''Welcome to Hard Times'' is a 1967 American Western film directed by Burt Kennedy and starring Henry Fonda as the leader of a dying town who is too weak to stand up to a brute terrorizing the few remaining residents. It is based upon a novel by the same name by E. L. Doctorow.

Plot

A vicious stranger, the "Man from Bodie", terrorizes the small settlement of Hard Times. He kills the only men who stand up to him, town founder Mr. Fee and town undertaker Mr. Hanson, as well as raping and killing Fee's girlfriend Flo. Before he leaves, he burns down the handful of buildings. Only a few people stay, among them Will Blue. Blue takes in Fee's young orphaned son Jimmy and convinces his woman, Molly, to stay there with them. A few other people arrive. Zar and his four saloon girls settle in to serve the nearby miners. Isaac Maple comes looking for his long-gone storekeeper brother, so Blue persuades him to reopen the general store. A drifter, Leo Jenks, also lazes around town. Blue tries hard to build a family and a prosperous community but Molly despises him for not standing up against the Man from Bodie, and is obsessed with revenge against him for what he did. They both expect the Man will return in the spring. Molly works on Jenks, a fine shot, and even infects Jimmy with her consuming hatred, getting him a shotgun. The villain shows up and resumes his terrorizing ways. Molly persuades Jenks to go after him. Jenks kills Zar by mistake and is gunned down. Blue is wounded in the shoulder, but then, the Man runs out of bullets and Blue shoots him several times. Blue carries the body home to show Molly. When she gingerly approaches, the dying Man revives and grabs her hand. Her panicked yell for help brings Jimmy running with his shotgun. Blue tries to grab the weapon, but it goes off, hitting the Man in the face and killing him. Molly is also hit by the shotgun blast, in the stomach. Just before she dies, she asks Blue to hold her. Later, from her gravesite, Blue and Jimmy see a growing town.

Cast

* Henry Fonda as Will Blue *

Janice Rule Mary Janice Rule (August 15, 1931 – October 17, 2003) was an American actress and psychotherapist, earning her PhD while still acting, then acting occasionally while working in her new profession. Early life Rule was born in Norwood, Ohio, to ...

as Molly Riordan *

Keenan Wynn Francis Xavier Aloysius James Jeremiah Keenan Wynn (July 27, 1916 – October 14, 1986) was an American character actor. His expressive face was his stock-in-trade; and though he rarely carried the lead role, he had prominent billing in mos ...

as Zar * Janis Paige as Adah, one of Zar's girls *

John Anderson John Anderson may refer to: Business *John Anderson (Scottish businessman) (1747–1820), Scottish merchant and founder of Fermoy, Ireland * John Byers Anderson (1817–1897), American educator, military officer and railroad executive, mentor of ...

as Ezra and Isaac Maple * Warren Oates as Leo Jenks *

Fay Spain Lona Fay Spain (October 6, 1932 – May 8, 1983) was an American actress in motion pictures and television. Early years Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Fay Spain was the younger of two daughters born to Robert C. Spain and Arminta Frances "Mick ...

as Jessie one of Zar's girls * Edgar Buchanan as Brown, the territorial governor's representative *

Aldo Ray Aldo Ray (born Aldo Da Re; September 25, 1926 – March 27, 1991) was an American actor of film and television. He began his career as a contract player for Columbia Studios before achieving stardom through his roles in '' The Marrying Kind ...

as Man from Bodie *

Denver Pyle Denver Dell Pyle (May 11, 1920 – December 25, 1997) was an American film and television actor and director. He was well known for a number of TV roles from the 1960s through the 1980s, including his portrayal of Briscoe Darling Jr. in se ...

as Alfie, the stagecoach driver * Michael Shea as Jimmy Fee *

Arlene Golonka Arlene Leanore Golonka (January 23, 1936 – May 31, 2021) was an American actress. She is perhaps best known for playing Millie Hutchins on the television comedy ''The Andy Griffith Show'' and Millie Swanson on ''Mayberry R.F.D.'', and often ...

as Mae, one of Zar's girls *

Lon Chaney Jr. Creighton Tull Chaney (February10, 1906 – July12, 1973), known by his stage name Lon Chaney Jr., was an American actor known for playing Larry Talbot in the film '' The Wolf Man'' (1941) and its various crossovers, Count Alucard (Dracu ...

