Honky Tonk (1941)

Clark Gable is Candy Johnson, who’s nearly tarred and feathered along with sidekick Sniper (Chill Wills) for conning decent folks out of their money.

So he decides it’s time to find a town where he can make a big score, and where he can become the person who says who can come and who must go.

He lands in the gold rush town of Yellow Creek, where Brazos Hearn (Albert Dekker) wears the sheriff’s badge, owns the saloon and rules the roost.

First, Candy draws attention to the fact that Bravos’ customers are likely being cheated. Then he shows up Brazos in a rigged game of Russian roulette.

Finally, he opens a competing saloon, offering the good folks of Yellow Creek a “fair” deal.

The next part of his plan involves convincing those good folks that’s he’s a man with good intentions. Chief among the residents he wants to impress is lovely Lucy Cotton (Lana Turner), a rather naive young woman from the east.

Four stolen kisses, and Lucy begins to warm to Candy’s smooth-talking ways. And when Candy puts up the money to build a church … well, she just knows he can’t be as bad as people say.

The blossoming romance doesn’t sit well with Gold Dust Nelson (Claire Trevor), a saloon girl whose dalliances with Candy pre-date his arrival in Yellow Creek.

And it doesn’t sit well with Lucy’s dad, Judge Cotton, who’s in cahoots with Brazos, is willing to be in cahoots with Candy, but fears the effect the silver-tongued devil will have on his daughter.

Turns out Lucy’s quite capable of getting a wedding ring on Candy’s finger, in spite of Gold Dust’s doubts.

As for Judge Cotton’s concerns, those prove very well founded. Because Candy might have been tricked into marriage, but he has no intention of changing his crooked ways.

Clark Gable as Candy Johnson, catching his first glimpse of Lucy Cotton in Honky Tonk (1941)

Lana Turner as Lucy Cotton, convince she can change the man she falls for in Honky Tonk (1941)

Review:

Though she’d already ended the first of her eight marriages in real life, Turner is gorgeous and quite convincing as the innocent young woman from Boston.

Heck, you almost wish she wouldn’t fall for that egotistical snake who calls himself Candy. But then there wouldn’t be a film, would there?

The focus here is less on Wild West action than their romance. Memorable scenes includes Gold Dust’s quite catty visit with Lucy, and the night Candy plans to whisk Lucy off to a fancy hotel in Sacramento and wakes up wearing a wedding ring instead.

In addition to Trevor and Dekker, the supporting cast includes a young and quite slim Chill Wills as Candy’s partner in crime and Marjorie Main as a pastor’s widow who runs the boarding house where Lucy stays.

Turner and Gable wound up starring together in three more films: “Somewhere I’ll Find You” (1942), “Homecoming” (1948) and “Betrayed” (1954).

Chill Wills as Sniper, Candy Johnson’s faithful if mischievous sidekick in Honky Tonk (1941)

Frank Morgan as Judge Cotton, Lucy’s father, engaging in one of his favorite activities in Honky Tonk (1941)

Directed by:
Jack Conway

Cast:
Clark Gable … Candy Johnson
Lana Turner … Lucy Cotton
Frank Morgan … Judge Cotton
Albert Dekker …. Brazos Hearn
Claire Trevor … Gold Dust Nelson
Marjorie Main … Mrs. Varner
Chill Wills … The Sniper
Henry O’Neill … Daniel Wells
Veda Ann Borg … Pearl
Douglas Wood … Gov. Wilson
Betty Blythe … Mrs. Wilson
harry Worth … Harry Gates
Lew Harvey … Blackie

Runtime: 105 min.

Albert Dekker as Brazos Hearn, the man who runs Yellow Creek until Candy arrives in Honky Tonk (1941)

Claire Trevor as Gold Dust Nelson, filling Lucy in on the real Candy Johnson in Honky Tonk (1941)

Memorable lines:

Candy Johnson: “I’m tired of being run out of somebody else’s town. I’m going to find me a town of my own. I’m going to be the gent who says go or stay. But I can’t do it with this thing (a satchel of gambling tricks) growing out of my hand.” He throws it off the back of the train.
Sniper: “You going to turn honest?”
Candy: “I’m going to turn smart.”

Lucy Cotton to Candy Johnson: “They always warn young ladies about men who have clean hands in a country where every honest man works.”

Judge Cotton to his daughter: “Did this Candy Johnson bother you, my dear?”
Lucy Cotton, convinced she’s caught Candy’s attention: “Not half as much as I bothered him.”

Candy Johnson: “How’d you know that gent was behind you?”
Gold Dust: “I’ve had a lot of practice smelling out snakes.”

Mrs. Varner, when Candy turns on the charm: “I’m young enough to like that stuff. But too old to believe it.”

Lucy Cotton: “Mr. Johnson, I’ve come down to tell you that you’re on the wrong side of town.”
Candy Johnson: “I think the two sides ought to get together.”

Lucy Cotton: “My Aunt Sarah used to say that when a man said he wasn’t the marrying kind, it only meant that he wasn’t married yet.”
Gold Dust: “Maybe in Boston. But this is Yellow Creek, Nevada.”

Marjorie Main as Mrs. Varner, taking her late husband’s place at the pulpit in Honky Tonk (1941)

Lana Turner as Lucy Cotton, about to trick Candy Johnson (Clark Gable) out of $10 for a good cause in Honky Tonk (1941)

Lana Turner as Lucy Cotton, determined to beat her beau at his own game in Honky Tonk (1941)

Clark Gable as Candy Johnson, challenging his rival to a game of Russian roulette in Honky Tonk (1941)