Hard Times is a tiny town clinging to life. And life takes a turn for the worse when a sadistic drunk (Aldo Ray) rides into town.
He rapes and murders a saloon girl, kills the town founder who rushes to her defense, steals a horse, and then guns down its owner.
After urging caution, town mayor Will Blue (Henry Fonda) decides to intervene, using a second saloon girl (Janice Rule as Molly) as a distraction.
But Blue flees after exchanging a couple of gunshots with the man, leaving Molly in the hands of the sadist.
By the time he finally rides off, Hard Times is in ashes.
Blue, a man on the cusp of 50, a man who’s fled every challenge he’s faced in life, is determined to stay put now and help the town rebuild.
He takes in Jimmy Fee, the town founder’s son, as his own. He nurses Molly back to health and eventually tells newcomers to town that she’s his wife.
But she’s tortured by memories of what happened. And everyone fears that one day the killer from Brodie will return.
Aldo Ray as the Man from Brodie sets his sight on Flo (Ann McCrea) while bartender Avery (Lon Chaney Jr.) tries to intervene in Welcome to Hard Times (1967)
Review:
Veteran director Burt Kennedy serves up a memorable opening to this rather bleak affair. And Aldo Ray manages to be terrifying without ever saying a word.
The film also features one of most complicated family dynamics you’ll find in a Western.
Blue feels responsible for what’s happened to Molly. He wants to take care of her. He wouldn’t mind having a future with her. He wants her to respect him as a man.
Molly’s appreciative of his help. But she can’t love Blue, and she won’t ever let him forget that he left her at the mercy of a maniac when she needed protection.
So she’s training their “son” to be her protection, to come rushing with shotgun at the ready whenever she cries for help.
The supporting cast includes John Anderson, Warren Oates and Keenan Wynn as newcomers to Hard Times; Kalen Liue and Dan Ferrone are the young lovers who represent the future of the town.
Janice Rule as Molly Riordan with Henry Fonda as Will Blue in Welcome to Hard Times (1967)
Directed by:
Burt Kennedy
Cast:
Henry Fonda … Will Blue
Janice Rule … Molly Riordan
Keenan Wynn … Zar
Janis Paige … Adah
John Anderson … Ezra Maple / Isaac Maple
Warren Oates … Leo Jenks
Aldo Ray … Man from Brodie
Michael Shea … Jimmy Fee
Fay Spain … Jessie
Edgar Buchanan … Brown
Denver Pyle … Alfie
Arlene Golonka … Mae
Lon Chaney Jr. … Avery
Royal Dano … John Bear
Alan Baxter … Jack Millay
Paul Fix … Major Munn
Elisha Cook Jr. … Hanson
Kalen Liue … China, aka Blossom
Dan Ferrone … Bert Albany
Ann McCrea … Flo
Runtime: 103 min.
Keenan Wynn as saloon owner Zar (right) with Blossom (Kalen Luie), Bert Albany (Dan Ferrone) and two of Zar’s other girls in Welcome for Hard Times (1967)
Memorable lines:
Ezra Maple to Mayor Will Blue: “Not much of a country, is it Blue? If the drought and the blizzards don’t get ya, some devil with liquor in his soul and a gun in his claw will.”
Will Blue, looking at the ruins of a town in flames: “All my life, I’ve been moving on. I’m goin’ on 50 and a failure cause all my life I’ve been moving on. Never could bring myself to stand it out in one place. Stand it out when things start goin’ against me. I’d back up, move on down the road. This is the end of the road Ezra. This is as far as I go.”
Ezra Maple: “The town’s gone, Blue.”
Will Blue: “We’ve got a well and a cemetery. That’s a beginning.”
Zar, as he and Blue ride into a ghost town and see a sign with its name on it. “Hope. Funny how ghost towns always have names full of promise. We better not let that happen when we name our town.”
Blue: “We’ll call her what we’ve always called her — Hard Times.”
Henry Fonda as Will Blue offers Jimmy Fee (Michael Shea) fatherly advice in Welcome to Hard Times (1967)
Stage driver Alfie, to Blue: “That’s what I like about you. You could be hanging from a cliff by your fingers, and you’d call it climbing a mountain.”
Molly: “Are you saying I mean something to you?”
Will Blue: “”I’m saying what you think about me matters. Don’t ask me why. All I know is I’ll never be a man in my own eyes until I am in yours.”
Molly to Will Blue as young Jimmy Fee practices his shooting skills with Jenks: “Were you any good with a gun, you might teach the boy a little manliness.”
Will Blue: “That’s not manliness.”
Molly: “How would you know? How would you know anything about being a man?”
Molly, about Jimmy Fee: “I’m training me a mount to ride that bad man straight to hell!”
Molly to Will Blue: “You know, the saddest thing of all is no child has ever been born in this town. And none ever will be.”
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