Saturday Night Cinema: The Outlaw

Tonight's feature film, "The Outlaw" is a 1943 classic Western directed by Howard Hughes and starring Jane Russell. The supporting cast includes Walter Huston as Doc Holliday. Hughes also produced the film, while Howard Hawks served as an uncredited co-director. The film is notable as Russell's breakthrough role, turning the young actress into a sex symbol and a Hollywood icon.

The Outlaw gained worldwide notoriety, stemming from an obsession with Jane Russell's ample assets.

Jane Russell won the lead role after Howard Hughes conducted a nationwide search for a curvaceous actress, eventually finding her working in his dentist's office. The film caused a storm of controversy, due primarily to the amount of cleavage shown by Russell onscreen, and, after brief releases in 1941 and 1943…

Although the movie was completed in 1941, it was released to only a limited showing two years later. It did not see a general release until 1946. The delay was a result of Hughes defying the Hays Code, which set the standard of morally acceptable content in motion pictures. By showcasing Russell's breasts in both the movie and the poster artwork, The Outlaw became very controversial.

In 1941, while filming The Outlaw, Hughes felt that the camera did not do justice to Jane Russell's large bust. He employed his engineering skills to design a new cantilevered underwire bra to emphasize her assets. Hughes added rods of curved structural steel that were sewn into the brassiere below each breast. The rods were connected to the bra's shoulder straps. The arrangement allowed the breasts to be pulled upward and made it possible to move the shoulder straps away from the neck. The design allowed for any amount of bosom to be freely exposed.

The emphasis on her breasts proved too much for the Hollywood Production Code Administration, which ordered cuts to the film. To obtain the Boards' required Seal of Approval, Hughes reluctantly removed about 40 feet, or a half-minute, of footage that featured Russell's bosom. He still had problems getting the film distributed, so he schemed to create a public outcry for his film to be banned. The resulting controversy generated enough interest to get The Outlaw into the theaters for one week in 1943, before being withdrawn due to objections by the Code censors. When the film was finally released in 1946, it was a box office hit.

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Kenny Solomon

13 years ago

Hi:
Let’s see if this posts. Been having trouble with the log-in system and “Post”/”Preview” buttons here at Atlas. Guessing it’s just me and my twelve thumbs causing the mush, but that’s why y’all ain’t seen me ’round here lately – not that anyone cares or even noticed.
Anyway, y’all enjoy the movie above. Pretty sure my dad worked on the prints for the east coast of the US. He’s 89 and has pretty heavy dementia – doesn’t remember much nowadays. He worked for 20th Century Fox and Technicolor too – interrupted by several years in Europe when everyone thought the world was gonna end the second time. I’ve got a good solid master DVD of the movie and it’s one of the best good/bad movies of all time.
Just for giggles, if you have a bit of time after the film, take a look at one of the things I’ve been on for a bit now – way before the “Presidential Memorandum” was issued – but this new mess starts on October 30th with a lovely little document issued by our humble but lovable Jihadist At 1600™…… http://www.redstate.com/etcartman/2010/10/30/obama-using-children-as-soldiers-is-perfectly-fine
Cheers !
Kenny Solomon
South Florida

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Stogie

13 years ago

Great flick. Jane Russell was a real beauty.
Sorry about the idiotic comment above. What a schmuck!

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doc

13 years ago

hey barry, put this slurpee glass on your head

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MFS

13 years ago

Hi Pamela.
Left this story already with Spencer he did not react to it ,perhaps you will recognise the true value of it.
Indonesian President Urged to Help Islam Engage With the West. With just a few days to go until Barack Obama arrives in Indonesia, a prominent American Islamic scholar has called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to show the Western world the true face of Islam.“The real battleground is between the moderates of all religions against the radicals of all religions,” Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, founder and chief executive of the American Society for Muslim Advancement and leader of the Al-Farah mosque in New York, said at the State Palace in Central Jakarta on Friday.Feisal said Muslims should be responsible to help change negative attitudes toward Islam by intensifying interfaith dialogue and fighting radicalism. “I am convinced that with the right behavior, the right ethics, we will change the hearts and minds of people in America toward Islam,” he said.Hmmm…Iman Rauf the Ground Zero Mosque founder laying the groundwork for the U.S. President his Indonesian visit?
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/indonesian-president-urged-to-help-islam-engage-with-the-west/405216
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/11/06/ny-muslim-leader-talks-moderate-islam.html

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CMax

13 years ago

Huston was great. Hughes should have let someone else direct. Not bad for an amateur; but so many bad takes and pregnant pauses in the editing!

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CMax

13 years ago

By the way, is that a nipple I see in the poster? Yep.

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Erik Martin

13 years ago

Love Howard Hughes. I wonder how he would have ended up, if not for the major injuries he sustained due to the plane crash (and his subsequent and ever growing addiction to pain killers). He looked like the type of businessman whom Ayn Rand idolized. A brilliant industrialist and entrepreneur.

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Darlene

13 years ago

Please note that it would have been a crime against humanity if Jane Russell had been forced to wear a burka. lol

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JOE

13 years ago

Just another Saturday and another large black box. I don’t understand why some can watch the movie and others just have a black box. This seems to be an ongoing problem with these movies.

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Stogie

13 years ago

The comment to which I was referring has been deleted (thankfully). I was not referring to Kenny’s comment.

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Schvach

13 years ago

Harold Robbins, in his novel ‘The Carpetbaggers’ (although some aging Jews like me might read ‘The Carpathians’) writes a parody in which Howard Hughes employs an aeronautical engineer to design
a sufficiently stout brazier for Jane Russell.

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