TRACK OF THE CAT

(1954) As a man-hunting panther prowls outside a snowbound mountain cabin, a family dominated by mean-spirited puritan Beulah Bondi slowly breaks apart, until embittered son Robert Mitchum sets out to avenge his brother’s killer. An unsung, genuinely experimental work, a black and white film in color, with only Mitchum’s red coat and Diana Lynn’s yellow scarf contrasting the snowy exteriors. Courtesy Batjac Productions, Inc.
3:10, 7:15

WESTWARD THE WOMEN

(1951) Woman-hating scout Robert Taylor guides a wagon train of mail-order brides across the plains to California, highlighted by a monumental drunk at a gravesite, a flash flood, and a waterless trek through the desert. “They must be great!” sputters one hairy groom. Originally a Frank Capra (!) project.
1:00, 5:05, 9:10

REVIEWS

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TRACK OF THE CAT
“One of the strangest films ever to have come out of Hollywood… It's certainly the closest that American cinema has ever come to Dreyer’s Ordet.”
– Jonathan Rosenbaum

“A one-of-a-kind mix of solid Hollywood classicism and overt, nearly avant-garde experimentation… In Track of the Cat's claustrophobic interior set, a dysfunctional family straight out of O'Neill crowds the frame, declaiming a litany of recriminations and denials, fueled by frustration, scripture, booze, and poetry; outside, in a snowy, silent, unarticulated vastness, a black panther prowls around like some landlocked Moby Dick. Wellman's ongoing fascination with what's just offscreen infuses each space with the unknowable echo of the other, making for one hell of a moody, strange, and unforgettable hybrid.”
– Ronnie Scheib, Chicago Reader

“A magnificently dark, brooding Western… [The hunting scenes] have an extraordinary charge (and weird beauty, with the snowy landscapes shot by William H. Clothier in black-and-white on color stock), reinforcing the subtextual theme that the virgin land is at last exacting revenge on the pioneer who raped it.”
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)

“The last great film by 'Wild Bill' Wellman… He fulfilled a long-held ambition to make a black-and-white film in color, with only Mitchum's red mackinaw and the girlfriend's yellow blouse standing out in a sea of monochrome. The director of photography William H Clothier and Wellman were the first film-makers to exploit CinemaScope to dramatic effect with superb compositions.”
– Philip French

WESTWARD THE WOMEN
"One of the few films to present positive, overt sisterhood… Dramatic images of individual women against an open and stark landscape are rare in American films, and they are memorable."
– Jeanine Basinger