Before enlisting in the Navy for World War II, Henry Fonda starred in this controversial classic. Set in the old West, The Ox-Bow Incident depicts the primal nature of mob justice, and the extraordinary damage it can inflict.
Fonda plays Gil Carter, an insignificant drifter, who alongside his friend Art (Harry Morgan), wanders into the town of Bridger’s Wells. The local residents have recently been victim to cattle rustling. Fear, suspicion and vengeance permeate the air.
Soon enough, word spreads of the death of local rancher Larry Kincaid. Outlaw rustlers were spotted leaving the scene but the sheriff is temporarily out of town. Kincaid’s seething friend, Farnley, capitalises on the town’s anger and forms a posse to find the perpetrators. The posse becomes a lynch mob when the resolute Civil War veteran, Major Tetley, takes charge. Gil and Art reluctantly join in.
The mob reaches Ox-Bow canyon, where they find three men; Donald Martin (Dana Andrews), Juan Martinez (Anthony Quinn) and an unnamed old man (Francis Ford). Martin, their leader, admits that he had previously encountered Kincaid, but only to buy cattle from him. Circumstantial evidence starts to build against Martin and he gets an unsympathetic hearing from the mob. Gil and some other doubters call for a fair trial but the majority are restless for executions.
Will the dissenters be able to delay the hangings long enough for the sheriff to return and restore order?
Directed by William A. Wellman, The Ox-Bow Incident is an anti-Western. It questions the genre’s unashamed admiration for machismo and justice by gunfire. Wellman’s film, based on a novel by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, is at odds with the values espoused by typical Westerns of the time. This may be why Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox, was reluctant to have it made.
Zanuck insisted on an extremely low production budget. This led to the use of cheap studio sets rather than on location. To give you an idea of how contentious it was, Fox released the movie two years after it had been filmed, as they were unsure of how to market it. Fox need not have worried though, as the film was well received and garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Picture (it lost to Casablanca).
While The Ox-Bow Incident is noteworthy due to its divisive content, its appeal, as with all films, rests on the acting and screenplay. Fonda is excellent as the jaded Gil, whose true character is revealed late in the film. Quinn is great fun as the sneaky Martinez. But Andrews, as the desperate and sensitive Donald Martin, steals the picture.
Like the acting, Lamar Trotti’s script is perfectly poised and at times, razor sharp. During Martin’s interrogation by the determined Major Tetley, Martin asks; “Why do you keep asking me all these questions? You don’t believe anything I tell you.” To which Tetley sharply responds; ‘There’s truth in lies too, if you can get enough of them.”
