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54 A PRACTICAL MANUAL OF SCREEN PLAYWRITING
Westerns
Because most Westerns are made for the same juvenile trade as serials, they must also conform to certain traditions. The hero must always be brave, forthright, honest, trustworthy, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, clean, and reverent— like his Cub Scout fans. The villain must always be a "yeller-bellied polecat." The girl must always be long-haired, of sweet disposition and with sufficient histrionic ability to portray a sunny disposition. Love is only sissy stuff, and woe be it if the hero ever dares kiss his girl friend. He may nuzzle his horse, but love with a girl is not countenanced.
The pattern remains unchanged since the days of Bronco Billy's "hoss oprys" or "oaters," as they are termed in the trade. That it pays off is proved by the fact that about thirty-five per cent of all American films are of the Western variety. A cheap-budgeted straight Western picture, costing between thirty-five and fifty thousand dollars to produce, is sure of netting a fifty per cent profit.
The pattern, of course, is the old familiar conflict between the hero, as represented by the cowboy, and the villain, as represented by the cattle rustler, the crooked sheriff, the rapacious banker or, in fact, any low character. The same pattern can be found in the three types of Westerns: the low-budgeted straight Western; the musical Western which usually features a recognized name star and which is produced on a medium budget; and the deluxe, top-budget, million-dollar production put out by the big studios. Basically, as far as plot pattern is concerned, there is little difference between a Monogram Studios Riders of Gower Gulch or Republic Studio's Gun Totin' Sheriff and the major studios' The Plainsman, Stagecoach, and Duel in the Sun.
Within the narrow framework of that pattern, and encumbered with a variety of taboos and musts, the screen-play writer must fashion a story that will result in a picture that is fresh, provocative, and cheap. Usually he compromises with all those qualities but the last. The hoss-opry audience wants nothing better. It cannot recognize quality or value. When a superior Western, The Oxbow Incident, dared to stray from the accepted formula, it received wide