Didja ever notice “life in a desert highway outpost” in film?

Posted by highhurdler on April 27, 2008

In last year’s Academy Award winning Best Picture No Country for Old Men (2007), there’s a chilling exchange between the serial killer (Oscar winner Javier Bardem) and an owner/operator of a remote roadside service station in the desert during which a coin toss determines the life or death of a man. Known for their love and paeans to the classics in their films, the Coen brothers paid their own brand of cinematic tribute to the romantic idea of these types of outposts, before they shattered the illusion of their serenity and security with this sequence. It made me recall the many Westerns that first established the idea of these oases in the vast territories of our as yet unsettled country, where tired cowboys could water their horses, throw down a whiskey and either raise hell or bed down for the night before continuing on their journeys. After watching the drama Heat Lightning (1934) on TCM several days ago, I remembered some others that were told from the perspective of the proprietors of such places and their experiences with the eclectic visitors to their establishments.

As moira has written, Heat Lightning (1934) is about a woman (Aline MacMahon) who believes that she has escaped her past after being a victim of love; she’d renounced her feminine fragility by becoming a mechanic where she and her comely younger sister (Ann Dvorak) have relocated – to their desert outpost. However, when her former lover (Preston Foster) returns with a fellow bank robber (Lyle Talbot) in tow, she is forced to deal with her feelings which fluctuate from one extreme to the other. The cast is spiced with a wide varied of character actors (Glenda Farrell, Frank McHugh, Ruth Donnelly, even Jane Darwell and Edgar Kennedy) that provide either grounding to the story or comic relief.

The Petrified Forest (1936)

A couple of years later, Warner Bros. produced a very similar drama, based on Robert E. Sherwood’s play The Petrified Forest (1936), starring Leslie Howard as an itinerant poet, Bette Davis as an artist-cum-waitress in a roadside restaurant owned by her father (Porter Hall), and Humphrey Bogart in his star-making role as Duke Mantee, a John Dillinger-inspired convict killer on the run that decides to use the remote locale for his gang’s hideout until things cool down. This one also includes a variety of characters played by a very capable supporting roster, and its story divides them into two groups: those that are dreaming for something different and those that have accepted their lot in life (no matter how mundane). Genevieve Tobin, Dick Foran, and Charley Grapewin are among those in the cast.

RKO set their B drama One Crowded Night (1940) in a tourist camp on the edge of the Mojave Desert, and proceeded to fashion one coincidence after another until the improbable contrivances became too many for any semblance of credibility. One wonders if it had been done as a subtle comedy instead, which its director Irving Reis was capable of given his later tongue-in-cheek work on the Falcon series, whether it could have become a ‘cult classic’. The basic plot is much like those already mentioned: a family runs a motel/gas station/diner stop in the desert on the way to San Diego from parts east, and the action starts when various guests from different walks of life – including gangsters – arrive to disrupt the otherwise idyllic location. Among the more recognizable members of the cast are J.M. Kerrigan, Paul Guilfoyle, and Anne Revere.

A much different (kind of) story was the basis for Warner Bros.’s Oscar winning Holiday short Star in the Night (1945), which featured J. Carrol Naish, Donald Woods, Rosina Galli and a couple of uncredited staples: Irving Bacon and Dick Elliott (among others). It’s a contemporary version of the Birth of the Baby Jesus set in the desert at the remote roadside diner/motel owned and operated by Nick Catapoli (Naish) and wife Rosa (Galli). When the film opens, Nick is a life hardened pessimist that’s weary of everyone’s self-centeredness and skeptical about their motives. Rosa tells everyone that ‘her Nickie’ is a good man, “never mind his tough exterior”, and the course of the narrative bears it out. He sees the selflessness by which everyone pitches in to help the young couple with the birth of their son on Christmas Eve, and experiences a transformation in attitude towards the penniless loner (Woods, as a forgotten man). The most surprising thing about this one is not the fact that it won six time Oscar winner Gordon Hollingshead the Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Two-reel, but something else that many who have seen it on TCM during December probably don’t know – it was the directorial debut of Don Siegel, who’s best known today for his collaborations with Clint Eastwood including Dirty Harry (1971) but whose career resume also includes directing Richard Widmark’s Madigan (1968) and John Wayne’s farewell performance in The Shootist (1976).

For remote roadside establishment scenes in more recent movie, see John Carpenter’s Starman (1984) or the Coen’s first use of such a locale in their hilarious (and best?) black comedy Raising Arizona (1987).

Perhaps our MovieMorlocks readers can think of some others?

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12 Responses Didja ever notice “life in a desert highway outpost” in film?

Posted By Tom Ryan : April 27, 2008 2:28 pm

Dennis Weaver stopping in a roadside cafe' in DUEL.

