"Westward the Women" may not be the greatest western ever made but it's certainly one of the most unusual and is, indeed, very fine and I'm amazed it isn't better known. The women in question are 140 brides being brought West for for the male townsfolk in a Californian valley on a wagon-train lead by Robert Taylor. The director of the picture was William Wellman and William C. Mellor shot it in crisp black-and-white and it has a fine screenplay by Charles Schnee from a story by none other than Frank Capra.

As wagon-train movies go, it's not only unusual but remarkably robust and full of incident and it deals with the male/female dynamic with a surprising degree of honesty and if you don't think so, remember this was 1951. It's certainly not sentimental and Wellman approaches his subject with much the same documentary-like realism that John Ford brought to "Wagonmaster". In a good supporting cast Denise Darcel and Hope Emerson stand out.

This film has a lot of aspects that are quite refreshing and remarkable considering when it was made. The main supporting role is a Japanese cowboy! His character is not a typical stereotype either. Though he is comic relief, he is also given a role as a wise friend to Taylor's character. The unglamourous but brave and capable women in this film are also a nice surprise. They shoot, ride, lift and pull and do all the jobs usually done by men on this trip without complaint. One of the most touching scenes is right after an Indian raid as the women call out the names of the dead and the camera pans down to their lifeless bodies. It's a simple and unsentimental memorial to the sacrifices made.