Heller in Pink Tights

Cukor's one stab at the Western genre was a typically personal response to the conventions, playing much of the adventure for comedy, and centering the plot around a touring theatrical troupe. As in so many of his films, the relationship between life and theatre is explored as the company, performing to ramshackle communities in an untamed frontier, act out heroic tales of love, passion and honourable death, surrounded by an altogether less romantic reality in which people struggle simply to survive. As in A Star Is Born and Les Girls, Hoyningen-Huene's colour designs are magnificent, and under the expert eye of Cukor, even Loren and Quinn give superb performances.