Posted By moira : April 27, 2008 2:37 pm

Gee, HighHurdler, I hadn't really thought about the desert pit stop as the location of another genre before, but I think you've uncovered a new one, (at least for me). As for examples of others, I immediately thought of a lousy rehash of The Petrified Forest, called Escape in the Desert (1945) as one wizened sprig on the branch of this cinematic tree. Starring Dutch émigré actor Philip Dorn as a downed flier, Helmut Dantine as a Nazi baddie and numerous others whose careers at WB never really panned out (i.e. Irene Manning), it meanders along with some welcome comic relief from the irrepressible Alan Hale. The movie seems to have been on the shelf at Warners long enough for Adolf Hitler to kill himself and the European theatre of war to finally end. No wonder all the principals look so tired in this movie. Bagdad Cafe (1987) is a modern movie about a really busy desert truckstop filled with eccentrics like Jack Palance, Marianne Sägebrecht, CCH Pounder. It is pretty odd, but very likable and one of Palance's best. Rawhide (1951) is a Western I like with Tyrone Power as an assistant manager of a stagecoach station who's a bit of a dude. It takes place in the high desert where Power and terminally disgruntled stationmaster Edgar Buchanan manage a lonely outpost serving the Wells Fargo stagecoaches that travel through the arid landscape. They try to cope with outlaws Hugh Marlowe, (the usually bland actor plays, believe it or not, a very bad man), George Tobias, (as a rather nice baddie), Dean Jagger, (who, in a change of pace from his usual casting, is a dumb guy), and, in what I think may be his premiere performance, former accountant and wonderful actor, Jack Elam, who steals the show as a floridly sadistic minion. Elam causes the most trouble and he's the most entertaining guy in the movie, especially when he eyes Susan Hayward, who pops up as a permanently ticked off former dance hall girl toting her sister's toddler with her across the desert. Director Henry Hathaway does a great job capturing the bleakness and harsh beauty of the wasteland, and, when the outlaws and the innocent are trapped inside the stagecoach station, there is a palpable feeling of claustrophobia and desperation, enhanced by the brickwork of that interior. Great cinematography by Milton Krasner too.

Posted By Jenni : April 27, 2008 3:25 pm

You can't forget Ace in the Hole, starring Kirk Douglas, as a hotshot newspaper reporter who is milking the story of a man trapped in an ancient Native American burial site, which is on the outskirts of a hole in the wall desert town. The town is definitely the type of place one drives thru, on their way to somewhere else, and might stop at the gas station/cafe/tourist shop for a stretch of the legs.

Posted By RHS : April 27, 2008 5:05 pm

In a word… Tremors.

Posted By Medusa : April 27, 2008 9:29 pm

Glad RHS mentioned Tremors! And boy, that movie holds up! Great monster! I also fondly recall the Ellen Burstyn movie Resurrection where she ends up operating desert gas station, and so much more, of course. Haven't seen it for a while, unfortunately.Great topic!- m

Posted By melly : April 27, 2008 11:55 pm

come on, guys – Bus Stop with Marilyn bm5f

Posted By MDR : April 28, 2008 7:35 am

Wow, these are all great additions to the topic; I'm especially glad that Jenni mentioned one of my favorites (Ace in the Hole) that I somehow failed to include in my article. And Tremors, yeah, that turns the idyllic into hell doesn't it?

Posted By moira : April 28, 2008 9:38 am

Good call on Ace in the Hole (1950), Jenni. It's one of the greats in this genre! How odd that we haven't mentioned Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), one of director John Sturges' and actor Spencer Tracy's best, turning an eye as pitiless as the desert sun on the dessicated train stop where some of the snakes walk upright on two legs. Simon of the Desert (1965) directed by Luis Bunuel may seem like an odd choice for "desert pit stop" films. Yet, if you've seen this funny & surreal spiritual meditation on the life of the saint, Simon of Stylites, who spent 37 years atop a pillar trying to communicate with God, it might strike you as thematically kindred with The Petrified Forest–if looked at from a certain angle. Both films concern a man (Leslie Howard's character, Alan Squier & St. Simon, respectively) who is out of sync with his time and his surroundings, recognizes that fact, and seeks to withdraw from life's constant hubbub to contemplate his inadequacies. Both encounter myriad examples of the pompous, the base, the angelic and the deluded during their time in the desert, which turns out to be alot more heavily trafficked than anticipated.

Posted By Patricia : April 28, 2008 10:37 am

John Alexander's runs Ryker's, a very busy relay station in Anthony Mann's "Winchester '73" (1950). Like Rick's, eventually everyone passes through – our good guys Jimmy Stewart & Millard Mitchell, our baddies – Stephen McNally, James Millican & Steve Brodie, and the very interesting gun runner played by the very interesting John McIntire.Roy Huggin's "Hangman's Knot" (1952) finds Union officer Randolph Scott and his men trapped with ill-gotten gold at a relay station run by Clem Bevans and his bitter daughter Jeanette Nolan. While Scott can trust Frank Faylen and Claude Jarmen, Jr. you know he's going to have trouble with Lee Marvin, especially when it comes to nurse Donna Reed and the weak-willed Richard Denning. Outside a posse led by Ray Teal is thinking only of the gold and their own brand of justice.

Posted By K. Antoine : April 28, 2008 1:24 pm

RootClip.com is partially live. We've redesigned the site, added a blog, and created user accounts, so make sure you go to rootclip.com and check out the new site! Sign up for a user account! When you sign up for an account, you are able to vote, comment and submit video to the site. It's a simple process that takes less than 5 minutes.Along with the pretty new site, comes a new video player, a new rootclip, and new prizes! All of that will be debuted at rootclip.com on April 28. The new rootclip is titled 'Good Luck' and we think you'll really like it!What is RootClip, you ask? Think choose-your-own adventure meets YouTube. Its a video collaboration website in which we start a story, and the users get to decide where it goes by shooting their own follow-up, one to two minute videos and voting on all of the submissions. Pretty cool, huh?!Oh, and the best part, the creators of the video with the highest number of votes at the end of each 2-week voting period will win straight cash homey! They'll also be eligible to compete against the other winners to create the final scene in the film for a chance to win something pretty sweet, that's going to be announced on the site on April 28!

Posted By TCM’s Movie Blog : December 23, 2008 10:36 am

[...] in the Night (1945) – I won’t reiterate my earlier summary of it here (follow this link if you care to), only lament that it’s a shame MGMWBRKO no longer updates TCM’s message boards with when it [...]

Posted By Rosetta C. Johnson : March 16, 2009 12:54 pm

You haven’t heard of cafe racing? Well, it all started with this modest roadside diner, which was established back in 1938 to cater to the growing trucking industry. The cafe racer was the place to stop off for a tea or coffee and maybe an order of bangers and mash or an egg and chips.

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