The King and Four Queens

Clark Gable and four beautiful women in the Old West

An opportunistic man in the Southwest (Gable) travels to a ranch owned by a cantankerous mother of four outlaws, all of whom are dead except maybe one. Their four wives have been without a man for two years and everyone seems obsessed with stolen loot buried somewhere on the property.

“The King and Four Queens” (1956) features a set-up reminiscent of “The Beguiled” fifteen years later. The difference is that Eastwood’s flick is a serious tragedy whereas this one has fun spirit beneath it all, not to mention a wholly contrived story that essentially sinks the proceedings. Yet Gable has his great masculine charisma and was still lean at 55 years-old during shooting. And you can’t beat the colorful Southwest locations, cited below.

Another highlight is the lovely female cast, which includes redhead Eleanor Parker (Sabina) and brunette Jean Willes (Ruby), along with two blondes, Sara Shane (Oralie) and Barbara Nichols (Birdie).

Unfortunately, the glaringly manufactured plot weighs everything down and makes it almost impossible to take the movie seriously. That’s why you’ll never hear this mentioned in the same breath as the great 50s’ Westerns; or even good ones. If you can roll with the contrivances, however, there are entertaining factors.

It runs 1 hour, 24 minutes, and was shot 17 miles northwest of St. George, Utah, in Snow Canyon State Park and at the Santa Clara River, which are in the southwest section of the state, a 2.5 hours’ drive northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. Additional footage was shot in Calabasas, which is a 35-minutes’ drive west of Hollywood, with interiors done at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios.

GRADE: C+