CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA (1954)

   Ronald Reagan, Barbara Stanwyck, Jack Elam, Allan Dwan (director).

   When Ronald Reagan was elected president of the United States in 1981, he deliberately cultivated an image of the all-American cowboy, riding his horse around his ranch, often dressed in blue jeans and a cowboy hat. He used imagery based on the myth of the West in his speeches. Cattle Queen of Montana is a fairly neglected Western. In fact, it has often been considered a B Western though it was a full-budget film. Barbara Stanwyck gives a skilled performance and a young Jack Elam shows why he became one of the favorite bad guys of all time. But the Cattle Queen of Montana’s real significance is that it is perhaps Ronald Reagan’s best Western.

   Sierra Nevada Jones (Barbara Stanwyck) and her father drive cattle from Texas to Montana to establish their legal claim to a small ranch. But a band of Indiansattack, kill Pops, drive off the cattle, and leave Jones with nothing. What really happened was that the bad Indian Natchakoa (Anthony Caruso) is in the pay of a wealthy land grabber, McCord (Gene Evans). But Natchakoa’s rival is Colorados (Lance Fuller), a college-educated Indian who is trying to civilize his people in the white people’s ways. Colorados aids Jones, and the two come perilously close to a relationship. In the background is one of McCord’s newest hands, a professional gunfighter named Farrell (Ronald Reagan). Farrell is a left-handed gunfighter, so his motivations are suspect. However, affection develops between Farrell and Sierra as well as between Sierra and Colorados. Farrell turns out to be an undercover federal agent investigating McCord, so he is a good guy after all. Together, Colorados and Farrell work to get Sierra’s cattle and land back and to put McCord away. Sierra even works for the government to help trap McCord. The film affirms all the values President Reagan would affirm as true American values: selfreliance, hard work, good ultimately triumphs over evil, and the government in its limited role always serves the good of private landowners.