The Iron Mistress
Tags: violence, murder

Plot synopsis:
In the early 19th century, Jim Bowie leaves his home in the bayou to sell lumber in New Orleans. He inadvertently offends Narcisse de Bornay by defending the artist James Audubon and is challenged to a duel, but charms his way out of it, and Narcisse becomes his friend.
Narcisse notices that his sister Judalon has caught Jim's eye and is concerned, knowing how haughty and spoiled she is. Henri Contrecourt, a man who has been courting her, kills Narcisse and challenges Jim to a fight, his sword versus Bowie's knife. To the surprise of everyone watching, Jim kills him. Later on, a blacksmith creates a special new knife for Bowie, partly made from the remains of a meteor.
Judalon rejects his proposal to marry wealthy Philippe de Cabanal instead. A disappointed Jim returns home and gets into the cotton business, upsetting Juan Moreno, a wealthy Mississippi cotton grower. He soon encounters Judalon, who says she wants to divorce Philippe and hints she would then marry Jim, if only he could help them erase a huge gambling debt Philippe has incurred to dangerous Bloody Jack Sturdevant.
Jim learns he has been betrayed by her again, that Judalon actually intends to wed Moreno for his money. In a fight, he kills Moreno, upsetting her. Jim is wounded and nursed to health by Ursula Veramendi, daughter of the Texas territorial governor. And when both Philippe and Sturdevant come to kill him, they accidentally end up murdering each other. Realizing once and for all that Judalon only wants money, not love, Jim begins a new life with Ursula.

Review: Jim Bowie sets off to sell lumber in New Orleans, but once there he is captivated by the beautiful Judalon de Bornay and finds that life here is vastly different to that of home.
Getting himself into many scrapes on account of his feelings for Judalon, Bowie invents a new kind of Knife, the Iron Mistress, and from here a legend is born.Nobody should go into this picture expecting a Jim Bowie biography, in fact Western fans who haven't seen it should be advised that it barely registers as a Western piece.
It's full of dandy men fighting and duelling with honour and guts, beautiful women that are surely worth fighting for, and of course it introduces us to the legendary Bowie Knife.It's based on a Paul Wellman novel, and by all accounts the film is pretty loyal to Wellman's ideals, it doesn't however take us all the way to the Alamo.
Alan Ladd takes the lead role of Bowie, shiny blonde hair and brooding for all he is worth, fans of his performance in Shane should definitely check this one out, it's a great performance from Ladd, the kind that makes the gals go gooey and the boys to thump their chests.
Virginia Mayo is Judalon and positively simmers with sexual beauty, the character is akin to a viper, and the pot boiling sexual tension is palpable in the extreme, she is in short, a woman men will die for.Some scenes are just terrific, a duel in a darkened room that is only lit by the odd flash of lightning thru a window, a knife fight as two men with one arm tied to each other face off in a circle of honour, and of course Jim Bowie in every encounter, his violent gutsy bravado fearsome as his reputation escalates.
Alan Ladd heads a fine cast in this film biography of Jim Bowie, a life that was marked by thrilling adventure and violence which ended at the Alamo.
Bowie's travels take him to New Orleans where fate takes a hand and changes the course of his life and American history.
A central figure in the film is a beautiful but vain and selfish Creole girl with whom Bowie is hopelessly smitten.
Bowie himself is obliged to fight duels for various reasons and his expertise with a knife becomes legendary.
His reputation, forged by the iron mistress, follows him like a shadow throughout his life as he tries to put the young woman and his violent past behind him.
The film starts showing Jim Bowie (Alan Ladd) and his brothers together with their mother at the "bayou" where they live.
Ladd goes to New Orleans to sell lumber, becomes friend with a painter, and is challenged for a duel by the aristocratic De Bornay.
They end up becoming friends and Ladd falls madly in love with his sister, beautiful, but spoiled Judalon(Virginia Mayo).
Ladd is forced to kill many people because of Mayo, who is attracted to him, but an aristocratic name is what she wants to marry.
The Technicolor is great, Alan Ladd has the best performance of his career and Virginia Mayo is very convincing.
