Best Westerns Series: Joanne Woodward
Joanne Woodward was 25 when she played tomboy Lissy in George Sherman’s 1955 Western, Count Three and Pray. It was her first-ever movie role.
Luke Fargo (Van Heflin) is on a mission to rebuild a church that had been burned down in his hometown during the Civil War. He returns there to find Lissy (Joanne Woodward), a slightly built teenaged orphan with a boy’s haircut and wearing jeans, who moves in with him. This raises the collective eyebrows of the conservative town folk.
Several women duel for Luke’s affections as he and others reconstruct the church. The first service is marred by Yancey Huggins (Raymond Burr) and his henchmen. Huggins has no interest in the church and tries to get Fargo barred from preaching by the local Bishop (Robert Burton).
But the main backstory is Luke’s relationship with Lissy; he’s more of a father to her than a boyfriend. Lissy sasses him repeatedly and does pretty much everything he asks her not to. When Luke chases after a white horse and tells her to stay at home, she follows him.
By the end, the Bishop determines they should marry, which I didn’t quite see coming. Lissy is now wearing a dress, which Luke approves of. They walk hand-in-hand to the church for the nuptials. Suddenly, the “sinful” relationship has been approved and presumably the mismatched couple will…
