Coleen Gray as Fen in Red River (1948)
This is a great example of implied rape during the Code era. Very bad timing for the Indians… the girl’s guy is John Wayne.
Shortly after this poignant scene where the hero gives his fiancée a golden bracelet, the wagon convoy is attacked by a band of marauding Indians.
There’s no mention of Fen having been raped, none whatsoever. But the one survivor, a 13-year-old boy, says he heard the screams and saw the attack, and he wishes he hadn’t. Again, this is all good and dandy with the Code, but what is implied is something even more horrific than a fine-looking lass getting murdered and scalped.
What is implied in the sub-text would make for a story that wouldn’t be allowed on this site unless we age up that survivor/witness to 18.
No mention of rape during that attack… Are we to believe that a band of hostile Indians are going to attack and capture a convoy sucessfully, burn the wagons and kill such a gorgeous woman without stripping her out of her dress?! Come on! People weren’t that stupid back in ’48.
(Lovely picture that I’d use for a story about bandits attacking a stagecoach and raping the female passenger.)
Dear Indians who roam the sub-text… Please, don’t spoil the movie. Rape that bitch!
I’ll be back shortly with another example of implied rape, this time from a British film noir and involving Elizabeth Sellars.
