GREAT BRITAIN & LATIN, err. NORTH AMERICAN RELATIONS, PARTE CUATRA: THE WOMAN WHO RODE AWAY (1968-73)

 

1968-73, United Kingdom

Aka… The Woman Who Rode Away, La Mujer Que Se Fue a Caballo / ‘The Woman Who Went on Horseback’ (Mex and Sp), The Novice

D: Roger Vadim, then Joseph Sargent; P: Raymond Stross; Sc: Gavin Lambert; St: D.H. Lawrence [David Herbert Lawrence], Berkeley Press (‘The Woman Who Rode Away and Other Stories’, 1928)

C: Anne Heywood [Violet Joan ‘Anne’ Pretty] (The Woman), [?] (Lederman)

Syn: Mexico. Set after the Great War (1914-18, early 1920’s).

     Comm: On November 30, 1968, producer Raymond Stross announced that actress Anne Heywood would be starring in “The Novice”, a contemporary western to be shot in Mexico early in February 1969. In July of 1972 Stross revealed that they would be making an adaption of D.H. Lawrence’ s novella, THE WOMAN WHO RODE AWAY, and that it would be directed by Roger Vadim. It would still be shot in Mexico the following January. On May 14th, 1973, Stross told Boxoffice Magazine (US) that their film was still on schedule for Mexico. Then in November, Stross said the production had moved and would be made in Spain with a December start. 1974 came and went…

     THE WOMAN WHO RODE AWAY would have been their second film based on a story by Lawence following the pot-boiler “The Fox” (1967). Lawrence had written “The Woman Who Rode Away” during the summer of 1924, while he was living in New Mexico. It is a dark, allegorical tale about a bored, stifled, unnamed woman who leaves her husband (Lederman), and her two children, to seek out the remote Chilchui Indians of Mexico. She is captured, slowly drugged, and willingly prepared for ritual sacrifice by the tribesmen to restore the tribe's power. It would mark a profound spiritual transformation in her (Weird, ehhh, apologies to the late Paul Green: Encyclopedia of Weird Westerns).

     THE WOMAN WHO RODE AWAY would have been a UK production set in Mexico after the Great War and made during the waning days of the spaghetti western.

     Anne Heywood, ‘Miss Pretty’, got her start at Rank, and quickly changed her name to ‘Heywood’, which was her mother's maiden name. She met her future husband Raymond Stross while they made “A Terrible Beauty” together. Neither had been married before.

     Prior to THE WOMAN WHO RODE AWAY Stross & Heywood had made the above mentioned “A Terrible Beauty” (1960), “The Very Edge” (1963), “The Fox” (1967), “90 Degrees in the Shade” (1967), “The Lady of Monza (1969, It), “The Midas Run” (1969) and “I Want What I Want” (1972).  THE WOMAN WHO RODE AWAY would have been their eighth film together. That honor would wait for a few years later until “Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff” (1979). The couple married that same year.

     French director Roger Vadim, had just made “Barbarella” (1968), and when THE WOMAN WHO RODE AWAY stalled Vadim, never without something to do, moved over to such films as “Pretty Maids All in a Row” (1971, MGM), “Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman” (02/22/73, Fr), with Brigitte Bardot and “Charlotte” (1974), with his newest discovery Sirpa Lane in the title role.

     American director Joseph Sargent, who was announced second, was well suited to making THE WOMAN WHO RODE AWAY having helmed TV episodes of “Bonanza” (1964), “Daniel Boone” (1965) and “Gunsmoke” (1962-65), before turning to features.

     Brit scripter Gavin Lambert had written such things as “The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone” (1961, US) and “Inside Daisy Clover” (1965, US) and had worked with Stross & Heywood on “I Want What I Want”.

     In the end THE WOMAN WHO RODE AWAY got away from them and went unmade.

     Thanks to the ‘glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen’ site for additional info.

 

By Michael Ferguson