Mann and Woman: the Function of the Feminine in the “Noir Westerns” of Anthony Mann

Abstract

This paper considers the ways in which the feminine has been considered and theorized in the critical literature on the genre. We consider and explore the relationship between two issues in particular, on the one hand the problem of female acquiescence in relation to the “shoot-out.” We call this the “Virginian effect” due to its derivation from the climactic moment in Owen Wister’s seminal and hugely influential novel The Virginian (1902), in short the moment where the female who loves the male hero renounces her previous opposition to the hero engaging in a shoot-out with the villain. On the other hand the issue of female circulation in the Western, the capacity of women to move between differing and even opposing sides in a Western conflict. We explore the relationship between female acquiescence and circulation in three early Anthony Mann westerns.