Starring Joel McCrea as Bat Masterson, The Gunfight at Dodge City (1959) is a smart Western about loss. The crux of the story is the loss of Bat’s brother Ed to violence, but the gunslinger loses—or else is on the verge of losing—much else besides. But Westerns aren’t pessimistic; he also gains before the movie ends. The film’s weakest link is the stuff about Billy the “half-wit” (Wright King), who does seem to know the difference between right and wrong no matter what his bro Ben says.

McCrea has a monotonous voice, but he believes in the role; and is manfully pleasant. Julie Adams fails to have her heart in it; not so Nancy Gates (Lily). Don Haggerty knows what he’s doing as an unconscientious sheriff. I said McCrea is pleasant. Gunfight is a pleasant Western in color. It does a fine job with flying fists and flying bullets. Directed by Joseph M. Newman.

The man who directed such masterworks as The Rules of the Game and La Grande illusion, Jean Renoir, should have purveyed a better Hollywood drama than The Southerner (1945), derived from a novel by George Sessions Perry. Zachary Scott and Betty Field have no real appeal as a Southern couple trying to support a family on miserable farmland. Even in ’45 this post-Depression picture had nothing new to say, and to me it gets tiring.

On the other hand, Renoir was a mostly serious man, and an artist, and The Southerner is at least a serious movie with a touch of art. Its outdoor shots are terrific. But the French auteur resembles a Southerner named William Faulkner in that he stopped proving he was a great artist after a certain period of time.

In The Ballad of Wallis Island (2025), two pop/folk musicians reunite to make some money through playing a gig on Wallis Island, off the coast of England. One musician, Herb (Tom Basden), is male; the other, Nell (Carey Mulligan), is female. An odd fan named Charles (Tim Key) hired them. Nice Nell, the singer and sharer of Herb’s music, much appeals again to Herb. He desires that they go back to performing together, because his love for Nell is reigniting. Nell, however, is now married.

Ballad was directed knowingly by James Griffiths. The screenplay, written by Basden and Key, is rather schematic but still sapid and humane. The performances are delightfully strong. Charles, it must be said, is a naif who talks too much; and, for my part, I wish there had been less Charles and more Nell. Oh, well . . .

“The Lady of the Lake” is from Bernard Malamud‘s classic short story collection, The Magic Barrel (1958). In a number of the author’s fictions, men are smitten with women they should not pursue or they should pursue them but make poor choices along the way. “Lady” is an example of the latter.

The comely Isabella asks Henry, vacationing in Italy, if he is Jewish. Growing to love the girl, Henry lies and says no since he fears Isabella might reject a Jewish lover. But this is not the case. A piercing, carefully written item, the story shows us the complications surrounding identity—and has no resolution at the end. Worthy, this, and superior to such men-in-love Malamud works as Dubin’s Lives and even “In Retirement.”