting the leads of Preston Sturges' astonishing Sullivan's Travels, giving a lie to Joel McCrea's famous line that "life's too short for two…

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  Review by Andy Summers 🤠 ★★★★

  Director Andre DeToth has quite the reputation here on LB, known for his crime films and B-Westerns during the 1940's and 1950's. A larger than life director, who's most famous film was 1953's Vincent Price vehicle House of Wax, I'd have liked to have seen what he'd have done with Paris Hilton in his cast? Married seven times, one of which was to the female star of the show here, Veronica Lake, his actual life story is something that a serious filmmaker should consider turning into a biopic, because after a quick read about him, I'd buy a ticket to that film!

  Ramrod is a 1947 Western that benefits from a terrific lead performance from Joel McCrea, and a villainous…

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  Review by Ziglet_mir ★★★ 5

  Collabin' w/ Max! His Review!

  Joel McCrea is a unique leading man, one that embellishes a “boy next door look”, very plain and therefore someone who can fly under the radar as it feels he has in the grand scheme of the western genre. His casting is counter-intuitive to the film’s title, as it refers to the ranch foreman that shepherds rambunctious cattle. In other words, a gruff road-hard guy who is named after the metal device that pushes the projectile against the propellant in a muzzle-loading device. 

  Andre de Toth’s film garners its strength through its title, its casting of McCrea, and how the “ramrod” becomes an obvious allegory toward the film’s noir tidings. Anything noir about this 1947 film comes…

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  Review by Jordan James Brooks ★★★½

  “Made up your mind, sheepman?”

  André De Toth made some interesting Westerns throughout his career, many of which are very underrated across his filmography. Ramrod is no exception. It’s a relatively harsh film with some crass character archetypes portrayed by an interesting cast, that very much help it to boarder on film noir. Whilst on the topic - I’m part of quite a few different film groups across various social media platforms, and more specifically - in a film noir community (which is on either Instagram or Facebook or both - I can’t remember), but I found one discussion quite interesting on whether or not film noir can bleed into other genres. For example - can film noir be something…

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  Review by Justin Decloux ★★★★

  Director Andre De Toth builds a downer Western in which the manly men are made pawns in a game they have no control over, only knowing how to move forward and kill. The beautiful camera moves, clever use of rear/front projection, and little touches (like pulling up to a stream and drinking water along with the horse) are signs of a well-seasoned director making a Western for the first time and having a ball with it.

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  Review by Anna Imhof 🌸 ★★★ 2

  I think this is my first Western in over a year. I’m not used to the genre anymore. People dying all over the place!

  Sure missed those dirty, sweaty Western boys with their open shirts, though. 

  Visually, De Toth knows what he‘s doing, but the story is all over the place or too convoluted, and it’s never really clear where its center is.

  Even though after Sullivan’s Travels Joel McCrea swore never to work with her again, saying „life is too short for two films with Veronica Lake“, I’m glad he wasn’t a man of his word, 'cause I love seeing them together.

  I love the way she looks up at him. She has to look wayyyy up. I wish I could look at a man like that, but I’m too tall. It’s a cruel twist of fate that I love feeling small around a man but am physically unable to do so.

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  Review by eely 🌻 ★★½

  “from now on i’m going to make a life of my own, and being a woman i won’t have to use guns.”

  veronica lake riding a horse in a cowgirl outfit and manipulating men into doing whatever she wants...we love to see it.

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  Review by trolleyfreak ★★★★ 1

  For his first Western, André De Toth cast his then-wife Veronica Lake as the scheming, tough-minded ranch owner who ruthlessly exploits men to get her own way.

  Striking a similar tone to other late '40s efforts like Raoul Walsh's Pursued and Robert Wise's Blood On The Moon, this is a stylishly directed noir-ish movie with Veronica in the femme fatale role, ably supported by the always reliable Joel McCrea.

  Easily one of the finest 'oaters' of the decade.

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  Review by Mark Cunliffe 🇵🇸 ★★★½

  I wasn't sure at first that I was going to get along with de Toth's noirish western, largely because he seems to start the movie at a point where other filmmakers would be half hour in. But then I realised that the canny reasoning for doing that is to allow the characters ambiguities to come to the fore.

  Ramrod is a western in which no white hats or black hats are worn to distinguish good from bad, every one here is just a shade of grey. Sure, Joel McCrea's Dave is ostensibly our hero, the town drunk looking for redemption initially through diplomacy and the law, but when even he later seems wholly nonplussed by his friend's admission that he…

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  Review by Avirup

  A good looking western noir that makes a good use of its location but it's a little hard to follow. Veronica Lake is interesting as femme fatale, there's some interesting dynamics and other intriguing elements but the clunkiness of the story made it difficult for those things to properly stand out. A decent watch but feels like it could have been lot better.

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  Review by MushiMinion ★★★ 3

  Setting aside their use of the term 'ramrod' as a common colloquialism when I'm not sure I've ever heard it uttered in another Western, this film tells a conventional tale in a rather unique way. A woman inherits a ranch. A bad guy who runs the town is trying to force her off the land. She hires a good natured gunman to protect her. Ramrod is elevated by Andre de Toth's direction, providing a grand scope to a small and intimate story, and Veronica Lake as Connie for her part as a strong-willed landowner who plans to match the boys at their own game. To quote her, "From now on, I'm going to make a life of my own. And,…

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  Review by Kevin Jones ★★★★

  The Arrow Challenge, 5/100

  Andre De Toth’s Ramrod is a pretty typical western if one ignores everything other than the film’s plot. Narratively, visually, and thematically, Ramrod breaks out of the classic western mold, utilizing a very different approach in telling its typical story. Set in a small town in the old west, a domineering cattle rancher tries to run off anyone who tries to take over any bit of land in the area or who tries to raise something other than cattle. The man, Frank Ivey (Preston Foster), is also keen on marrying Connie (Veronica Lake) who is not nearly as keen. In fact, she is his main opposition. After her first fiance Walt Shipley (Ian MacDonald) runs away…