Ox-bow incident (1943)

Story:  In the old West, an innocent man is hanged by a lynch mob
Stars:  Henry Fonda,  Dana Andrews
Pros: Acting, 75 minute run time, Script
Cons:  Stage bound, Predictability, Another Mob Justice Sermon

Theodore Roosevelt on Lynching in 1886
The regulators of backwoods society corresponded exactly to the vigilantes of the western border to-day. In many of the cases of lynch law which have come to my knowledge the effect has been healthy for the community; but sometimes great injustice is done. Generally, the vigilantes, by a series of summary executions, do really good work; but I have rarely known them fail, among the men whom they killed for good reason, to also kill one or two either by mistake or to gratify private malice. 

Background
Henry Fonda made Ox-Bow Incident just before he joined the Navy in August 1942. A Box-office flop, it was based on the Walter Van Tilburg Clark novel of the same name. Considered "Brave" and "Daring" at the time - it was a not so subtle attack on Southern lynchings. Of course, by 1943 lynching had pretty much died out - even in the South. There were only 30 Lynchings in the USA from 1940-1949 compared to 1,500 during the 1890s. Zanuck thought Ox-Bow would have little box office appeal, so the budget was limited. Result?  Wellman had to shoot the picture in B&W on the Fox back lot and sound-stages.

The Good
The best thing in Ox-Bow is the acting. Dana Andrews wins the honors as the man to be hanged, while the other actors fit their roles like a glove. While Fonda is the main character for the first 20 minutes and the last 5, in-between he fads into the background & lets the ensemble cast take over.

The script was so tight and well written it made me forgot (mostly) the lack of action and phony exteriors. There's an amazing amount of group dialogue, which only works with good supporting actors and great dialogue.

The Bad
The picture is set-bound and lacks the action of a typical Western, it also has lots of static shots with dark, artificially-painted and phony exteriors serving as backdrops.

But my main problem with Ox-Bow is its predictability and the tired sermon on mob justice. The "Mob of Hot-heads want to lynch an innocent man" plot has been copied and replayed ad nauseam for the last 65 years. Every Western TV show had an episode(s) where the hero, Lucas McCain, Hoss, Richard Boone, Steve McQueen, Barbara Stanwyck, etc. stands up to a lynch mob and saves an innocent man. Even Sci-Fi TV shows and dramas had the same plot (Cf: Twilight Zone "Monsters Due on Maple Street"). Further, variations on the same theme are found in movies like "Hang 'em High", "Fury". "Young Mr. Lincoln" and "To kill a Mockingbird".

So the comments about how "bold". "brave" and "important" this movie is are rather puzzling. We've seen movies with the same theme for 65 years. The only way to make a brave/bold movie about lynching would be to make one that supports it.  How refreshing it would be to see a movie where the lynch mob is actually right.

Further, the movie would have been more suspenseful and interesting if the lynch mob had not been so hot-headed and irrationally bent on hanging or if Andrews innocence had not been made so obvious.