Westward the Women

media release: USA | 1951 | 35mm | 118 min.

Director: William Wellman

Cast: Robert Taylor, Denise Darcel, Hope Emerson

Trail guide Buck Wyatt (Robert Taylor) leads a large group of single females on a wagon train from Chicago to a California valley community where the women will meet and marry the men who are the town’s first settlers. A moving and entertaining Western, filled with drama and heartbreak and romance, Westward the Women was recently cited as one of five favorite movies by filmmaker Alexander Payne, who also called it “a completely neglected masterpiece.” Payne will introduce this screening of an excellent 35mm print, courtesy of the Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research.

Admission free for all screenings, seating limited. No admission 15 minutes after scheduled start times. Please visit our website for a complete listing of programs and descriptions.

ALEXANDER PAYNE IN PERSON!

Fresh from his triumph with The Holdovers, the Cinematheque welcomes back filmmaker Alexander Payne, who last visited our screening facilities and the Wisconsin Film Festival in 2014. The two-time Academy Award winner will present The Holdovers, a movie designed to look like it was made in 1970, on one of a limited number of 35mm prints. Payne will also offer an introduction to a movie he recently cited as one of his very favorites, William A. Wellman’s rousing and moving 1951 Western, Westward the Women, also presented on 35mm.