This is an adventure story using fiction to tell about  the early years of James Bowie,prior to his martyrdom at the Alamo a few years after this film ends.
This is a typical romantic adventure story with Alan Ladd giving an erstwhile honest portrayal in the role that Richard Widmark  did  years later in THE ALAMO.
Fact or Fiction this is still a great adventure/action film...with a clever twist at the end.
Jim Bowie as portrayed in The Iron Mistress as the true romantic and a gentlemen hero is more fiction than fact based on folklore and "he said, she said".
In real life historians have acclaimed Jim Bowie as a somewhat shady land purveyor who in 1831 after he married nineteen- year-old Maria Ursula de Veramendi, then in 1983 he lost his wife and two children to cholera and began to drink a lot and thereafter not caring anymore about his attire.But film producers do not necessarily have to note in advance and/or clarify that some parts of their film may be embellished or that the facts may not all be known.
I for one really enjoyed Alan Ladd in the lead role as the folklore hero Jim Bowie and his long lost love affair with the attractive Judalon de Bornay played by Virginia Mayo.
There were at least three (3) different scenes in the film where Judalon de Bornayand and adventurer Jim Bowie were caught in an embrace and Judalon can be deliberately seen rolling her eyes and smirking directly towards her film audiences in our seats and telling us that she does not really love Jim Bowie and is just using him to get what she wants...money, murder, and to cause more trouble.
As Jim Bowie would eventually say to his former love Judalon de Bornay "no Judalon I don't think we can be together, you have caused the death of at least eight (8) men and that is enough." I am a big fan of Alan Ladd and especially the classic westerns (Shane) and adventure films (Boy on a Dolphin) that he starred in.
There is one scene in particular in The Iron Mistress near the end of the film that is a very clever twist where by accident or by premonition Jim Bowie is indirectly responsible for the sudden fate of two of his male combatants and his former love, Judalon.
This particular scene for me wrapped up the film in a neat little and justifiable bow that reminds me that this is only a film based on a real life person whose reputation precedes him as a dashing, handsome and daring adventurer.Alan Ladd and Virginia Mayo played their parts exceptionally well so if you like good adventure/westerns/biographies then you will most likely enjoy The Iron Mistress which the title is based not on a woman, but on Jim Bowie's specially designed hunting knife.I give the film an 8 out 10 rating..
After a decade at Paramount Sue Carol negotiated a new studio contract for Alan Ladd at Warner Brothers.
But that's another story.Alan Ladd became another one of a good list of players to take on the role of Jim Bowie.
Problem was of all the legends of the American frontier, Jim Bowie was probably the one who got the biggest whitewash in history.The man was a thoroughgoing scoundrel.
He and Jean Lafitte had a fine racket for a while with Lafitte capturing runaways in Texas and bringing them back to the U.S. for Bowie to sell, not necessarily back to their original masters.He did have a knife built to his specifications as per the film and with his activities he did tend to get into a lot of violent disagreements.
That's the Bowie knife, the Arkansas toothpick, the Iron Mistress of the title.
But Ladd plays Bowie as heroically as the legends have him and as the novel by Paul Wellman has him.
He's caught between two women, the selfish French creole aristocrat Virginia Mayo and the daughter of the Governor of the province of Coahuila in Mexico which included Texas, Phyllis Kirk.Bowie was a violent man in a violent era.
Ladd plays him like he was Shane and he was being faithful to the novel if not the real Bowie.
But then we've never seen the real one on screen any time.Still for those who liked Ladd's portrayal of Shane, The Iron Mistress is a good film for you..
Average and a little boring biopic about the mythical Jim Bowie , pre-The Alamo.
Western adventure with Jim Bowie (Alan Ladd) a man with his name on a knife and two women (Virginia Mayo , Phyllis Kirk) with a weapon all their own .
This is a mini-biography of the life of Jim Bowie in which he faces off bloody duels .
It starts In 1825, Jim Bowie travels to New Orleans to sell the lumber output from the sawmill he runs with his brothers .
Jim's business interests lead to violent fights where a lot of people are killed and there takes place a struggle with local saloon owner and nasty Black Jack (Anthony Caruso) .
