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Director: NICHOLAS RAY. Screenplay: Horace McCoy, David Dortort. Based on a story by Claude Stanush. Uncredited screenplay contributors: Alfred Hayes, Andrew Solt, Jerry Wald. Photography: Lee Garmes. Film editor: Ralph Dawson. Art directors: Albert S. D'Agostino and Alfred Herman. Set decorators: Darrell Silvera and Jack Mills. Make-up: Mel Berns. Hair styles: Larry Germain. Music: Roy Webb. Music director: Constantin Bakaleinikoff. Stunts: Chuck Roberson, Richard Farnsworth, Fred Carson. Wardrobe: Michael Woulfe. Assistant director: Edward Killy. Sound recording: Clem Portman, Phil Brigandi. RCA Sound System. Producers: Norman Krasna, Jerry Wald. Associate producer: Tom Gries. A Wald-Krasna Production.
Copyright 1 October 1952 by Wald-Krasna Productions, Inc. Released through RKO Radio Pictures. New York opening at the Criterion: 24 October 1952. U.S. release: 1 October 1952. U.K. release: 11 May 1953. Australian release: 5 March 1953. 113 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: An ambitious ranch-hand (Arthur Kennedy) enlists the aid of a former champion rodeo star (Robert Mitchum) to help him win prizes on the circuit.
COMMENT: The name of Horace McCoy on the credits certainly raises anticipation. And the first scenes indeed carry lots of promise. Burt Mustin even has a sizable role which he plays with solid conviction.
Unfortunately, once Susan Hayward arrives on the scene, the script is watered down in favor of the usual feminine histrionics. As soon as you see Susan, looking every inch the dramatic actress, you know for sure what she is going to carry on about: "What's more important?" she'll ask the typically hen-pecked Arthur Kennedy. "A high-flying sprint on the rodeo circuit or settling down on a two- bit ranch to watch cows eat grass?"
With the certainty that two plus two invariably equals four, we can tell straightaway how the movie will end. It's a shame that so much of the screenplay is thrown on Hayward and Kennedy's lackluster shoulders. Mitchum's character is much more interesting but, aside from the promising introductory scenes, he is handed few opportunities.
Director Nicholas Ray and cinematographer Lee Garmes do their best for Mitch, evoking some memorable images (the star limping across the now deserted rodeo grounds after an unsuccessful day) but they cannot overcome the patently obvious twists of the plot.
Some of the support players, however, do manage to excel, particularly Walter Coy as a psychotic, gored cowboy and the seductive Eleanor Todd who makes her camp-following siren equally vivid and memorable.
score 6/10
JohnHowardReid 17 November 2017
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3860142/ |
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24-2-2021 00:06:07