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In 1880’s Nevada, news spreads of the murder of a local cattle farmer, inciting a few dozen townspeople to form a posse hellbent on lynching those responsible for the crime. Based on the book by Walter Van Tilburg Clark and directed by the always-thoughtful William Wellman (Wings, Battleground), The Ox-Bow Incident is a relatively simple, straight-forward meditation on mob mentality and vigilante justice. When the posse comes across three travelers in the middle of the night, the travelers plead their innocence, but most of the gang don’t believe them. It becomes obvious some of them are just bloodthirsty reactionaries (we still have those today). The famous climax of the film centers around a ‘majority rules’ decision that determines the poignant fate of the accused. Henry Fonda leads the cast, surrounded with Harry Morgan, Anthony Quinn, Jane Darwell (at her vile hillbilly best), and Harry Davenport.

Oscar Nominee: Best Picture