Movies Under the Stars

Johnny Guitar (1954)
Film Screening

An NCPA & Film Heritage Foundation Presentation

Richard Brody in The New Yorker described Nicholas Ray’s Johnny Guitar as “one of the greatest Westerns”. Joan Crawford takes centrestage as Vienna, a saloon owner with a sordid past. Vienna has built a saloon outside of town and she hopes to build her own town once the railroad is put through, but the townsfolk want her gone. When four men hold up a stagecoach and kill a man, the townspeople, led by Emma Small (Mercedes McCambridge), come to the saloon to lynch four of Vienna’s friends, the Dancin’ Kid and his men. Vienna stands strong against them, and is aided by the presence of an old acquaintance of hers, Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden), a guitar-strumming ex-gunfighter who has a history with Vienna and who is not what he seems.

Director: Nicholas Ray
Screenplay: Philip Yordan
Cinematography: Harry Stradling Sr
Cast: Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden & Mercedes McCambridge

Admission on a first-come-first-served basis. NCPA Members will get preferential seating till 6.50 pm.