I would be very surprised if Richard O'Brien did not see this film several times, as there appear to be so many ways in which the Rocky Horror Show is inspired by the full on weirdness of Johnny Guitar. Firstly, we have a straight, square jawed male character who pulls into a big house in the middle of a storm. There he is met by a simplistic handyman, before he meets the powerful Vienna who is standing at the top of a flight of stairs. The square jawed man, typically the Hollywood hero is made to look weak and ineffectual by cross dressing Vienna - as do other men in the film. Vienna is an odd name for a woman, but then so is Columbia. And Frank'n'Furter is an odd name for a man, but so is Turkey Ralston. There is a dull and safe expert in Johnny Guitar 'Mr Andrews' and there is the Criminologist in Rocky Horror. I am sure it is not the only influence for Rocky Horror, but it is a clear starting place.

Nicholas Ray has taken a theme of America's expansion westward to the Pacific and brought us two strong women who embody landownership, cattle barons and the ever widening industrial revolution and urbanism that will challenge and ultimately vanquish older capitalist forms of power. Love is a theme but the women, Vienna played with nerve and steel by Joan Crawford and the impulsive Emma Small by Mercedes Cambridge overshadow the men in the film. And it's a duel in sun between the whore that made good as a bar girl and now has a title for land the railroad will develop and she will build a town on it, and Small the gun totting land and cattle baroness. is 'Johnny Guitar' a precursor of feminism? It's up to you to judge. Nonetheless, it's Crawford's finer hour.

Movie quote - "I've never seen a woman who was more like a man." Let's face it - With this somewhat off-kilter, 1954 Western being a "Joan Crawford" vehicle - Who do you think was gonna get the juiciest dialogue? Who do you think was gonna be standing centre-stage in the meatiest scenes? And, whose character do you think was gonna be permitted to chew up the scenery, yet come out as the shining heroine at the end of this train-wreck?.... Who?... I'll give you exactly one guess who that was.You can be sure that "Johnny Guitar" (I wish this film had been titled something else) was a movie chock-full of hysterical, heavy-duty confrontations where it was the 2 women (not the men) who were clearly running the show.Time & again, it was Crawford, as the dignified saloon-keeper, Vienna, and Mercedes McCambridge, as the lynch-happy rancher, Emma Small, who were at each others' throats like a pair of ravenous vultures heading for the kill.Watching these 2 middle-aged babes go at it was, without a doubt, the crowning highlight of this decidedly "bent" Western. The absolute venom that was spat out between Vienna & Emma was so outrageously over-the-top at times that, before long, this story began to play out like something of a very twisted parody.All-in-all - "Johnny Guitar" definitely wasn't the best movie of its genre ever made, but, in the long run, it sure did pack one helluva mean-spirited wallop with its honest-to-goodness stab at attempting to reverse the gender roles of your average, 1950's Cowboy B-movie.

It's difficult to resist this ridiculously OTT 'Freudian' western and far easier to sit back and enjoy a cast with at least twelve actors who regular film buffs will readily identify from Royal Dano to Frank Ferguson, albeit there is only one lead in the shape of Joan Crawford. Interestingly instead of a menage a trois we have a menage a quatre with Sterling Haydyn ostensibly vying with Scott Brady for Crawford's affections whilst Mercedes McCambridge clearly fancies both Brady and Crawford and - just to complicate things - off set Brady and young Ben Cooper were an item. The plot is so outrageous a passing zephyr let along a strong wind would see it off in nothing flat but wisely Nick Ray, clearly aware of this, keeps the whole thing moving lickety-spit to the Gotterdammerung-light finale. Enjoy