Warlock

"Wherever you've been ... Whatever you've seen ... You've never run into anything like Warlock."

1959 2h 2m EN

👍

6.8

SOLID

★6.8TMDB · 178

Western

Synopsis

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A band of murderous cowboys has imposed a reign of terror on the town of Warlock. With the sheriff humiliatingly run out of town, the residents hire the services of Clay Blaisedell as de facto town marshal. He arrives along with his friend, Tom Morgan, and sets about restoring law and order on his own terms whilst also overseeing the establishment of a gambling house and saloon.

“Wherever you've been ... Whatever you've seen ... You've never run into anything like Warlock.”

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Cast

Richard Widmark
Johnny Gannon
Henry Fonda
Clay Blaisedell
Anthony Quinn
Tom Morgan
Dorothy Malone
Lily Dollar
Dolores Michaels
Jessie Marlow
Wallace Ford
Judge Holloway
Tom Drake
Abe McQuown
Richard Arlen
Bacon

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Edward Dmytryk
Writers: Robert Alan Aurthur
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $2.4M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 71% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

67 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Edward Dmytryk, shot by Joseph MacDonald. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Leigh Harline. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Jack W. Holmes shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda and Anthony Quinn carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Wherever you've been ... Whatever you've seen ... You've never run into anything like Warlock.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Edward Dmytryk directs. Joseph MacDonald behind the camera. Leigh Harline scores. Jack W. Holmes cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $2.4M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Earned back only 71% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
367 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
4Directed by Edward Dmytryk, shot by Joseph MacDonald. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Leigh Harline. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Jack W. Holmes shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda and Anthony Quinn carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Wherever you've been ... Whatever you've seen ... You've never run into anything like Warlock.".
9IMDB entry: tt0053434 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 10 themes, including "jealousy", "marshal", "blonde", "dress".

The technical file

Cinematography: Joseph MacDonald
Original score: Leigh Harline
Editing: Jack W. Holmes
Runtime: 122 min · 2h 2m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $2,400,000
Box office: $1,700,000
Return: 71% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Warlock (1959)

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Edward Dmytryk

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2014-05-07
★ 9/10
Rock of ages comes to Warlock in Dmytryk's excellent adult Western. Warlock is a small town suffering from visits by a gang of thugs led by Abe McQuown. The honest townsfolk meet and decide to hire infamous gunslinger Clay Blaisedell to act as a Marshal. Blaisdell, aided by his trusty companion Tom Morgan, proceeds to clean up the town and promptly takes control of the gambling and dance parlour. But things are rarely straight forward in a town of this type, one of the thugs (Johnny Gannon) decides to reform himself and takes on the role of legal sheriff. Things are further complicated when a woman arrives in town proclaiming that Blaisedell and Morgan killed the love of her life! This coupled with the fact that McQuown and his thugs are plotting destructive revenge, means that Warlock and it's array of complex characters are heading for judgement day - one way or another. The basic plot sounds like nothing out of the ordinary, the tough gunslinger with a reputation hired to clean up a town has been done a fair few times, with varying degrees of success. What lifts this Edward Dmytryk directed (and produced) Western above other films of its ilk is that it goes deeper than most of those other genre pieces. Blaisedell may be a fearsome gunslinger but we are at a time when a new breed of faster and more thuggish cowboys exist, and so his very being is crucial to the number of events that transpire in Warlock. Here all central characters are multi-layered, there is a plenty going on that begs the utmost attention, where tragedy hangs heavy with its looming presence, and Dmytryk threads all the story strands together with thoughtfully potent results. Adapted by Robert Alan Aurthur from Oakley Hall's novel, Warlock boasts three excellent male lead performances and a firing on all cylinders supporting cast. Henry Fonda (Blaisedell), Richard Widmark (Gannon) and Anthony Quinn (Tom Morgan) are superb, while Dorothy Malone, Dolores Michaels, Tom Drake, DeForest Kelly, Frank Gorshin (sadly uncredited) and Wallace Ford come up trumps with excellent shows for totally important characters. The only gripe I can come up with is that I would have liked a bit more use of the Utah location courtesy of Joseph MacDonald's Cinemascope Technicolor, but since this story is primarily set within the confines of Warlock the town, one can be and is a touch forgiving. During the last few years I have spent a lot of time revisiting the Western genre, and I have been rewarded with a ream of excellent adult pieces by the likes of Anthony Mann, Henry King and Budd Boetticher. Few of them are as undervalued, and maybe as forgotten, as this first class effort from all involved, it's a must see for any serious Western fan. 9/10
Wuchak2019-02-21
★ 7/10
Archetypal Western tragedy based on the Earp/Holliday/Tombstone legends A professional town-tamer named Blaisdell (Henry Fonda) is hired as an independent marshal by the citizens of Warlock to rid them of an unruly gang; meanwhile a repentant member of the bunch becomes deputy sheriff (Richard Widmark), which creates friction. Anthony Quinn plays the former’s faithful sidekick. “Warlock” (1959) is an adult Western cut from the same dramatic cloth as similar late 50s/early 60’s Westerns like “Man of the West” (1958). The mature and psychological script was based on Oakley Hall’s novel, which was a fictionalization of the OK Corral legends, which is why it’s not too difficult to read Earp/Holliday into the Fonda/Quinn characters and Abe McQuown’s gang as the Clanton/McLaury gang. The fact that Quinn’s Morgan character is loosely based on Doc Holliday is a good reason to reject the supposed ‘homosexual subtext’ of Morgan. There’s not enough evidence to draw such a radical conclusion. Morgan was simply Blaisedell’s loyal and ruthless partner; he loved Blaisedell like close members of a military squad or like a brother. On the female front we have two very striking women: Dolores Michaels plays Blaisedell’s potential babe, Jessie Marlow, while Dorothy Malone is on hand as Lily Dollar, a mysterious woman from Blaisedell’s past who takes interest in the new deputy sheriff (Widmark). The town scenes were filmed at 20th Century Fox Studios in Century City, CA, whereas the scenic sequences were all shot in Moab, Utah, near Arches National Park. Needless to say, the latter locations are magnificent. The movie runs 2 hours, 2 minutes. GRADE: B+