Then , Bowie is rescued by an attractive Mexican girl (Phyllis Kirk) , the daughter of the Vice-Governor of San Antonio .
Barely historical presentation about the mythic character , Jim Bowie , who invented the famed frontier knife .
This colorful as well as spotty picture contains action , thrills , soap opera , knife-fights , luxurious balls and results to be entertaining ; however , being also mediocre .
Passable acting by the main starring Alan Ladd , and gorgeous Virginia Mayo who subsequently reprised her film role in Lux Radio Theater broadcast , a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie.
Support cast is frankly well , such as Joseph Calleia as Juan Moreno , Phyllis Kirk as Ursula De Varamendi , Alf Kjellin as Phillipe De Cabanal , Douglas Dick as Narcisse de Bornay and special mention to Anthony Caruso playing as crook Black Jack .
He was an expert on adventure genre as ¨Black arrow¨ , ¨Fortunes of Captain Blood¨ , both starred by Louis Hayward and Western , as he proved in the films starred by Clint Walker such as ¨Fort Dobbs¨, ¨Yellowstone Kelly¨ , ¨Gold of seven Saints¨ , Gregory Peck as ¨Only the valiant¨ , ¨Chuka¨ with Rod Taylor , ¨Rio Conchos¨ starred by Richard Boone , being considered his best Western , and about bandits legendary as ¨Doolins of Oklahoma¨ , ¨Great Missouri raid¨, among others .The real events about James Bowie's life are the followings : Texas hero and knife-fighter whose name was made world famous by the type of broad-bladed knife he used and is said to have originated .
Alan Ladd was excellent in this, as was Virgina Mayo....and he rest of the cast.Great movie.
Now in Texas, where I live, the Bowie knife is a real and really big thing.
I don't want to go any further into this but Jim, or James Bowie as he has been called in this area, is claimed as a hero.
Excellent entertainment for the movie-goer regarding Jim Bowie, his knife and a snapshot of his life real or imagined.
Furthermore I like Alan Ladd which makes for a treat.
Virginia Mayo's character was cunning in the way that Vivien Leigh's Scarlet was to that film, but not as sympathetic or likable.
This is cinema trickery, a real pleasure, not part of the real story, but it's a moment of relief from the costume drama and dueling the rest of the time.This is how this movie goes.
I'm not sure how the movie reflects the real story of James Bowie, whose name was given to the famous Bowie knife (knives naturally have a big role in the movie, including the forging of the first true Bowie knife).
The film does lay out the gradual shift in cultivation of the South to cotton farming, and brings out lots of old rules like the fact divorce was impossible in Louisiana without an act of the legislature.
Fictionalized biography of American pioneer who died at The Alamo, Jim Bowie.
Loved the Bowie knife more than the movie..
As a new collector and knife hobbyist, I was more interested in the Bowie knife than the story line.
After more than ten years with Paramount Pictures one of their biggest stars Alan Ladd signed a new seven year contract with Warner Brothers.
His first movie for that studio was the colourful biopic THE IRON MISTRESS.The star had just completed his masterpiece "Shane" for Paramount which was about to be released but THE IRON MISTRESS reached theatre screens first.Of all the pictures Ladd would make for Warners over the next seven years THE IRON MISTRESS is about the best of them!
Beautifully photographed in Technicolor by John Seitz (Ladd's favourite cinematographer) it tells the story of impoverished lumber merchant Jim Bowie (Ladd) who came from the backwoods of 1820's Louisiana and rose to become a property tycoon through land speculation, gambling and - some say - by other unorthodox methods.
Along the way he would make some bitter enemies in the resentful New Orleans business world and for his protection he designed the famous knife that bears his name and which gives the film its title.
Nevertheless, his reputation not withstanding, Jim Bowie's name has gone down in American folklore as one of the heroes who died in the famous Battle of The Alamo in San Antonio Texas in 1836.
A main street scene of the city near the beginning looks like a stage play and Bowie's family home in the Bayou marshland is so unreal it cheapens the movie.
Unconvincing also is the scene where Bowie goes to have his famous knife forged!
