William Wellman could also be said to explore the nature of masculinity. In Yellow Sky, Peck's gang stops at a saloon where they longingly admire a woman in the painting behind the bar. The lone woman in the film, Anne Baxter, becomes an object of the men's desire, pursued in manners both courtly and crude. Richard Widmark, with the fitting name of Dude, uses his gentlemanly dress to disguise his venality. John Russell attempts to force himself on Baxter. Peck even blames the way the men act on Baxter, who through most of the film goes by the nickname of Mike. The desire for female company is one of several manifestations of a kind of animal hunger by gang members. During the bar scene, the oversized Walrus fills his canteen with whiskey only to find himself wanting to trade it for much needed water while crossing the desert. Throughout the film, Peck and Widmark are at odds about the gold in an abandoned mine, with Widmark finally undone by his greed.

Track of the Cat is a relatively experimental film for a Hollywood production. Not only did Wellman work with an extremely limited choice of colors, but he also never shows the cat, actually a mountain cougar, from the title. That decision may have been based on Wellman's respect for the novel by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. Filming an actual cougar or panther would reduce the story to its most literal elements, while Wellman was hoping to create a filmic equivalent to Clark's psychological terror and symbolism. In Track of the Cat, the house may be a refuge from nature, but the conflicted family within, particularly matriarch Beulah Bondi, are people one wants to escape from. Considering the destruction of the family, the ending of Track of the Cat is too pat for the previous scenes of death and conflict. The effect is one of a director who has the opportunity to make his most meaningful, personal statement on film, only to ultimately show distrust either of the audience, or even worse, distrust of himself.