Molly and Lawless John (1972)

Film: Molly and Lawless John (1972)

Stars: Vera Miles, Sam Elliott, Clu Gulager, John Anderson, Cynthia Myers

Director: Gary Nelson

Oscar History: No nominations, but the film did get a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song, an impressive feat for an independent film in the early 1970's.

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2023 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the Golden Age western, and the stars who made it one of the most enduring legacies of Classical Hollywood.  This month, our focus is on Sam Elliott: click here to learn more about Mr. Elliott (and why I picked him), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Sam Elliott was never the leading man that Robert Redford or Clint Eastwood was, but at least in the 1970's he did have a period where he was trying to go that route.  Throughout the decade, he would make independent films, including some early work in westerns like today's picture Molly and Lawless John, which was a low-budget film made in the wake of Butch Cassidy.  But his big-screen investment from the studios came a few years later, with the film Lifeguard.  The film was made for Paramount, and was the first time (in 1976) that a studio film was willing to give Elliott a chance as a leading man.  The film wasn't successful, though.  It spent a year on the shelf (during which time Elliott didn't work as he was hoping this was his big break), but the film flopped with critics and while it made money, it didn't translate into a leading career for Elliott.  As we'll see in the next two weeks, while Elliott would get leading work in the decades to come (principally on television), his career was never that of what you'd consider a leading man, and our last two films will have him in the part we're most accustomed to seeing him play-that of a prominent character actor.

(Spoilers Ahead) I debated whether to do Lifeguard or Molly and Lawless John, as the former was more important to Elliott's career but the latter fits our theme, and my brother broke the tie so we're doing another western this week.  The movie puts Elliott firmly in the lead opposite screen legend (whom we just talked about) Vera Miles.  The film talks about Molly Parker (Miles), who is the wife of an abusive sheriff (Anderson), with whom she struggled for years to get pregnant, and now in her 40's, still wants to have a baby by.  She is charmed by an outlaw named Johnny Lawler (Elliott), who is imprisoned for murder but is scared of being hanged.  Molly decides to free Johnny and escape with him, but on the road she quickly realizes that what he said was a lie, and he was just using her to get free.  They stay on the road, though, and come across a pregnant Native American woman who dies during child birth, and Molly takes the baby.  They grow to somewhat like each other, becoming lovers, but Johnny is clearly still using Molly to be able to escape from Mexico.  After Molly baptizes the baby (naming him after Johnny), and the law starts chasing after him again, he threatens to kill the baby...but she kills him first.  She returns, a changed woman, to her husband with the baby in tow, lying about the baby's name (saying it's named after him), but seemingly stronger & demanding the reward money for returning Johnny to justice.

The movie is fascinating in a way I didn't expect a low-budget 1970's western to be.  It says a lot about feminism, and our attitudes toward it.  Miles was only 43 in 1972, but that was a lot older than we'd consider it today (and also a far more surprising time to be having children), so we're meant to feel as an audience that she's not a good match for the 28-year-old Elliott.  But they have good chemistry, his sexist bravado, and her burgeoning feminism, reflecting a lot of the growing attitudes of women at the time that they could be more than just the woman behind the man.  It's fascinating looking at the way they treat Miles' sexuality in the film.  She's never seen completely nude, but she's definitely seen in various sexual acts, and it's really interesting to see the striking actress juxtaposed as desirous to the attractive Elliott, particularly against the late-in-film appearance of Cynthia Myers, then just 22 and a recent Playboy Playmate, so from an audience perspective a more stereotypical romantic choice for Elliott (if Myers' name sounds familiar, she was one of the people who accused Bill Cosby of drugging women for sex at the Playboy Mansion).

The performances are also solid.  I liked Miles best of the two-I think she brings a sensitivity to this part that wasn't necessary, and gives us a sense of not just what it's like to be a woman on the range, but also one to give up her dreams for an abusive man.  There are feminist readings (from reviews I'm catching on IMDB & Letterboxd) of her returning to her husband at the end that make it look like she learned nothing from the experience, but I don't buy that.  She got to keep her baby and her money, and come back on her own terms, and I think she handles a tricky part well.  Elliott is also good.  He gives his Johnny some fascinating coloring, especially in scenes with Myers where she talks about how old Miles is, and it's obvious that Johnny (who loves Molly) is more concerned with his reputation with this woman he cares little for than for the potential actual romance that he could have if he chose to with Molly.  That he chooses his reputation over his feelings, and that it costs him his life, is a pretty bleak but really interesting take in the end.