The author of multiple books on film history, David Meuel has also published two books of poems, more than two dozen short stories, and hundreds of articles on subjects ranging from U.S. national parks to high technology. He lives in Gig Harbor, Washington.

Table of Contents

Preface ¿1

Introduction: The Dark Cowboy Rides into Town ¿5

1.¿The Darkening West: Conscience and Cruelty Collide in William Wellman's The ­Ox-Bow Incident, Yellow Sky and Track of the Cat ¿21

2.¿The Tyranny of Troubled Pasts: Escape and the Futility of It in Raoul Walsh's Pursued and Colorado Territory ¿38

3.¿Where Treachery Springs Eternal: Staying Human in the Harsh Worlds of André de Toth's Ramrod and Day of the Outlaw ¿55

4.¿"The topography of menace": Painting the Western Black in Robert Wise's Blood on the Moon ¿70

5.¿Westerns Shaken and Stirred: Sam Fuller Upends Genre Conventions in I Shot Jesse James and Forty Guns ¿81

6.¿Delving Deeper into the Dark Side: Gregory Peck's ­Noir-ish Heroes in Henry King's The Gunfighter and The Bravados ¿97

7.¿Deliverance on a Down Note: The Tortured, Grimly Determined Heroes of Anthony Mann's Devil's Doorway, The Naked Spur and Man of the West ¿115

8.¿Nightmare in Broad Daylight: Evil Poses as the Law in Allan Dwan's Silver Lode ¿140

9.¿Helping the Western to Grow Up: The Complex, Shaded Characters in Delmer Daves' 3:10 to Yuma and The Hanging Tree ¿150

10.¿"They're going to kill us, Mrs. Mims": Horror and Absurdity Ride Together in Budd Boetticher's The Tall T and Ride Lonesome ¿168

11.¿Darkness in Shinbone: Noir Is Busting Out All Over in John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance ¿185

Conclusion: Ride On, Dark Cowboy ¿197

Fifty Additional ­Noir-ish ­Postwar Westerns Worth Seeing ¿199

Chapter Notes ¿205

Bibliography ¿209

Index ¿211