B Role #2: Wichita (Tourneur, 1955)

I look at Jacques Tourneur’s excellent western Wichita for my second “B Role” column at The House Next Door. The film deals with the Earp legend in very interesting ways, one of which is representing his origin story as almost pre-ordained and fated.

The Most Dangerous Game (Pichel, Schoedsack, 1932)

This Joel McCrea vehicle must have been daring for its time, considering the dark subject matter (hunting humans) and brutal execution of characters (one bad guy gets impaled!). Unfortunately, nowadays this all seems very familiar, making the film feel more dated than usual. Still, this early example of tightly paced action cinema remains a must see for classic film buffs.