Virginia Mayo steals the acting honours as the scheming, spoilt socialite who sneers at Bowie's marriage proposal ("What do you want me to do - live in a cabin in the wilderness?").
A plus for the movie is a marvellous climactic set piece of a sword and knife fight in a dark room where only intermittent flashes of lightning make it possible to see the two antagonists in mortal combat.Another plus for the movie is the terrific score by Max Steiner.
Then there is the gorgeous theme for Judalon (Mayo) which the composer fashions into a ravishing love theme and we are treated to some wonderful strident action cues in the unmistakable Steiner manner for the various knife fight sequences.
THE IRON MISTRESS is not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination but it has good atmosphere and enough flair and colour to hold the interest!.
Well-done period piece starring Alan Ladd.
That said, Alan Ladd does a fine job as an "heroic" version of Bowie in this film, taken from the popular 1950's novel of the same name.
Virginia Mayo never looked better than she did in this film.
The fact that her character has very few good qualities only helps the film and her performance.
The Alan Ladd portrayal is believable, though Paul Wellman's novel takes the saga all the way to the Alamo and the film ends long before that.
However, it has the feel of a good period piece.The manufacture of the famous knife is foreshortened from that of the book, where Bowie discusses the design in detail with Black, the man who forges the knife.
The action in the forging of the iron is quite dramatic and worthy of the reputation that the knife ..
carved out.The "duel in the dark" sequence was dramatically enhanced by momentary flashes of lightning, which wasn't half as ruthless as in the novel, where the entire duel was fought in pitch black.Major spoiler: The end of the film has Bowie treat the knife in sharp contrast to what happened in the novel, and for that matter, history (he gets rid of it).
Too much soap opera, not enough of the actual life of James Bowie!.
While I am no expert on the life of James Bowie, I know enough to realize that this Warner Brothers production is pretty limp.
Instead of focusing on the man's actual exploits (and they were many and amazingly wild for a man who died so young), the film focuses too often on a soap opera-like relationship between him and some dame (Virginia Mayo)--and I assume most, if not all, of this was made up for the movie.
As a biography of Jim Bowie it fits where it touches and concludes with no reference to the Alamo - probably a bit tricky as Bowie winds up the movie married to the daughter of a Mexican official.
That aside it's a fine example of the genre with Ladd on top of his game albeit playing Bowie as a nice guy who can't seem to help killing people, mostly as a result of his involvement with super-bitch socialite Virginia Mayo.
And even the corduroy set loved The Iron Mistress for which Paramount loaned Ladd to Warner Brothers - so we're fortunate that this one has now been released on DVD by the Warner Archive!On the other hand, Saskatchewan (1954) is among the least interesting, even though it is available on an excellent Universal disc.
In this film, Alan Ladd is Jim Bowie, who comes to New Orleans to sell timber from the rural family farm in Louisiana.
He wins some money, get all decked out in the finest fashion, meets and falls for the beautiful but treacherous Virginia Mayo, and fights or witnesses innumerable duels with knives, sword, and pistols.We follow him through business deals too, in which he makes a good deal of money gambling and trading things and speculating on land values.
She was fine as a Goldwyn Girl, the heroine of light-hearted action movies, and even as floozies in "The Best Years of Our Lives" and "White Heat." This is supposed to be a dramatic role and her problem is the opposite of Ladd's.
It's Alan Ladd in fancy clothes trying to make out with Virginia Mayo and sometimes getting into fights.
Would this movie have been made if Jim Bowie's name had been Marmaduke Cherkovitz?.
Jim Bowie, Alan Ladd, is a bit of a backwoods bumpkin who meets Judalon de Bornay, Virginia Mayo, while on his first trip to the big city of New Orleans.
And the scene, big spoiler, where Phillipe de Cabanal and Black Jack Sturdevant kill each other while believing their opponent is Bowie is over the top.
At least Bowie finally has an epiphany as he states, "No woman is worth the lives of eight men." And there is even a little Titanic here as Bowie tosses his knife into the water and goes on to marry Ursula de Varamendi, Phyllis Kirk.