as Avery, the saloonkeeper * Royal Dano as John Bear * Alan Baxter as Jack Millay * Paul Birch as Mr. Fee, Jimmy's father * Dan Ferrone as Bert Albany, Blossom's man *

Paul Fix Peter Paul Fix (March 13, 1901 – October 14, 1983) was an American film and television character actor who was best known for his work in Westerns. Fix appeared in more than 100 movies and dozens of television shows over a 56-year career be ...

as Major Munn C.S.A. * Elisha Cook Jr. as Hanson (undertaker) * Kalen Liu as China aka Blossom * Ann McCrea as Flo, Fee's woman

Production

''Welcome to Hard Times'' was filmed on location at the Conejo Ranch in

Thousand Oaks, California Thousand Oaks is the second-largest city in Ventura County, California, United States. It is in the northwestern part of Greater Los Angeles, approximately from the city of Los Angeles and from Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown. It is named af ...

and the MGM backlot in

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...

Reception

Initial reception

Bosley Crowther of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' thought Aldo Ray's performance was "fascinating and hypnotizing": "I would guess, in all his times in Western movies, Mr. Fonda has never seen a more wild and implausible badman than this jughead whom Mr. Ray plays. Not only does he knock the tops off bottles instead of pulling out the corks when he wants to guzzle a couple of quarts of whisky (that's a standard badman ploy), but he ravishes bar girls, shoots his own horse and guns down Elisha Cook Jr. with even more cold-blooded arrogance than Jack Palance did in ''Shane''."Bosley Crowther, "Aldo Ray Burns Town as Unusual Outlaw Western" May 2, 1967 https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9402E3D61E3CE53BBC4A53DFB366838C679EDE '' Variety'' panned the film with contempt for Kennedy's "inept" direction and script. It dismissed Rule's performance as "unsatisfactory", comparing it to a " Method school version" of the iconic Western-movie star

Maureen O'Hara Maureen O'Hara (; 17 August 1920 – 24 October 2015) was a native Irish and naturalized American actress and singer, who became successful in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood from the 1940s through to the 1960s. She was a natural ...

. Though taking note of the star-studded supporting cast—noting Edgar Buchanan's performance as the "best" among them, and giving credit for "comic relief" to Wynn and the saloon girls—''Variety'' said the collection of "many pro names" simply underscored a "lack of depth and perception" by the "script and direction."review: "Welcome to Hard Times,"
December 31, 1966, '' Variety,'' retrieved October 25, 2018 The cinematography by Harry Stradling Jr. was highly regarded.

Modern reception

The movie continues to be critiqued by some reviewers as being awkward and unsettling, with an ending that is unsatisfying"Rob"
review: "Welcome to Hard Times (1967)"
'' Classic FGilm Guide.com,'' retrieved Oct5ober 25, 2018 (even "nihilistic")."CPea"
review: "Welcome to Hard Times: Film – Action and adventure"
in ''

Time Out Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to: Time * Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team * Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken * Timeout (computing), an enginee ...

'' retrieved October 25, 2018 While noting there is not a consensus among reviewers, ''Rotten Tomatoes'' audience scores it at 39%.review: "Welcome to Hard Times (Killer on a Horse) (1967)"
''Rotten Tomatoes'', retrieved October 25, 2018 However, one modern reviewer describes it as "better than average" for a Western. Craig Butler in the ''All Movie Guide'' notes that the movie "tends to divide audiences" along the lines of whether or not they are expecting, and preferring, a conventional Western (virtue triumphs through justifiable violence), or are attracted to a very contradictory type of movie. For the latter, Butler contends the film offers much "to ponder and to study", but notes that the movie is a "downer" that arguably puts most of its effort into conveying a "message" rather than providing entertainment. Butler describes the film as a revisionist Western, typical of the 1960s, disassembling the classic Western, and reassembling it in ways that did not always follow the traditions of the genre.Butler, Craig, in
All Movie Guide
', as reproduced by

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...

, retrieved October 25, 2018 Butler makes positive comments about the performances of Fonda, Ray, Wynn, Oates, Buchanan, Paige and Pyle. ''Time Out'' concurs that the supporting cast is "immaculate" and notes Fonda's performance as "intriguing".

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Welcome To Hard Times (Film) 1967 films 1967 Western (genre) films American Western (genre) films 1960s English-language films Films based on American novels Films based on Western (genre) novels Films directed by Burt Kennedy Films scored by Harry Sukman Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Films shot in Los Angeles County, California Revisionist Western (genre) films 1960s American films