The Iron Mistress (1952)

The Iron Mistress (1952)


Plot Summary

In 1825, Jim Bowie (Alan Ladd) travels to New Orleans to sell the output from the sawmill he runs with his brothers. He soon meets the beautiful Judalon de Bornay (Virginia Mayo) who seems to have most men wrapped around her little finger. She clearly likes him but when he tells her he's leaving, she manipulates one of her beaus into challenging him for a duel. Bowie survives the confrontation but devises a plan to sell the not only his lumber but also the family mill and invest it in land. Within a couple of years, the Bowie brothers are quite rich and Jim meets Judalon again - only this time she is married. It doesn't stop her from manipulating those around her. Jim's business interests lead to a bloody duel where several people are killed and a confrontation with local saloon owner and crook Black Jack Sturdevant. (Anthony Caruso) After Sturdevant tries to kill him on the trail, Bowie is rescued by a beautiful Mexican woman and decides to make his home in Texas.

This is a barely historical account of Jim Bowie's life up to the point that he moves to Texas and in fact, truth be told, there's never been a very accurate portrayal of Bowie on film. Yes, he was an American legend but he was a scoundrel in real life who deserved every bit of the violence that ripped through his life. The film portrayals have all been pretty much whitewashed making him out to be a chivalrous and great man. That being said, there have been some pretty good actors who've essayed the role such as Richard Widmark among others. Allan Ladd gives a pretty good performance here playing Bowie much in the same vein as his most famous role of Shane in the movie of the same title.

The script seems to owe a lot to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby as Bowie goes to New Orleans as pretty much a ragtag country boy who falls in love with Virginia Mayo and doesn't see the manipulation that she puts him through. This is where the movie kind of loses it for me as Mayo CLEARLY gives off the manipulative bitch persona but she seems so cold as a person that it's hard to believe a guy would fall for her but alas men are falling all over themselves to be her man. She's this manipulative witch throughout the film getting Bowie to do her dirty work and he doesn't catch on to it until pretty much the end of the film.

Thankfully the movie is saved by having some very colorful characters including John James Audobon (yes the same Audobon that the bird society is named after) who is played as an eccentric frenchman by George Voskovec. Bowie's business associates when he makes big money with cotton raising and land speculation are pretty out there and flamboyant and the scheme that they use to thwart Juan Moreno and his associates who are blocking them from getting a bank loan is sheer craziness as they buy a horse from a the shady saloon owner, gambler and crook Black Jack Sturdevant. The plan works and it also leads to the the rather kooky (though played straight) creation of the Bowie Knife.

Bowie goes to a famed shoesmith and gives him the specs for his knife. The guy casually mentions the strongest steel he's ever seen which came from a falling star and he uses said steel to forge the knife with! The Bowie knife is the Iron Mistress the film title refers to.

The movie is a bit of a sprawling and perhaps a bit overlong tale but it has it's moments such as Bowie having a duel in total blindness against one of Mayo's suitors who killed her brother. The first part of the film actually has the feel of an Errol Flynn swashbuckler but it settles into its own thing about halfway through. I kind of liked that they used the flamboyant adventure movie style to set the story up as it gave the film a sense of excitement which unfortunately dissipates rather quickly the further we go along. it's not a bad movie and the acting is pretty good. I just think it could've been a little shorter and maybe a little less cluttered.

** 1/2 stars