Take Me to Town

Douglas Sirk's Take Me to Town, from 1953, is a delight that will charm even those who have never heard of the great director. Ann Sheridan provides the oomph as a saloon singer on the run from the law. Three young boys who are searching for a wife for their widowed father offer her safe haven at their cabin and she discovers the joys of domesticity. The boy's father, played by the always welcome Sterling Hayden, is a preacher who leaves the boys alone at the cabin while he makes ends meet working as a logger. Hayden succumbs to the singer's charms and, despite opposition by the uptight parishioners, love wins the day.

Like most of Sirk's films for Universal in the 50s, the film functions as a celebration of American abundance and a critique of American intolerance. The townspeople are unable to view Southern's Vermillion O'Toole (!) with any sexual ambiguity: since she is not a virgin, she must be a whore. Their judgement is immature, much like the youngest boy, Bucket, who either likes things or hates them. The tolerance shown by Hayden's preacher serves as a beacon of mature acceptance.

Take Me to Town is a cheap B Western with musical numbers. It was targeted at family audiences, like most Westerns of the time, but has nice frissons of sexuality. Hayden's character is as much of a sexual object as Southern's. A shirtless Hayden sawing wood establishes him as an emblem of virility, anticipating Rock Hudson's arborist in All That Heaven Will Allow. He is the cynosure of female attention, much like Andrew Scott's "hot priest" in Fleabag. Sirk's elevation of the material is helped by the color cinematography of the great Russell Metty (Bringing Up Baby, Touch of Evil, Madigan). This marked the first time Sirk and Metty worked together, they would reunite for nine more films. It was also the first Sirk time toiled in a Ross Hunter production. The melodramas Sirk and Hunter collaborated on would be the most lasting and influential legacies of both. Sharp eyed viewers will notice uncredited appearances by Fess Parker, Guy Williams and Anita Ekberg.