“Just Like That…”
While watching William Wellman’s classic oater Westward the Women I decided a good old fashioned bullwhip is essential to the success of any romantic relationship. The minute Robert Taylor cracked one in front of Denise Darcel, love was in the air. In seconds, they were confessing their mutual affection; and when Taylor got drunk a few scenes later, he didn’t brag to Henry Nakamura about tenderness, but about the rough stuff. “I want to make the bullwhip crack — just like that,” he said over and over, his eyes glazed with lust. What a western!
Funny, how those S&M overtones escaped me the first four or five times I saw the film.
